The country of Antigua is the home of the online gambling industry, and as such they deal with licensing and certification of online gambling casinos and poker rooms all of the time.  White listing, as it is called, certifies that the country ‘applies stringent regulatory measures’ on all of the websites and gambling operations that are based in the country and because of this strict regulatory action, more and more online casinos and poker rooms are turning to Antigua for their licensing before launching for public consumption.

Antigua – and its island sister nation Barbuda – is enjoying a massive boom in the online gambling industry despite a global economic recession.  The British Department of Culture, Media, and Sports recently approved a system of regulation and licensing for all of the United Kingdom’s Internet casinos and poker rooms.  Many of the country’s online gambling businesses are turning to Antigua in an effort to relocate their gambling websites there because of the strict licensing regulations that are already in place.  By doing this, they are ensuring that their websites are safe sites to gamble on that look out for the players and their personal information.

According to a report by the Antigua Sun, the Financial Services Regulatory Commission is already estimating a budgetary increase of 100% for the next fiscal year for all of the online gambling websites that are expressing interest in moving their holdings to the country.  By granting ‘white listing’ to these sites and the United Kingdom, the websites see the move as a good one with the certification and licensing as a dominant factor in their decision.  Additionally, licensing and regulation through Antigua will also allow the websites to advertise their Internet gambling websites throughout the United Kingdom.

The white listing is the industries way of certifying that the country of Antigua applies strict regulatory measures on all of the Internet gambling operations that are based in the country.  These measures include but are not limited to: safe guarding for age verification; prevention of fraud and money laundering; honest and reliable games; and honest and reliable payment systems.  It is ironic that the United States government banned online gambling because they were concerned with uncontrolled gambling sites.  All of the websites coming out of Antigua are controlled and provide players with the safety measures the American government complained about the lack of, leaving American citizens playing in an unsafe online environment.

All of the new websites that are licensed through Antigua will be providing jobs and revenue for the United Kingdom which is sorely needed.  According to Kaye McDonald, the director of gaming for the Antiguan commission, “Key personnel, key management and key operators are required to be in Antigua and Barbuda. This is of utmost importance.”  The reason behind this is to ensure that everything about the website falls under all of the important safeguards that have been put into place.