Online gambling summit to tackle rogue business

The UK government is to host an international summit on online gambling to boost political awareness about underage punters and criminal gangs working in the industry.

The UK, which introduced the Gambling Act last year to prevent children gambling online, is widely regarded as one of the only countries currently attempting to regulate the industry.

The government said it wants to work with other nations to stop underage gambling and online money laundering.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Culture (MoC) told silicon.com: "The idea is simple – we've taken a big step with our Gambling Act. We want to deal with this on a global scale and get politicians and businesses to think about that. The non-legitimate side is one of the things that concerns us."

According to the MoC, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have welcomed the proposal for the summit.

But reports have suggested that representatives from the US may decline to attend the event. Online gambling is a large market in the US but according to the US Department of Justice it is still a violation of federal law and continues to go largely unregulated there.