Isle of Man’s Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC) is considering a number of changes to the regulations that govern online gambling operators. Chief among the proposed changes is a proposal allowing operators to accept Bitcoin deposits from their players.
The proposed upgrades to the GSC’s regulations were released late last month in the form of a document titled, Gambling Regulation Package 2016. Proposed changes for Isle of Man licensees on the document included:
- Change to regulations to allow virtual currencies to be accepted as if they were cash.
- Expansion of services that a sub-licensee can take from a full licensee.
- Ability of GSC to unilaterally accept test certificates issued by another authority.
- Expansion of voluntary gambling controls that an operator can offer players.
- Clarification of protection required for winnings that the Commission deems to be out of scope for protection.
- Ability to offset unused portions of licence fees against new licencees.
The addition of Bitcoin deposits would be a huge leap for the GSC and would almost certainly have a ripple effect with other licensing authorities across the world.
Not only that, it lends a certain, additional, credibility to the crypto-currency.
So exactly how complicated is the process of allowing GSC-licensed operators to accept Bitcoin deposits? According to the Gambling Regulations Package, it goes something like this:
The GSC proposes that in the phrase “a deposit of money”, the words “deposit of money” will be considered for the purposes of online gambling to include “a deposit of money or the deposit of something which has a value in money or money’s worth“ where the format of the money’s worth will still require the Commission’s specific approval.
It’s just that simple.
As yet, there’s no word on when the proposed changes will take effect.