The United Kingdom’s got plans to change remote gambling industry laws, and William Hill has spoken out about this, expressing their opposition.

As one of the United Kingdom’s oldest bookmakers, William Hill entered into the online gambling industry in its early stages. The reason why William Hill opposes these new plans from the United Kingdom to change remote gambling industry laws is because they believe that these new law changes are going to drive away players onto online casino websites that are not regulated.

William Hill feels so strongly about this that they’ve even hired representation from Deloitte to fight on their behalf. One spokesperson compared this asking the government if they should introduce a policy which distorts markets.

Worth an estimated $1.7 billion, the gambling market is huge. The Treasury is reviewing things, and will finish their review soon. What this means is that the Treasury could also be approving some of the proposed law changes that could mean a bigger tax take for the United Kingdom.

There’s a real possibility that because of new tax law changes, legitimate gambling firms will pull out of the United Kingdom’s market. As a result of this, many online gamblers will likely gamble offshore, on illegal websites.

Results from a quarterly gambling participation survey from the United Kingdom Gambling Commission have been released. The period of coverage over which the survey was conducted was from July 2011 to September 2011. ICM Research conducted the three month period survey, and used two different sets of questions on a same group of 4,000 people nationally. One set of questions measured all types of gambling activity people participate in. The other set of questions focused on remote gambling, so the use of computers for online gambling, mobile devices, and television.

There were some very interesting key findings, and some not so surprising ones. Participation in gambling in the July 2011-September 2011 period rose to 57.1%, and was previously 55.5% in the same period in 2010. In 2009, that number was only slightly lower at just 55.2%. The trend is obviously a continued increase in gambling participation.

National Lottery ticket participation remains to be popular, with a 47% participation rate. A person participating in gambling is more likely to be male, and more likely to be over the age of 45.

It comes as no surprised that the most popular remote gambling is via computer/laptop/hand held device. Following behind is mobile phones and interactive television.

With technological advances, mobile gambling gaining popularity, and new online casino games coming out, participation in gambling will continually increase.

The reputation of the UK’s National Lottery market has previously been untarnished by scandal. Now, with a dispute looming on the horizon, things might change. Camelot, the operator of the UK’s National Lottery, is considering filing a complaint against the new Health Lottery, eliminating the competition by claiming it has violated rules that regulate UK-based lotteries.

The Health Lottery was launched earlier this month by Richard Desmond, owner of Channel 5 and the Daily Express. He stated that the goal of the lottery was to raise millions of dollars to benefit healthcare initiatives across the country. Just two weeks after launching, the Health Lottery has contributed £100 to health organizations in the UK. The lottery is making a big difference already, but Camelot does not want to see operations continue.

Camelot has yet to reveal exactly which laws are being breached by the Health Lottery, causing many onlookers to become suspicious. Some believe that Camelot is feeling threatened, as the Health Lottery has become its first major rival since 1994. It has obtained a license to operate until 2019, and aims to make £250 million in sales. Although this is just a small amount of money, compared to the sales of Camelot’s lottery, it is still likely that the largest lottery operator is feeling the pressure.

Changes are expected to be made to gambling laws in the United Kingdom before next summer, when the London Games start. The reason being is to ensure better information sharing between all involved, including regulators, English police, and the International Olympic Committee.

Jacques Rogge, the Olympic Committee’s President, believes that the potential to threaten the Olympics with match-fixing and corruption is a possibility. He wants to make sure that everything that can possibly be done ahead of the game to crack down on any threats is done sooner. Rogge has even held several international summits to see what can be done in order to counter match fixing. He has earned the support of the United Kingdom in this regard.

Last month, Rogge said “It is a world problem and it is a very pernicious problem. With the introduction of broadband you can bet worldwide.”

Rogge has also said  in regards to match fixing “The danger is that from illegal betting comes match fixing and you can see more and more attempts to manipulate matches.  It is as dangerous as doping for the credibility of sport. It’s only the beginning of a huge battle.”

Rogge explained that some athletes are tempted to cheat because they don’t get paid as much in their sport as another might. He has promised that there were be very close monitoring at the London Games, and that “The arsenal is there, hope we don’t have to use it.”

After the train wreck of Black Friday in the United States, governments everywhere took a look at their online gambling industry, including the United Kingdom. Full Tilt Poker was at the top of their game, and Black Friday was such a huge hit for them to take, that they still have not recovered months later. A number of UK players are unable to access their Full Tilt Poker accounts, and the same goes for many others. To date, Full Tilt Poker has had to stop its operations, still owes U.S players $150 million, and they have been hit with lawsuit after lawsuit.

As a result of the mess Full Tilt Poker and Black Friday has made, the culture secretary of Britain has been driven to reform the current online poker legislation to protect British poker players from having to go through the Black Friday ordeal again.

The United Kingdom government will review its current online gaming regulations that are in place to protect players from offshore sites. These offshore sites are regulated and licensed by other countries, so the need to review regulations is necessary. Many offshore poker sites and online sports betting sites are trying to expand into British territory, and because of that, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt strongly advocates that tough licensing laws for offshore gaming operations should be implemented in order to protect British players from the same fate as United States players and Full Tilt Poker.

William Hill is a gambling fixture in the United Kingdom. The online gambling industry in the United Kingdom is also dominated by William Hill, which offers players casino sports betting, bingo, slots, poker and other games. It would come to surprise many that despite being at the top of the gambling industry in the United Kingdom, William Hill does not run it’s operations there. In fact, like many other gambling operations, William Hill moved its operations offshore to the country of Gibraltar. It wasn’t because it’s prettier, and all the other cool kids were doing it; it was because of the United Kingdom’s brutal tax regime.

The well respected CEO of William Hill, Ralph Topping has spoken out about the United Kingdom’s sweeping changes to the gambling industry. Topping is well known for his outspoken opinions, but as a man who lives and breathes gambling, his opinion is the one that the United Kingdom government should tune into.

Topping has said that there’s not a chance in hell that William Hill will return the business back to the United Kingdom for the time being, despite the changes being made by the United Kingdom government. He has advised the United Kingdom gambling industry that changes in gambling legislation should be done holistically in order for it to be okay. Topping has also said that the United Kingdom governments needs to appear more attractive, making better offers to offshore based gambling operations.

With Gibraltar already known as the hub of online gambling operations, the United Kingdom is going to have a tough time attracting back operations to their shores, after all, if it’s not broken, why fix it?

The latest research conducted in the United Kingdom indicates a 42% rise in online gambling over the past year including a sizeable increase of players accessing online poker, sports betting and various online casino game sites with findings showing little differentiation between the sexes and distinction among age groups.

Nielsen market research conducted the UK focus group and asserted almost fifty percent of those individuals who participate in online gambling activities earned over £30,000 or approximately $50,000.00 on average with nearly 46% of overall online gamblers being female. The research noted the influence of women online gamblers was directly related to sites which emphasized attractive colors and employed other means to solicit the attention of females to certain websites that involved online gambling activities.

Usually the highest demographic for players of online poker and online casino games are individuals over 60 years of age from lower income households. This research indicates the remarkable growth in the online gambling industry has been driven specifically by upwardly mobile individuals regarded as middle to high income earners from higher educational backgrounds. Research analysts surmised the demographic change is largely due to the global economic recession.

The research specifically points to the growth in popularity of online poker sites within the UK market over the past 12 months. The hugely popular online Party Poker room website expanded its web traffic by 175% while Party Casino saw traffic to its site heighten by 360% during the same time period.

It was expected to be the most expensive domain auction to date in the online world. However, Gambling.com was sold for a price far less than asking at just £1.5 million. This low ball’s the company’s original price significantly, as the UK-based owner Media Corp was expecting over £5 million.

When you look at other high profile domains, it is no wonder why MediaCorp was expecting such a large payday. Sex.com sold for £6 million while Beer.com sold for £3 million. Gambling.com falls far below these figures, thanks to the company’s controversial reputation.

Gambling.com was once one f the highest-performing online gambling portals. With a name comprised of a popular SEO keyword, the website ranked on Google’s top pages and used its position to become an informative source for the online gambling industry.

Unfortunately, the site was banned from Google several times and thus lost a great deal of credibility. Because of this, the site’s valuable dropped significantly, as whomever chooses to buy the site will have to do a great deal of work to bring back Gambling.com’s former rankings and reliable reputation.

The United Kingdom has one of the most active gambling cultures in the world. There are betting shops on just about every city block and over 70% of the nation’s citizens admit to taking part in some form of gambling activity. For decades, the country has made good use of land-based sports books, but the industry is now beginning to fear the online invasion.

Owners of betting shops across the UK are now voicing their concerns over the new focus on internet betting. As is the case with all online industries, online gambling seems to be displacing traditional betting. The same happened with movies, as Blockbuster has filed for bankruptcy and music stores like HMV are also suffering.

Many online bookmakers in the UK are now taking their operations online in order to compete with existing internet-based betting shops. The new digital era requires land-based operators in all industries to become up-to-date with the rest of the world, who now primarily lives its life in the online world.

The land-based betting industry in the UK has yet to see as dire a result as the land-based bingo industry, but operators are still concerned about their futures.

The Gambling Technology Strategies 2011 Conference is scheduled to take place on April 5th and April 6th in London hosted by The Remote Gambling Association and featuring the latest technology in the online gambling industry.

Based in London and Brussels, the RGA is a trade association representing some of the largest international online gambling websites run by remote gambling companies. Its role is to promote safe and regulated gaming for responsible licensed operators in Europe, the U.S. and remote gambling markets worldwide.

Through networking events, conferences and exhibitions featuring the latest technology online gambling has to offer land-based and online gambling operators, industry leaders and their advisors will address the issues of the day.

Topics on the agenda include growth in mobile gaming, technology and the changing face of sports betting, private information security and payments in online gambling, underage gambling issues, the role of social networking and the gambling industry.

The conference will seek to address the regulatory and policy developments across Europe which will open potential markets and the ultimate affect this will have on the online gambling industry in 2011 and in the future.

The Gambling Technology Strategies 2011 Conference is expected to surpass the success of the International Gambling Law Summit held earlier this year in London.