UK residents wishing to participate in online gambling might be faced with some issues. This is because of forthcoming Internet filters that would be applied with the aim to protect users from adult contents. As from July 2013, UK Prime Minister David Cameron had revealed that users with new Internet connections would need to actively choose whether they would view adult materials. Users who want to be granted access to these type of material would need to request that with their Internet Service Provider in order for the content block to be lifted.
At the time of the announcement, Cameron has laid emphasis on the negative impact of adult contents on the innocence of children. He had stated that there are many facets of the internet that are detrimental to the security of children and they would thus need to be protected.
The question that arose though, out of these initiatives pertains to the link between adult contents and poker. However, these filters applied by ISP would also block out gambling sites in the UK for the simple reason that gambling sites fall under the adult content category. The same would be applied to sites having violent or racially charged contents.
Some UK ISPs would be rolling out filters and have them up and running by end of January. Once these filters are in place users would need to contact support teams to request that filtered contents be allowed. Some ISPs would not be introducing these filters but would enable their users to switch on filters as per their needs.