Online Casinos for Iceland

Iceland is an island located in the northern end of the Atlantic Ocean. It's located south-east of Greenland and north-west of the United Kingdom.

Overview

For the time being, players have a large selection of games and sites to choose from. This includes the Icelandic Getspa online lottery site and the Icelandic Sport Web for sports betting. Both of these sites are backed by the government, and this shows that they are open to expanding online gambling on some level.

Chances are that they will regulate the industry on a more robust level at some point relatively soon. The presence of offshore online operators is one sign of the need for proper regulation, backed by the need for greater variety of regulated gambling markets.

As mentioned, the government has taken a stance towards regulating the interactive gambling industry. Initially, Articles 183 and 184 of the 1998 Criminal Code in the country dictated that all forms of professional gambling were explicitly illegal.

Nevertheless, with the state lottery and sportsbetting service things loosened up for the pool of offshore operators as well.

Nowadays, some platforms are allowed to cater to the Iceland player audience, but all unlicensed websites are prohibited from advertising their products and services.

Ultimately, just make sure you are 18 or older when signing up at a real money casino or poker site and you should be good to go.

Licensing

No true licensing process exists in Iceland. The sites that do operate by the government are done so on a case-by-case basis.

This is the first thing that would have to change for online gambling to gain a foothold in the country as a regulated jurisdiction. The Icelandic Financial Services Authority (FSA) has so far been in charge of the industry’s regulative, policies and other operations.

What's so interesting about their potential as an online gambling jurisdiction is the position that they have taken against some other countries like the United States in international matters from time to time; that shows that they would likely stand up for what they believed was the right way to handle things regardless of popular opinion.

Player Protections

For the state-operated sites there are strong levels of player protection in place. The general idea is that these sites have high levels of oversight, and players are encouraged to file complaints if necessary.

These complaints are taken very seriously because they are careful not to damage the legitimacy of their brand since they have a virtual monopoly on regulated online lottery tickets and sports betting in the country.

If you're playing on foreign sites from Iceland then you will not have any real form of player protections in place. If this is the case for you, then you should be sure to only stick to the most reputable of sites and to stay away from any sites that haven't proven themselves.

Yet, Icelandic authorities are ultimately concerned about their players’ well-being, evident even from their attempts to shut down the industry just so as to reduce problem gambling. Hence, the anticipated measures of player protection, once defined and enforced, are sure to follow in the same fair and dedicated manner.