One of the markets they will be keeping an eye on is the United States. Should recent legislation go through that would legalize the practice Virgin would like to be one of the first European-based online gambling companies to accept US players.
Since 2006 European companies have been forced to shy away from the US market. It was that year that the dreaded Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was signed by then President George Bush. The law which has yet to be fully put into effect essentially makes online gambling illegal by forbidding banking institutions from knowingly posting transactions to internet gambling establishments.
Currently there is legislation in both Congress and the House to overthrow the UIGEA and create a taxed and regulated system for online players. Individual states have also been embracing online gambling in recent years with some legislation of their own that all but over looks any efforts by the federal government to ban the practice.
eGaming Review Magazine Online states, "The company is weighing plans to enter regulating markets including France, Spain, and South Africa, as well as potentially either or both of the US states in which the legalization of intrastate online gambling has been proposed, California and Florida, and is seeking commercial partners to fund marketing budgets in those countries."
Asked why such a big name would need to find investors the company’s Chief executive Simon Burridge told EGRmagazine.com: "We do a lot of successful marketing and want to do more of it, but we can't always throw appropriate sums behind it. We are limited in the profile that we can generate on our own behalf and with so many operators and markets opening up at the same time; we are going to need some cash."
Aside from marketing their product the big named company also recently underwent a two-and-a-half-year upgrade of its online casino platform.
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