A London conference on internet gambling yesterday heard that the main threat to gambling in society today is from ‘social gambling’.

Charles Cohen, CEO of mobile gambling company Probability, repudiated the views of previous speakers who had voiced concerns at the growth of illegal gambling. Mr. Cohen told 100 delegates at the Westminster eForum on online gambling that a bigger threat came from the ‘apps’ available on Facebook which offered casino games.

“We have misunderstood the problem. There is the view that if we have bad regulations in Europe people will simply set up in black market jurisdictions and steal money from us. I don’t think that will happen. What will happen is that really clever people will find new ways of offering new types of services which are outside the scope of the gambling regulators but which are not even considered gambling services.”

He cited Facebook as typical of the social gambling offers which are available today. “I defy anyone to look at these services which are there for 13-year-olds and come with no social responsibility or financial controls. We are looking in entirely the wrong direction.”

During questions, Mr. Cohen dismissed the view of one delegate who suggested that as social gaming gave no opportunity of collecting the ‘wins’ then it could not be interpreted as gambling. “This situation did not exist 18 months ago. Unfortunately, this type of development does not take place at ‘government speed’,” so the ability of the authorities to react quickly enough was absent.

Other speakers noted that various jurisdictions, including the UK’s Gambling Commission, were monitoring the situation on social gambling.