Jersey Gaming Commission

Table of contents

The Bailiwick of Jersey is an island located near France and a British self-governing dependency. It’s the largest of the Channel Islands, including Guernsey, Alderney, Herm, Sark, and a few other smaller ones.

Each of the main islands has its own legislation and licensing regime when it comes to gambling. The Jersey Gambling Commission is the main body that handles gambling on the island when it comes to Jersey. However, the Commission is also known abroad as it awards licenses to online casinos used by players from all over the world.

So, with all that in mind, let’s take a closer look at this notable gambling commission and the gambling laws and regulations related to online gambling in Jersey and online casinos with the Jersey Gambling Commission license.

The story of Jersey’s online gambling industry is not a long one. The very beginnings were in 2005 with the forming of a three-person commission to act as the island’s gambling regulator. The first online gambling legislation passage happened the same year, after which the commission started operating.

Later in 2008, Jersey passed the Remote Gambling Disaster Recovery regulation that allowed remote operators to offer their gambling services using servers located on the island of Jersey, but only in a case of emergency.

However, on September 3, 2010, the small British Crown dependency passed the Gambling Commission Law 2010 and formed the Jersey Gambling Commission to oversee licensing, registration, and regulation of all gambling ventures. This significantly expanded the possible scope of online gambling in Jersey.

Previously, the Gambling Licensing Authority was in charge of gambling licenses, while the Minister handled the Channels Island Lottery and exercised his order-making powers.

The first operator to obtain a Jersey license was Playtech Limited, the notable iGaming company. It got the license in January 2012.

In January 2013, the Gambling Jersey Law 2012 came into effect. It repealed the old 1964 Gambling Law that made all gambling forms illegal. The new law permitted states to make certain forms of gambling legal. What’s more, this law finally made a difference between gambling forms and types of gambling service providers.

With the new law, the Commission gained the ability to create directives and award licenses without going to court, but it also obtained some additional powers.

Most of the Channel Islands are part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, while the island of Jersey is the only part of the Bailiwick of Jersey. Each jurisdiction has its own laws, and when it comes to gambling, it is legal in both bailiwicks. The legal forms of gambling in Jersey are poker, keno, raffles, lotteries, bingo, sports betting, and Bitcoin gambling. As for online gambling, all forms of it are legal on the island, which is also considered as one of the leading online gambling hubs worldwide — on par with Malta, Curacao, Cyprus, and Alderney, the neighboring Channel island.

Despite online gambling being a relatively new legal practice on the island of Jersey, there are already two primary laws that cover the practice:

Besides the two main pieces of legislation, two additional regulations are crucial to online gambling on the island of Jersey:

Naturally, you can go through these pieces of legislation in greater detail on the website of the Jersey Gambling Commission if you’re interested.

However, it’s important to note that these regulations do not cover the workings of the official Channel Island Lottery. The lottery is under the auspices of the state's department for economic development, tourism, sport, and culture.

The sole authority responsible for almost all forms of gambling on the island of Jersey is the Jersey Gambling Commission, founded in 2010. The only form of gambling it is not in charge of is the before-mentioned Channel Island Lottery.

In other words, the Jersey Gambling Commission is responsible for gambling regulations on the island in regards to all commercial and charitable gambling, except the Lottery.

The Commission has several goals and obligations:

At the moment, the Jersey Gambling Commission has awarded six licenses to global operators and four licenses to global platform providers.

Thanks to the highly developed and regulated online gambling world in Jersey, you can go to several different sources for any gambling problems. These are:

You can learn more about problem gambling and the resources that can help you with it directly on the official website of the Commission.