To all those betting shops worrying about whether or not your customers can use a computer on your premises never fear. We told you the Gambling Commission was celebrating, didn’t we!
Guidance that was released today states that a computer is not merely a gaming machines because it’s in a gambling premises, however, it will be considered so if it’s knowingly adapted or advertised as offering gaming services. Although each case will be judged on an individual basis and there are a number of factors that have to be considered including icons on the computer’s desktop, start menu shortcuts to a site, promotional advertising saying the computer can be used for gambling, and emails being sent to customers telling them it’s available.
So all you need to now do is change all the icons to something really innocuous, make sure the start menu is not existent, and just direct people to the presence of a computer for email purposes only.
Seriously though, this does show how important the cross over between online and land-based is now starting to affect the shops themselves. If the Commission is actually having to hand out guidance on this issue then it must be something the shops are seriously considering. Someone not too far from here has continually championed the convergence between online and land-based sectors – can’t quite think who though. Answers on a postcard to our usual address.