 Gaming website PartyPoker.com welcomes the draft bill |
Remote gambling, on the web, mobile phones and interactive television, must be licensed and regulated in Britain as soon as possible, MPs and peers say. The cross-party committee on the draft gambling bill says the government can no longer hope to prevent the practice.
It should now "create safe areas for gambling on the internet and give UK consumers the option to use well-regulated services", the report adds.
Published on Wednesday, it calls for effective but not excessive regulation.
"Despite the risks... it is preferable for this sector of the industry to be effectively regulated within the UK than for consumers to have no option but to use offshore sites, many of which appear to be poorly regulated," the reports says.
"Not only could this have significant fiscal advantages but it also recognises the fact that, even if it were desirable, it would be impossible to prohibit the use of remote gambling services by UK citizens effectively."
The committee says reform of the law on gambling is "long overdue" and "necessary and urgent" to prevent a sharp increase in "gambling of doubtful legality".
Companies that design the technology for remote gambling must also be regulated to ensure "random number" software - used to power chance-based games like roulette - is not biased against the consumer, the report adds.
The committee is also calling for an industry-funded trust to provide research, education and treatment for problem gamblers.
"Care should be taken be taken to ensure that the threat of operators locating themselves in other jurisdictions with less restrictive regulation should not lead to the creation of a UK regime that fails to protect the consumer," the report says.
Bill Haygarth, of the Association of British Bookmakers, told the committee licensing remote gambling could bring more than 3,000 jobs to Britain.
Interactive Gambling, Gaming and Betting Association chair Andrew Tottenham said it would encourage offshore companies to relocate bringing "high-tech, high-skilled jobs" with them.
And the benefit to punters would be substantial.
"At the moment, the consumer doesn't care too much where the company is," Mr Tottenham said.
"They'll use services based in Cuba, Panama, Curacao.
"It's only when they don't get paid that they start to worry about where it is."
The world's largest poker website, PartyPoker.com, already has 10,000 registered users in Britain - more than in any other country outside North America.
And by the end of the year it will have 25,000, general manager Vikrant Bhargava told BBC News Online.
Mr Bhargava is "eagerly looking forward" to the draft gaming bill becoming law.
"The message is clear - play by the rules, register in the UK, and your company can benefit from being part of the UK leisure industry's revolution," he added.
"We definitely see Britain as an important growth market."
Currently licensed in Canada, PartyPoker.com has its head office in Gibraltar, and employs 700 people at its technology and support centre in India.
"In every country we have gone to, we have created a large number of jobs, spent a lot of money and helped local economies," Mr Bhargava told BBC News Online.
"And the UK has a large talent pool."
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The threat of operators locating themselves in other jurisdictions with less restrictive regulation should not lead to the creation of a UK regime that fails to protect the consumer 
