A multitude of languages is used in Singapore. It consists of several varieties of languages under the families of the Austronesian languages, Dravidian languages, Indo-European languages and Sino-Tibetan languages. The Constitution of Singapore says the national language of Singapore is Malay. This plays a symbolic role, as Malays are constitutionally recognised as the indigenous peoples of Singapore, and it is the government's duty to protect their language and heritage. The constitution also states that the four commonly used languages of Singapore are English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, with the lingua franca between Singaporeans of different races being English, the de facto main language. Singaporeans often speak Singlish among themselves. Singlish is an informal, colloquial form of English that is used in Singapore. Linguists define it as Singapore Colloquial English.

The three languages other than English were chosen to correspond with the major ethnic groups present in Singapore at the time: Mandarin had gained status since the introduction of Chinese-medium schools; Malay was deemed the "most obvious choice" for the Malay community; and Tamil for the largest Indian ethnic group in Singapore, in addition to being "the language with the longest history of education in Malaysia and Singapore". In 2009, more than 20 languages were identified as being spoken in Singapore, reflecting a rich linguistic diversity in the city. Singapore's historical roots as a trading settlement gave rise to an influx of foreign traders, and their languages were slowly embedded in Singapore's modern day linguistic repertoire.

In the early years, the lingua franca of the island was Bazaar Malay (Melayu Pasar), a creole of Malay and Chinese, the language of trade in the Malay Archipelago. While it continues to be used among many on the island, especially Singaporean Malays, Malay has now been displaced by English. English became the lingua franca due to British rule of Singapore, and was made the main language upon Singaporean independence. Thus, English is the medium of instruction in schools, and is also the main language used in formal settings such as in government departments and the courts. According to Singaporean President Halimah Yacob during her 2018 speech, "Through the education system, we adopted a common working language in English."

Hokkien (Min Nan) briefly emerged as a lingua franca among the Chinese, but by the late 20th century it had been eclipsed by Mandarin. The Government promotes Mandarin among Singaporean Chinese people, since it views the language as a bridge between Singapore's diverse non-Mandarin speaking groups, and as a tool for forging a common Chinese cultural identity. China's economic rise in the 21st century has also encouraged a greater use of Mandarin. Other Chinese varieties such as Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Hainanese and Cantonese have been classified by the Government as "dialects", and language policies and language attitudes based on this classification and discouragement of usage in Non-Mandarin Chinese or "Chinese dialects" in official settings and television media have led to a decrease in the number of speakers of these varieties.  In particular, Singapore has its own lect of Mandarin; Singaporean Mandarin, itself with two varieties, Standard and Colloquial or spoken. While Tamil is one of Singapore's official and the most spoken Indian language, other Indian languages are also frequently used by minorities.

Almost all Singaporeans are bilingual since Singapore's bilingual language education policy promotes a dual-language learning system. Learning a second language has been compulsory in primary schools since 1960 and secondary schools since 1966. English is used as the main medium of instruction. On top of this, most children learn one of the three official languages (or, occasionally, another approved language) as a second language, according to their official registered ethnic group. Since 1 January 2011, if a person is of more than one ethnicity and their race is registered in the hyphenated format, the race chosen will be the one that precedes the hyphen in their registered race.

English as the main language of Singapore

Although de jure Malay is the national language, Singapore English is regarded de facto as the main language in Singapore, and is officially the main language of instruction in all school subjects except for Mother Tongue lessons in Singapore's education system. It is also the common language of the administration and is promoted as an important language for international business. Spelling in Singapore largely follows British conventions, owing to the country's status as a former Crown Colony. English is the country's default lingua franca despite the fact that four languages have official status.

Under the British colonial government, English gained prestige as the language of administration, law and business in Singapore. As government administration increased, infrastructure and commerce developed, and access to education further catalysed the spread of English among Singaporeans.

When Singapore gained self-government in 1959 and independence in 1965, the local government decided to keep English as the main language to maximise economic benefits. Since English was rising as the global language for commerce, technology and science, promotion of its use in Singapore would expedite Singapore's development and integration into the global economy.

Furthermore, the switch to English as the only medium of instruction in schools aided in bridging the social distance between the various groups of ethnic language speakers in the country. Between the early 1960s to the late 1970s, the number of students registering for primarily English-medium schools leapt from 50% to 90% as more parents elected to send their children to English-medium schools. Attendance in Mandarin, Malay and Tamil-medium schools consequently dropped and schools began to close down. The Chinese-medium Nanyang University also made the switch to English as the medium of instruction despite meeting resistance, especially from the Chinese community.

There has been a steep increase in the use of the English language over the years. Singapore is currently one of the most proficient English-speaking countries in Asia. Then Education Minister, Ng Eng Hen, noted a rising number of Singaporeans using English as their home language in December 2009. Of children enrolled in primary school in 2009, 60% of the Chinese and Indian pupils and 35% of the Malay pupils spoke predominantly English at home.

Singlish

Singlish is an English-based creole language with its own consistent rules and phonology widely used in Singapore. However, usage of this language is discouraged by the local government, which favours Standard English. The Media Development Authority does not support using Singlish in television and radio advertising.

According to a 2018 study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), only 8% of Singaporeans identify with Singlish as their primary language, compared to the one-third that identify with English and another 2% with their official mother tongue. Both survey waves, in 2013 and 2018, conducted showed that about half of all respondents reported being able to speak Singlish "well" or "very well". Younger respondents (18–25 years old) reported greater profiency than older respondents (65+ years old).

Over the years, the use of Singlish has become more widespread, with a greater number of people adopting the language both out of a sense of identity and cultural importance. Some, even view that it identifies them as uniquely Singaporean.

Chinese language

According to the 2000 population census, Mandarin and other varieties of Chinese are the most common languages spoken at home. They are used by 51% of the population. The table below shows the change in distribution of Mandarin and other Chinese varieties, as well as English, as home languages of the resident Chinese population of Singapore in 1990, 2000 and 2010. It can be observed that the percentage of the population which speaks English and Mandarin has increased, while the percentage of those who speak other Chinese varieties has collapsed and is now limited mainly to the elderly. More recently, English is starting to displace Mandarin among the new generation of Singapore Chinese due to long term effects of the dominant usage of English in most official settings over Mandarin, the dominant usage of English as the medium of instruction in Singapore schools, colleges and universities, and the limited and lower standards of local mother education system over the years in Singapore.

Standard Mandarin
Standard Mandarin is generally spoken as the lingua franca among the Chinese community in Singapore. Simply known as Chinese, it is the designated mother tongue or 'ethnic language' of Chinese Singaporeans, at the expense of the other Chinese varieties.

In 1979, the government heavily promoted Mandarin through its "Speak Mandarin" campaign. The Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew stated that Mandarin was chosen to unify the Chinese community with a single language. With the rising prominence of Mandarin in Singapore at that time, politicians such as Lee theorized that it might overtake English, despite strong evidence to the contrary. From the 1990s, with the perceived increase in commerce and trade possibilities with Mainland China, the Singaporean government promoted Mandarin as a language with high economic advantage and value. Today, Mandarin is generally seen as a way to maintain a link to Chinese culture. However, due to the fact that English is the main medium of language instruction in Singaporean schools, colleges and universities; as well as the limited and lower standards of local Mandarin Chinese education in Singapore and the dominant usage of English in most official settings, the standards of Mandarin Chinese among many young Singaporean Chinese has been dropping as more and more young Singaporean Chinese are speaking and using English more frequently than Mandarin Chinese.

Other Chinese varieties
Other Chinese varieties also have a presence in Singapore. Amongst them, Hokkien used to be an unofficial language of business until the 1980s. Hokkien was also used as a lingua franca among Chinese Singaporeans, and also among Malays and Indians to communicate with the Chinese majority. As of 2012, according to demographic figures, the five main Chinese linguistic groups in Singapore are Hokkien (41.1%), Teochew (21.0%), Cantonese (15.4%), Hakka (7.9%) and Hainanese (6.7%), while Hokchew/Hokchia (Fuzhou dialect), Henghua (Puxian Min), and Shanghainese have smaller speaker bases. Other than Mandarin, the two most commonly spoken varieties of Chinese are  Hokkien which is the dominant dialect and Cantonese, both of which are mainly spoken among the older generation. Teochew, is being replaced by Hokkien, while other Chinese varieties are increasingly less commonly heard nowadays.

Written Chinese

Traditional Chinese characters were used in Singapore until 1969, when the Ministry of Education promulgated the Table of Simplified Characters (), which while similar to the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme of the People's Republic of China had 40 differences. In 1974 a new Table was published, and this second table was revised in 1976 to remove all differences between simplified Chinese characters in Singapore and China. Although simplified characters are currently used in official documents, the government does not officially discourage or prohibit the use of traditional characters. Hence, traditional characters are still used in signs, advertisements and Chinese calligraphy, while books in both character sets are available in Singapore.

Malay language

Malay is the national language of Singapore and one of its official languages. It is written using a version of the Roman script known as Rumi. It is the home language of 13% of the Singaporean population. Malay is also the ceremonial national language and used in the national anthem of Singapore, in citations for Singapore orders and decorations and military foot drill commands, mottos of several organisations, and is the variety taught in Singapore's language education system.

Historically Malay was written in the Jawi script, based on Arabic. Under the British and Dutch Malay began to be written in Rumi. Efforts to create a standardised spelling for Malaya and Singapore emerged in 1904 by colonial officer Richard Wilkinson. In 1910, the Malay of the Riau Islands was chosen by the Dutchman van Ophuijsen as the dialect for his book "Malay Grammar", intended for Dutch officials, standardising Rumi usage in Dutch territories. In 1933, grammarian Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad made further changes to Rumi as used in Malaya and Singapore. Many Chinese immigrants who spoke Malay were supporters of British rule, and purposely used Rumi when writing newspapers or translating Chinese literature. Printing presses used by colonial officials and Christian missionaries further spread Rumi, while Jawi was mostly written by hand. The transition to Rumi changed the Malay language due to the influence of English grammar. In 1972, Malaysia and Indonesia reached an agreement to standardise Rumi Malay spelling. Singaporean Malays still learn some Jawi as children alongside Rumi, and Jawi is considered an ethnic script for use on Singaporean Identity Cards.

Prior to independence, Singapore was a centre for Malay literature and Malay culture. However, after independence, this cultural role declined. Singapore is an observer to the Language Council for Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia which works to standardise Malay spelling, however it has not applied to be a member. It nonetheless applies standardisations agreed to in this forum, and follows the Malaysian standard when there are disagreements. Standards within the country are set by the Malay Language Council of Singapore. There are some differences between the official standard and colloquial usage. While the historical standard was the Johor-Riau dialect, a new standard known as sebutan baku (or bahasa melayu baku) was adopted in 1956 by the Third Malay language and Literary Congress. This variation was chosen to create consistency between the written word and the spoken pronunciation. However, implementation was slow, with Malaysia only fully adopting it in the educational system in 1988, with Singapore introducing it at the primary school level in 1993. Despite expanding use in formal education, it has not replaced the Johor-Riau pronunciation for most speakers. The artificial creation of the accent means there are no truly native speakers, and the pronunciation is closer to Indonesian than it is to Johor-Riau. There has also been cultural resistance, with accent differences between older and younger generations leading to questions surrounding Malay cultural identity. This question was further sharpened by Malaysia dropping sebutan baku in 2000, returning to the traditional use of Johor-Riau.

While the official Mandarin and Tamil mother tongues often do not reflect the actual language spoken at home for many, Malay is often the language spoken at home in Singaporean Malay households. Due to this, and strong links between the language and cultural identity, the Singaporean Malay community has retained stronger usage of their mother tongue than others in the country. Nonetheless, there has been some shift towards English, with use of Malay as the primary language at home dropping from 92% to 83% between 2000 and 2010. This reflects a broader shift in Singapore, with English replacing Malay as the lingua franca throughout the late 20th century.

Other varieties that are still spoken in Singapore include Bazaar Malay (Melayu Pasar), a Malay-lexified pidgin, which was once an interethnic lingua franca when Singapore was under British rule. Another is Baba Malay, a variety of Malay Creole influenced by Hokkien and Bazaar Malay and the mother tongue of the Peranakans, which is still spoken today by approximately 10,000 Peranakans in Singapore. Other Austronesian languages, such as Javanese, Buginese, Minangkabau, Batak, Sundanese, Boyanese (which is a dialect of Madurese) and Banjarese, are also spoken in Singapore, but their use has declined. Orang Seletar, the language of the Orang Seletar, the first people of Singapore and closely related to Malay is also spoken near the Johor Strait, between Singapore and the state of Johor, Malaysia.

Tamil language

Tamil is one of the official languages of Singapore and written Tamil uses the Tamil script. According to the population census of 2010, 9.2% of the Singaporean population were of Indian origins, with approximately 36.7% who spoke Tamil most frequently as their home language. It is a drop from 2000, where Tamil-speaking homes comprised 42.9%. On the other hand, the percentage of Indian Singaporeans speaking languages categorised under "others" have increased from 9.7% in 2005 to 13.8% in 2010. Meanwhile, the percentage of the total population speaking Tamil at home has remained steady, or has even slightly risen over the years, to just above 4%, due to immigration from India and Sri Lanka.

There are a few reasons that contribute to Tamil's declining usage. Historically, Tamil immigrants came from different communities, such as Indian Tamils and Sri Lankan Tamils which spoke very different dialects, dividing the potential community of Tamil speakers. The housing policy of Singapore, with ethnic quotas that reflect national demographics, has prevented the formation of large Tamil communities. The Tamil taught in education is a deliberately pure form, that does not reflect and therefore does not reinforce Tamil as it is used in everyday life. Tamil is usually replaced by English, which is seen as providing children with greater opportunities in Singapore and abroad. The top-down Tamil language purism as dictated by the Ministry of Education Curriculum Planning and Development Division restricts language development, disallowing loanwords. However, the language policy is supported by Tamils, likely due to contrast with that of neighbouring Malaysia where Tamil has no status.

Apart from Tamil, some of the other Indian languages spoken by minorities in Singapore include Malayalam, Telugu, Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, and Gujarati.

Eurasian languages

Kristang is a creole spoken by Portuguese Eurasians in Singapore and Malaysia. It developed when Portuguese colonizers incorporated borrowings from Malay, Chinese, Indian and Arab languages. When the British took over Singapore, Kristang declined as the Portuguese Eurasians learned English instead. Today, it is largely spoken by the elderly.

Singapore Sign Language
While Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) has not been recognised as a national sign language, the local deaf community recognises it as Singapore's native sign language, developed over six decades since the setting up of the first school for local deaf in 1954. Singapore Sign Language is closely related to American Sign Language and is influenced by Shanghainese Sign Language (SSL), Signing Exact English (SEE-II), Pidgin Signed English (PSE).

Other Malayo-Polynesian languages

In the 1824 census of Singapore, 18% of the population were identified as ethnic Bugis, speaking the Buginese language, counted separately from the Malays. Over the centuries, the Bugis community dwindled and became assimilated into the Malay demographic. In 1990, only 0.4% of Singaporeans were identified as Bugis. Today the term Malay is used in Singapore as an umbrella term for all peoples of the Malay Archipelago.

Bilingualism and multilingualism

The majority of Singaporeans are bilingual in English and one of the other three official languages. For instance, most Chinese Singaporeans can speak English and Mandarin. Some, especially the older generations, can speak Malay and additional Chinese varieties such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, and Hainanese.

Bilingual education policy

Singapore has a bilingual education policy, where all students in government schools are taught English as their first language. Students in Primary and Secondary schools also learn a second language called their "Mother Tongue" by the Ministry of Education, where they are either taught Mandarin, Malay, or Tamil. English is the main language of instruction for most subjects, while Mother Tongue is used in Mother Tongue lessons and moral education classes. This is because Singapore's "bilingualism" policy of teaching and learning English and Mother Tongue in primary and secondary schools is viewed as a "cultural ballast" to safeguard Asian cultural identities and values against Western influence.

While "Mother Tongue" generally refers to the first language (L1) elsewhere, it is used to denote the "ethnic language" or the second language (L2) in Singapore. Prior to 1 January 2011, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore defined "Mother Tongue" not as the home language or the first language acquired by the student but by their father's ethnicity. For example, a child born to a Tamil-speaking Indian father and Hokkien-speaking Chinese mother would automatically be assigned to take Tamil as the Mother Tongue language.

Since 1 January 2011, Mother Tongue is defined solely by a person's official registered race. If a person is of more than one ethnicity and their race is registered in the hyphenated format, the race chosen will be the one that precedes the hyphen in their registered race.

The Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism was set up on 28 November 2011. The Fund aims to promote bilingualism amongst young children in Singapore, is set up to supplement existing English and Mother Tongue language programmes in teaching and language learning. It is managed by a Board chaired by the Singapore's Minister of Education, Mr Heng Swee Keat and advised by an International Advisory Panel of Experts.

Impacts of bilingual education policy
The impact of the bilingual policy differs amongst students from the various ethnic groups. For the Chinese, when the policy was first implemented, many students found themselves struggling with two foreign languages: English and Mandarin. Even though several different Chinese varieties were widely spoken at home, they were excluded from the classroom as it was felt that they would be an "impediment to learning Chinese". Today, although Mandarin is widely spoken, proficiency in second languages has declined. In response to these falling standards, several revisions have been made to the education system. These include the introduction of the Mother Tongue "B" syllabus and the now-defunct EM3 stream, in both of which Mother Tongue is taught at a level lower than the mainstream standard. In the case of Mandarin, Chinese students would study Chinese "B".

The Malay-speaking community also faced similar problems after the implementation of the policy. In Singapore, Malay, not its non-standard dialects, is valued as a mean for transmitting familial and religious values. For instance, 'Madrasahs', or religious schools, mosques and religious classes all employ the Malay language. However, Malay in turn is facing competition from the increased popularity of English.

In contrast to the language policy for Mandarin and Malay, Indian students are given a wider variety of Indian languages to choose from. For example, Indian students speaking Dravidian languages study Tamil as a Mother Tongue. However, schools with low numbers of Tamil students might not provide Tamil language classes. As a result, students from such schools will attend Tamil language classes at the Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre (UPTLC). On the other hand, Indian students who speak non-Dravidian languages can choose from Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and Urdu. However, as with Tamil, only certain schools offer these non-Dravidian languages. Thus, students will attend their respective language classes at designated language centres, held by the Board for the Teaching and Testing of South Asian Languages (BTTSAL).

In 2007, in a bid to enhance the linguistic experience of students, the Ministry of Education strongly encouraged schools to offer Conversational Malay and Chinese to those who do not take either of these languages as their Mother Tongue. By providing the schools with the resources needed to implement the programme, the Ministry of Education has succeeded in significantly increasing the number of participating schools. More importantly, the programme was also well received by students.

Challenges in the teaching of Mother Tongue
The teaching of Mother Tongue (especially Mandarin) in schools has encountered challenges due to more Singaporeans speaking and using English at home. The declining standards and command of Mandarin amongst younger generations of Chinese Singaporeans continue to be of concern to the older generations of Chinese Singaporeans, as they perceive it to be an erosion of Chinese culture and heritage. This concern has led to the establishment the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL) by the government in November 2009. The SCCL's stated purpose is to enhance the effectiveness of teaching Mandarin as a second language in a bilingual environment as well as to meet the learning needs of students from non-Mandarin speaking homes.

Despite government efforts to promote Mandarin through the Speak Mandarin Campaign, the propagation of Mandarin and Chinese culture amongst Chinese Singaporeans continues to be a challenge because Mandarin faces stiff competition from the strong presence of English. However, this situation is not only limited to Mandarin, but also Malay and Tamil, where rising statistics show that English is progressively taking over as home language of Singaporeans.

Foreign population in Singapore
With the influx of foreigners, the population of non-English speaking foreigners in Singapore offers new challenges to the concept of language proficiency in the country. Foreigners in Singapore constitute 36% of the population and they dominate 50% of Singapore's service sectors. Thus, it is not uncommon to encounter service staff who are not fluent in English, especially those who do not use English regularly. In response to this situation, the Straits Times reported that from July 2010, foreigners working in service sectors would have to pass an English test before they can obtain their work permits.

Sociolinguistic issues

Politics
Language plays an important role in Singapore's politics. Even until today, it is important for politicians in Singapore to be able to speak fluent English along with their Mother Tongue (including different varieties of Chinese) in order to reach out to the multilingual community in Singapore. This is evident in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's annual National Day Rally speech, which is communicated through the use of English, Malay and Mandarin.

Before the 1980s, it was common for politicians to broadcast their speech in Malay, English, Singaporean Hokkien, Singaporean Mandarin and other Chinese varieties. For instance, during the 1960s, Lee Kuan Yew learned and used Hokkien frequently in his political or rally speeches, as it was vital for him to secure votes in elections from the Hokkien-speaking community. Similarly, Lim Chin Siong, who was charismatic in the use of Hokkien, was able to secure opposition votes. Facing competition and difficulty in securing votes from the Chinese-educated, Lee Kuan Yew also had to learn Mandarin, in order to win the votes from the Mandarin-speaking community.

Although the use of other Chinese varieties among the Singapore population has dwindled, they continue to be used in election rallies as of the 2011 parliamentary election. For instance, both Low Thia Khiang and Chan Chun Sing were noted for their usage of different Chinese varieties during election rallies.

Status of Singlish as an identity marker

There has been a continuous debate between the general Singaporean population and the Government with regard to the status of Singlish in local domains. While the government fears that the prevalence of Singlish would affect Singapore's overall image as a world class financial and business hub, most Singaporeans on the other hand have chosen to embrace Singlish as an identity marker and as a language of solidarity. In an attempt to eradicate the usage of Singlish, the government then began the Speak Good English Movement, encouraging people to use Standard Singaporean English in all contexts instead. Despite the success of the campaign, most Singaporeans surveyed still preferred the use of Singlish to communicate with fellow Singaporeans, and they also believed that they had the ability to code switch between Singlish and Standard Singaporean English, depending on the requirements of the particular situation.

Most recently, Singlish came into the limelight when Republic of Singapore Air Force pilots supposedly used the language to much effect to prevent their American counterparts from intercepting their communications during the 2014 Red Flag exercise, resulting in a boost in support for the usefulness of Singlish among Singaporean netizens.

Preservation issues

Chinese varieties (classified as dialects by the Singapore government), with the exception of Mandarin, have been in steep decline since the independence of Singapore in 1965. This is in part due to the Speak Mandarin Campaign that was launched in 1979. As part of the campaign, all programmes on TV and radio using non-standard varieties were stopped. Speeches in Hokkien by the prime minister were discontinued to prevent giving conflicting signals to the people. By the late 1980s, Mandarin managed to some extent, to replace these varieties as the preferred language for communication in public places, such as restaurants and public transport.

The preservation of local varieties in Singapore has been of increasing concern in Singapore since the 2000s, especially among the younger generation of Chinese youths. This sudden revival of other varieties can mainly be attributed to a feeling of disconnection between the younger and the elder generations, as well as a sense of loss of identity from their own linguistic roots for many others. While more work has to be put in to revive these varieties, the recent 2014 Singapore Teochew Festival held in Ngee Ann City can be regarded as a positive sign that more people are becoming more actively involved in reconnecting with their linguistic roots.

Controversy over learning of Chinese varieties
In March 2009, a newspaper article was published in Singapore broadsheet daily The Straits Times on a Language and Diversity Symposium organised by the Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at Nanyang Technological University. Ng Bee Chin, acting Head of the Division, was quoted in the article as saying, "Although Singaporeans are still multilingual, 40 years ago, we were even more multilingual. Young children are not speaking some of these languages at all any more. All it takes is one generation for a language to die."

The call to rethink the ban on dialects elicited a swift reply from Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew. "I thought it was a daft call. My then-principal private secretary Chee Hong Tat issued a reply on my behalf: Using one language more frequently means less time for other languages. Hence, the more languages a person learns, the greater the difficulties of retaining them at a high level of fluency… It would be stupid for any Singapore agency or NTU to advocate the learning of dialects, which must be at the expense of English and Mandarin.'

A week later, Lee reiterated the point at the 30th anniversary launch of the Speak Mandarin Campaign. In his speech, he described his personal experience with "language loss".

"To keep a language alive, you have to speak and read it frequently. The more you use one language, the less you use other languages. So the more languages you learn, the greater the difficulties of retaining them at a high level of fluency. I have learned and used six languages – English, Malay, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin and Hokkien. English is my master language. My Hokkien has gone rusty, my Mandarin has improved. I have lost my Japanese and Latin, and can no longer make fluent speeches in Malay without preparation. This is called "language loss."

Renewed interest in learning other Chinese varieties
Since 2000, there has been an renewed interest in other Chinese varieties among Singaporean Chinese. In 2002, clan associations such as Hainanese Association of Singapore (Kheng Chiu Hwee Kuan) and Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan started classes to teach other Chinese varieties. This was in response to an increased desire among Singaporeans to reconnect with their Chinese heritage and culture through learning other Chinese varieties. In 2007, a group of 140 students from Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' Primary School learnt Hokkien-Taiwanese and Cantonese as an effort to communicate better with the elderly. The elderly themselves taught the students the varieties. The programme was organised in the hope of bridging the generational gap that was formed due to the suppression of these dialects in Singapore.

Likewise, third-year students from Dunman High can now take a module called "Pop Song Culture". This module lets them learn about pop culture in different dialect groups through pop songs from the 70s and 80s performed in different varieties. Besides this, students can also take an elective on different flavours and food cultures from various dialect groups.

Although the Singapore government appears to have relaxed its stance towards Chinese varieties in recent years, the fact is that they still did not actively support the widespread use of other Chinese varieties especially in the Singapore mainstream Television media. Recently, the Singapore Government allowed some local produced mini "chinese dialect" shows to be broadcast in Hokkien-Taiwanese and Cantonese dedicated to the Singapore Chinese elderly who speak Hokkien-Taiwanese or Cantonese but did not understand English or Mandarin Chinese. The aim of the local produced mini "chinese dialect" shows is to transmit important messages about social services and medical services and care to the Singapore Chinese Elderly. However, there are limited number of "Chinese Dialect" shows that could be broadcast on Singapore's Mainstream Television due to the Singapore's Government stringent language policy.

Linguistic landscape of Singapore
The multi-ethnic background of Singapore's society can be seen in its linguistic landscape. While English dominates as the working language of Singapore, the city does not possess a monolingual linguistic landscape. These can be seen from the variety of signs strewn around the city. Signs are colour-coded and categorised by their respective functions: for example, signs which are pointing to attractions are brown with white words, while road signs and street names are green with white words.
Some of the most evident signs of multilingualism in Singapore's linguistic landscape include danger/warning signs at construction sites, as well as road signs for tourist attractions. By observing the variation in languages used in the different contexts, we are able to obtain information on the ethnolinguistic vitality of the country.

Tourist attractions

The majority of Singapore's tourist attractions provide information through English in the Roman script. In many cases, the entrances of the attraction is written in English (usually with no other accompanying languages) while the distinctive brown road signs seen along streets and expressways which direct tourists come in up to four or five languages, with English as the largest and most prominent language on the sign.

Some examples of the different ways in which popular tourist attractions in Singapore display ethnolinguistic diversity can be seen at tourist attractions such as Lau Pa Sat, where the words "Lau Pa Sat" on the directory boards consist of the Mandarin Chinese word lau for "old" (老;lǎo) and from the Hokkien words pa sat for "market" (巴刹;bā sha), written in roman script. The entrance sign of the attraction also includes a non-literal translation in English below its traditional name (Festival Market). It is also called the Telok Ayer Market, a name which makes reference to the location of the attraction and does not have anything to do with its cultural name.

The conversion and expression in Roman script of Mandarin and Hokkien into pīnyīn helps non-Mandarin and non-Hokkien speakers with the pronunciation of the name of a place whilst remaining in tandem with the use of English and Roman script in Singapore. The repackaging of the original names of Lau Pa Sat in Roman script, and inclusion of the appearance of an English translation as a secondary title can be seen as a way of heightening the sense of authenticity and heritage of the attraction as it is marketed as a culturally-rich area in Singapore, similar to Chinatown and Little India; both of which were formerly cultural enclaves of the distinctive races. Similarly in places that bear cultural significance, the signs are printed in the language associated with the culture, such as The Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall which has an entirely Chinese sign without any translations.

Some notable exceptions include the brown directional road signs for the Merlion Park which are written not only in the four national languages, but also in Japanese. Although many variations exist, this arrangement is widely applied to most places of interest as well as places of worship, such as the Burmese Buddhist Temple which has signs in Burmese and some mosques in Singapore which also have their names printed in the Jawi script even though the Malay language was standardized with the Roman alphabet in Singapore.

Government offices and public buildings

Despite the fact that Malay is the national language of Singapore, government buildings are often indicated by signs in English and not Malay. Comparing the relative occurrences of English and Malay in building signs, the use of the working language is far more common in Singapore's linguistic landscape than that of the national language, which is limited to ceremonial purposes. This can also be seen on the entrance sign to most Ministries and government buildings, which are expressed only in English, the working language.

Most of the foreign embassies in Singapore are able to use their own national or working languages as a representation of their respective embassies in Singapore, as long as their language can be expressed in the script of any of Singapore's official languages. For example, embassies representing non-English speaking countries such as the French Embassy are allowed to use their own languages because the language can be expressed in Roman script, thus explaining why the French embassy uses its French name. However, for the case of the Royal Thai Embassy, English was chosen to represent it in Singapore because the Thai script is not recognized as a script in any of Singapore's official languages, even though English is less widely used in Thailand than standard Thai.

Public hospitals
Out of the eight general hospitals overseen by Singapore's Ministry of Health, only Singapore General Hospital has signages in the four official languages. Along Hospital Drive (where Singapore General Hospital is located) and various national medical centres, road directories are entirely in English. Within the hospital itself, signs for individual blocks, wards, Accident and Emergency department, Specialist Outpatient Clinics, National Heart Centre and National Cancer Centre have signs written in the four official languages. The English titles are still expressed with the largest font first, followed by Malay, Chinese and Tamil in smaller but equally-sized fonts, which is in accordance with order given by Singapore's constitution. Surprisingly, the Health Promotion Board, National Eye and Dental Centres, which are also in the same region, have English signs only. All of the other seven public hospitals have their "Accident and Emergency" sign in English only, with some highlighted in a red background.

Notices and campaigns

Messages and campaigns that have a very specific target audience and purpose are usually printed in the language of intended readers. For example, the "No Alcohol" signs put up along Little India after the Little India Riots are notably printed in only Tamil and English as a reflection of the racial demographics in the region.

During the 2003 SARS epidemic, the government relied heavily on the media to emphasise the importance of personal hygiene, and also to educate the general public on the symptoms of SARS, in which a Singlish rap video featuring Gurmit Singh as Phua Chu Kang was used as the main medium. Similarly in 2014, the Pioneer Generation Package (for senior citizens above 65 years of age in 2014 who obtained Singapore citizenship on or before 31 December 1986) made use of Chinese varieties commonly spoken in Singapore such as Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew, and also Singlish in order to make the policies more relatable, and at the same time raise awareness about the benefits that this new scheme provides for them.
These allowances of different language varieties is an exception to the four official languages. This exception is seen for campaigns that are deemed as highly important, and include the elderly, or those who are not as proficient in the English language as the target audience.

Limitations in current research methodologies

While the above examples show how the different languages are used on signs within Singapore, there is scant data on the motivations behind these variations seen, as exemplified by the advisory for "No Alcohol" sales in Little India, which showcased a rare variation from the usage of the four main languages that are commonly seen on most advisory signs. Similarly, the Ministry of Health, in a response to a feedback requesting all hospitals to have four languages on its entrances, has claimed that usage of pictorial signages was better in conveying messages, as opposed to using all four languages. Due to problems in the research methodology and lack of governmental statutes that explain these variations, the study on the linguistics landscape in Singapore remain as a controversial field. These problems include non-linearity, where the large numbers of variations seen in Singapore prevents the application of any trends to understand the landscape; and also the lack of any standard legislation that determines any fixed rules on usage of languages on signs.

Controversies

In a 2012 pilot program, SMRT trains began announcements of station names in both English and Mandarin Chinese so as to help Mandarin Chinese-speaking senior citizens cope better with the sudden increase in new stations. However, this received mixed reactions from the public. Some people pointed out that there were senior citizens who did not speak Mandarin, while others complained of feeling alienated. In reaction to this, SMRT claimed that the announcements were only recorded in English and Mandarin because the Malay and Tamil names of stations sounded very similar to the English names.

In 2013, a group of Tamil speakers petitioned the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to include Tamil instead of Japanese on all the signs in the Singapore Changi Airport. Even though only 5% of the Singapore population speaks Tamil, they argued that since Tamil is one of the four official languages of Singapore, it should be used to reflect Singapore's multi-racial background.

In 2014, there were reports of erroneous translations on road signs of popular tourist attractions such as Lau Pa Sat and Gardens by the Bay made by the Singapore Tourism Board.

Media and the arts
The free-to-air channels in Singapore are run by Mediacorp and each channel is aired in one of the four official languages of Singapore. For example, Channel U and Channel 8 are Mandarin-medium channels, Channel 5 and CNA are English-medium channels, Suria is a Malay-medium channel, and Vasantham is a predominantly Tamil-medium channel. However, these channels might also feature programmes in other languages. For example, apart from programmes in Mandarin, Channel U also broadcasts Korean television programmes at specific allotted times.

Chinese varieties in local films
The use of Chinese varieties other than Mandarin in Singapore media is restricted by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA). The rationale given for the resistance towards nonstandard Chinese varieties was that their presence would hinder language learning of English and Mandarin. However, in order to cater to older Singaporeans who speak only non-standard Chinese varieties, videos, VCDs, DVDs, paid subscription radio services and paid TV channels are exempted from MICA's restrictions. Two free-to-air channels, Okto and Channel 8, are also allowed to show operas and arthouse movies with some non-standard variety content, respectively.

The use of Chinese varieties is not controlled tightly in traditional arts, such as Chinese opera. As such, they have managed to survive, and even flourish in these areas. In Singapore, various types of Chinese opera include Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese and Cantonese. In the past, this diversity encouraged the translation between varieties for scripts of popular stories. After the implementation of the bilingual policy and Speak Mandarin Campaign, Mandarin subtitles were introduced to help the audience understand the performances. Today, as usage of English rises, some opera troupes not only provide English subtitles but also English translations of their works. For these English-Chinese operas, subtitles may be provided in either Mandarin, other Chinese varieties, or both. In this way, Chinese opera will be able to reach out to a wider audience despite being variety-specific.

Similar to Chinese opera, there are no language restrictions on entries for film festivals. In recent years, more local film makers have incorporated non-standard Chinese varieties into their films. For example, the local movie 881 revived the popularity of getai after it was released. Getai, which is mainly conducted in Hokkien and Teochew, became more popular with the younger generations since the release of the movie. On the effect triggered by the release of the movie 881, Professor Chua Beng Huat, Head of the Department of Sociology of the National University of Singapore, commented in the Straits Times that "putting Hokkien on the silver screen gives Hokkien a kind of rebellious effect. It's like the return of the repressed." The success of 881 is also reflected by album sales of 881 movie soundtrack, which became the first local film soundtrack to hit platinum in Singapore. In other instances, the movie Singapore Ga Ga, a tissue seller sings a Hokkien song while Perth features a Singaporean taxi driver using Hokkien and Cantonese. Local directors have commented that non-standard Chinese varieties are vital as there are some expressions which just cannot be put across in Mandarin Chinese, and that the different Chinese varieties are an important part of Singapore that adds a sense of authenticity that locals will enjoy.

Indian languages in the media
Indian languages besides Tamil are managed slightly differently from the Chinese varieties. Even though only Tamil has official language status, there have been no attempts to discourage the use of other Indian languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Telugu, and Urdu. For one, movies in these languages are shown in some local cinemas, such as Rex and Screens of Bombay Talkies. Furthermore, the local Indian TV channel Vasantham has also allocated specific programme timeslots to cater to the variety of Indian language speakers in Singapore.

Language-specific societies
Chinese clan associations play a role in maintaining the non-standard Chinese varieties. In the past, they provided support to migrant Chinese, based on the province they originated. Today, they provide a place for people who speak the same variety to gather and interact. For example, the Hokkien Huay Kuan holds classes for performing arts, calligraphy, and Hokkien Chinese. They also organize the biennial Hokkien Festival, which aims to promote Hokkien customs and culture. With such efforts, perhaps non-standard Chinese varieties in Singapore will be better equipped to resist erosion.

Apart from the efforts to maintain local Chinese varieties, the Eurasian Association holds Kristang classes for people who are interested in learning Kristang. In this way, it hopes to preserve what it perceives to be a unique part of the Eurasian heritage in Singapore.

Notes

References

Further reading

External links
 National Language Campaigns

Languages of Singapore


Sydney's Pride History Group was established as the first volunteer community group dedicated exclusively to preserving the history of LGBTIQ Sydney predominantly through the collection of oral history interviews. The Group's origins date from discussions held at the Sydney Pride Centre in between 2003 and 2004. The Group's Patrons are Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, artist William Yang and Meredith Burgmann.

History
By August 2003, Sydney's Pride History Group had incorporated as an Association, and now operates out of the suburb of Glebe.  Australian LGBT rights activist, historian and political scientist Lex Watson served as President of the Group between 2010 until his death in 2014. Other Presidents include LGBTIQ activist Robert French who had previously served as Convenor of the New South Wales Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby and Vice President of ACON  and current President, Shirleene Robinson, an academic historian and marriage equality activist with Australian Marriage Equality.

Activities
The main activity of Sydney's Pride History Group involves the collection of oral histories. The bulk of interviews have been collected as part of the 100 Voices Collection, which includes memories dating back to the 1950s. The 100 Voices Collection also includes interviews about what would become known later as Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, decriminalisation and the marriage equality movement. The 100 Voices Collection was launched in 2013 at Paddington Town Hall by New South Wales Governor Marie Bashir and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore.

The Group has also published a number of books. These include Camp as a Row of Tents: The Life and Times of Sydney's Camp Social Clubs, Camp Nites: Sydney's Emerging Drag Scene in the '60s, New Day Dawning: The Early Years of Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. and Out and About: Sydney's Lesbian Social Scene, 1960s-1980s. The Group was the auspicing organisation for the electronic publication of Unfit for Publication by Peter de Waal, which documents cases of sodomy and buggery which were prosecuted in New South Wales between 1796 and 1930 The Group is also mentioned as a community-driven LGBTIQ historical organisation of significance in a number of books, including Garry Wotherspoon's Gay Sydney: A History (2016) and Rebecca Jennings' Unnamed Desires: A Sydney Lesbian History (2015).

The Group is currently also working on an LGBTIQ Pioneer Names Project, which was launched by Lord Mayor Clover Moore and aims to record the individuals who played a role in shaping LGBTIQ Sydney.

Most recently, the Group launched PridePod, a podcasting series about Sydney's LGBTIQ history.

Partnerships
Sydney's Pride History Group works closely with the City of Sydney, as well as a range of other organisations, including groups representing the 78ers who marched at the first Mardi Gras, local libraries, Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives and groups from across the LGBTIQ and the broader community. Outreach has taken place in a variety of locations, ranging from libraries to talks in pubs

External links
Official site:  Sydney's Pride History Group

References

LGBT culture in Sydney
LGBT history in Australia
Organisations based in Sydney

Sydney's Pride History Group


Toni Rose (born December 22, 1945) is an American retired professional wrestler. During her wrestling career, Rose captured the NWA World Women's Tag Team Championship on five occasions; three times with Donna Christanello, and twice with her trainer, The Fabulous Moolah. Rose is also a former one-time NWA Southern Women's Championship (Georgia version).

Professional wrestling career
Rose grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. She decided to become a professional wrestler at the age of seven, but first attended Terre Haute High School and college. She trained under The Fabulous Moolah in 1965. During her first match, which occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, her opponent Bambi Bell knocked Rose unconscious.

During a match in Australia in 1969, Rose was injured and left partially blind in one eye. In the early 1970s, Rose held the National Wrestling Alliance's NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice with The Fabulous Moolah. They first won the title in May 1970, but lost it to Donna Christanello and Kathy O'Day. During a rematch in June, Rose and Moolah regained the title. Later that November, Rose won the title, this time with Christanello. In 1972 at the Superbowl of Wrestling, they defended the World Women's Tag Team Championship against Sandy Parker and Debbie Johnson. During their reign, there was an unrecorded title change; Susan "Tex" Green and Parker won the title from Christanello and Rose in November 1971 in Hawaii, but they regained it in February 1972 in Hong Kong. After a three-year reign as champions, they were officially defeated for the title by the team of Joyce Grable and Vicki Williams on October 15, 1973, in New York City. It was not until October 1975 that Rose and Christanello regained the title from Grable and Williams, holding it for approximately four years.

During this time, she also wrestled against Susan "Tex" Green in Leroy McGuirk's promotion. During her career, Rose was also a contender for Moolah's NWA World Women's Championship, but never won the title. In December 1974, Rose was in a match to crown the vacated NWA United States Women's Championship, but lost to Ann Casey.

Personal life
Rose cites Penny Banner as her favorite wrestler growing up, who she later became friend with. She was married to Jack Laughridge for nearly 35 years, until he passed away in 2016.

Championships and accomplishments
 Carolina Wrestling Hall of Fame
 Class of 2021
 Lifetime Achievement Award (2021)
 National Wrestling Alliance
 NWA Southern Women's Championship (Georgia version) (1 time)
 NWA World Women's Tag Team Championship (5 times) – with Donna Christanello (3) and The Fabulous Moolah (2)
 Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
 Class of 2018
Women's Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2023

Footnotes

References

Further reading

External links
 Online World of Wrestling profile

American female professional wrestlers
Living people
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Stampede Wrestling alumni
21st-century American women
1945 births
20th-century female professional wrestlers

Toni Rose


Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American poet. He was closely connected to the modernist movement.

He attended Harvard University. He received a degree from New York Law School in 1903. He practiced law for a number of offices and companies until 1916. In 1916, he got a job with the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. He worked for this insurance company for the rest of his life.

While he worked in his business life, he also worked at writing poetry. He became friends with many other poets, such as William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, and E. E. Cummings. In 1914 and 1915, he wrote poems that are now well-known such as "Peter Quince at the Clavier," "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock," and "Sunday Morning."

Harmonium, his first book of poems, came out in 1923. That book had other poems that are now famous, like "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," and "The Emperor of Ice-Cream."

Stevens often wrote very long poems. "The Man with the Blue Guitar" (1937) had 33 parts. In poems like this and many others, Stevens talked about the power of imagination to change ordinary life.

Books

 Harmonium (1923)
 Ideas of Order (1936)
 The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937)
 Parts of a World (1942)
 Transport to Summer (1947)
 The Auroras of Autumn (1950)
 The Necessary Angel (1951)
 The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (1954)

References

Other websites
Wallace Sevens at PennSound

1879 births
1955 deaths
American poets

Wallace Stevens


Online gambling is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos, and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for the Liechtenstein International Lottery in October 1994. Today, the market is worth around $40 billion globally each year, according to various estimates.

Many countries restrict or ban online gambling. However, it is legal in some states of the United States, some provinces in Canada, most countries of the European Union, and several nations in the Caribbean.

In many legal markets, online gambling service providers are required by law to have some form of license provide services or advertise to residents there. For example, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission or the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in the US.

Many online casinos and gambling companies around the world choose to base themselves in tax havens near their main markets. These destinations include Gibraltar, Malta, and Alderney in Europe, and, in Asia, the Special Administrative Region of Macau was long considered a tax haven and known base for gambling operators in the region. However, in 2018, the EU removed Macau from their list of blacklisted tax havens.

History
In 1994, Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade & Processing Act, allowing licences to be granted to organisations applying to open online casinos. Before online casinos, the first fully functional gambling software was developed by Microgaming, an Isle of Man-based software company. This was secured with software developed by CryptoLogic, an online security software company. Safe transactions became viable; this led to the first online casinos in 1994.

1996 saw the establishment of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which regulated online gaming activity from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and issues gaming licences to many of the world's online casinos and poker rooms. This is an attempt to keep the operations of licensed online gambling organisations fair and transparent.

In the late 1990s, online gambling gained popularity; there were only 15 gambling websites in 1996, but that had increased to 200 websites by the following year. A report published by Frost & Sullivan revealed that online gambling revenues had exceeded $830 million in 1998 alone. In the same year, the first online poker rooms were introduced. Soon afterward in 1999, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was introduced as a bill in the US Senate; it would have meant that a company could not offer any online gambling product to any US citizen. But it did not pass. Multiplayer online gambling was also introduced in 1999.

In 2000, the first Australian federal government passed the Interactive Gambling Moratorium Act, making it illegal for any online casino not licensed and operating before May 2000 to operate. This meant Lasseter's Online became the only online casino able to operate legally in Australia; however, they cannot take bets from Australian citizens.

By 2001, the estimated number of people who had participated in online gambling rose to eight million, and growth continued, despite continuing legal challenges to online gambling.

In 2008, H2 Gambling Capital estimated worldwide online gambling revenue at $21 billion.

In 2016, Statista predicted that the online gambling market would reach $45.86 billion, growing to $56.05 billion by 2018.

In 2022, online streaming platform Twitch banned popular gambling streams from their site. Cryptocurrency casino operators like Stake.com had been sponsoring streamers broadcasts of their live gambling sessions for several years.

Forms
The internet has allowed new types of gambling to be available online. Improvements in technology have changed betting habits just as video lottery terminals, keno, and scratchcards changed the gambling industry in the 20th century.

Gambling has become one of the most popular and lucrative businesses on the internet. In 2007 the UK Gambling Commission stated that the gambling industry had achieved a turnover of over £84 billion. This is partly due to the wide range of gambling options available to many different types of people. An article by Darren R. Christensen, Nicki A. Dowling, Alun C. Jackson, and Shane A. Thomas said that a survey recorded in Australia showed that the most common forms of gambling were lotteries (46.5%), keno (24.3%), instant scratch tickets (24.3%), and electronic gaming machines (20.5%). Online gambling sites also started to hire celebrities as their brand ambassadors, such as Mike Tyson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Conor McGregor, and Peter Crouch.

Poker

Online poker tables commonly offer Texas hold 'em, Omaha hold 'em, seven-card stud, razz, HORSE, and other game types in both tournament and cash game structures. Players play against each other rather than the "house", with the card room making its money through "rake" and through tournament fees.

Casinos

There are a large number of online casinos in which people can play casino games such as roulette, blackjack, pachinko, baccarat, and many others. These games are played against the "house" which makes money because the odds are in its favor.

Sports betting

Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Usually, the wager is in the form of money.

Many online sports betting websites offer in-play gambling, which is a feature that allows the user to bet while the event is in progress. A benefit of live in-play gambling is that there are much more markets. For example, in Association football a user could bet on which player will receive the next Yellow card, or which team will be awarded the next corner kick.

Bingo

Online bingo is the game of bingo (US|UK) played on the internet.

Lotteries
Most lotteries are run by governments and are heavily protected from competition due to their ability to generate large taxable cash flows. The first online lotteries were run by private individuals or companies and licensed to operate by small countries. Most private online lotteries have stopped trading as governments have passed new laws giving themselves and their own lotteries greater protection. Government-controlled lotteries now offer their games online.

UK National Lottery
The National Lottery was started in 1994 and is operated by the Camelot Group. Around 70% of UK adults play the National Lottery regularly, making the average annual sales over £5 billion apart from the year 2000–2001 where sales dropped just below that. In its first 17 years, it has created over 2,800 millionaires.

In 2002, Camelot decided to rebrand the National Lottery main draw after falling ticket sales. The name National Lottery was kept as the general name for the organisation and the main draw was renamed Lotto. The advertising campaign for the new Lotto cost £72 million which included ten television advertisements featuring Scottish comedian Billy Connolly and one of the largest ever poster campaigns. The new brand and name had the slogan:

Horse racing betting
Horse racing betting comprises a significant percentage of online gambling wagers and all major Internet bookmakers, betting exchanges, and sports books offer a wide variety of horse racing betting markets.

Horse wagering using online methods across state lines is legal in several states in the United States. In 2006, the NTRA and various religious organizations lobbied in support of an act in Congress meant to limit online gambling. Some critics of the bill argued that the exemption of horse racing wagering was an unfair loophole. In response, the NTRA responded that the exemption was "a recognition of existing federal law", not a new development. Interstate wagering on horse racing was first made legal under the Interstate Horseracing Act written in 1978. The bill was rewritten in the early 2000s to include the Internet in closed-circuit websites, including simulcast racing, as compared to simply phones or other forms of communication.

Mobile gambling

Mobile gambling refers to playing games of chance or skill for money by using a remote device such as a  tablet computer, smartphone or a mobile phone with a wireless Internet connection.

Advance-deposit wagering

Advance-deposit wagering (ADW) is a form of gambling on the outcome of horse races in which the bettor must fund his or her account before being allowed to place bets. ADW is often conducted online or by phone. In contrast to ADW, credit shops allow wagers without advance funding; accounts are settled at month-end. Racetrack owners, horse trainers and state governments sometimes receive a share of ADW revenues.

Virtual sports

Virtual Sports are electronic games that generate visual feedback on a display device. The term "virtual sports" is often used to describe software simulations of sports used for betting purposes. Some betting house and racinos use this kind of software because clients use to bet more than with the normal sports.

Funds transfers
The money for online gambling can come from credit card, electronic check, certified check, money order, wire transfer, or cryptocurrencies. Normally, gamblers upload funds to the online gambling company, make bets or play the games that it offers, and then cash out any winnings. Gamblers can often fund gambling accounts by credit card or debit card, and cash out winnings directly back to the card; most U.S. banks, however, prohibit the use of their cards for the purpose of Internet gambling, and attempts by Americans to use credit cards at Internet gambling sites are usually rejected. A number of electronic money services offer accounts with which online gambling can be funded.

Legal status

Antigua and Barbuda
Many of the companies operating out of the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda are publicly traded on various stock exchanges, specifically the London Stock Exchange. Antigua has met British regulatory standards and has been added to the UK's "white list", which allows licensed Antiguan companies to advertise in the UK.

The national government, which licenses Internet gambling entities, made a complaint to the World Trade Organization about the U.S. government's actions to impede online gaming. The Caribbean country won the preliminary ruling but WTO's appeals body somewhat narrowed that favorable ruling in April 2005. The appeals decision held that various state laws argued by Antigua and Barbuda to be contrary to the WTO agreements were not sufficiently discussed during the course of the proceedings to be properly assessed by the panel. However, the appeals panel also ruled that the Wire Act and two other federal statutes prohibiting the provision of gambling services from Antigua to the United States violated the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services. Although the United States convinced the appeals panel that these laws were "necessary" to protect public health and morals, the asserted United States defense on these grounds was ultimately rejected because its laws relating to remote gambling on horse-racing were not applied equally to foreign and domestic online betting companies, and thus the United States could not establish that its laws were non-discriminatory.

On 30 March 2007, the WTO confirmed that the U.S. "had done nothing to abide by an earlier verdict that labeled some U.S. Internet gambling restrictions as illegal."

On 19 June 2007, Antigua and Barbuda filed a claim with the WTO for US$3.4 billion in trade sanctions against the United States, and in particular, the ability for the country to suspend its enforcement of U.S. copyrights and patents and a punitive measure. On 28 January 2013, the WTO authorized the ability for Antigua and Bermuda to monetize and exploit U.S. copyrights as compensation for the country's actions; the country planned to form "a statutory body to own, manage and operate the ultimate platform to be created for the monetisation or other exploitation of the suspension of American intellectual property rights".

Australia

On 28 June 2001 the Australian Government passed the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA). The government said that the IGA was important to protect Australians from the harmful effects of gambling. The offense applies to all interactive gambling service providers, whether based in Australia or offshore, whether Australian or foreign owned. The IGA makes it an offence to provide an interactive gambling service to a customer physically present in Australia, but it is not an offence for Australian residents to play poker or casino games online. Sports betting online is legal in Australia, with many state government licensed sportsbooks in operation.

Belarus
Online gambling has been legalized in Belarus since April 1, 2019.

Canada
While the criminal code of Canada does not prohibit online gambling, it does prohibit any type of gambling at an establishment not owned or licensed by a provincial government. Not withstanding this fact, there are an estimated 1,200 to 1,400 offshore websites that make casino type games and other gambling activities available to Canadians. For online gambling operations within Canada's borders, the Canadian authorities are willing to prosecute, but as of this date, have only done so once, when British Columbia prosecuted Starnet Communications International ("SCI"), a Delaware corporation, run by residents of Vancouver, where one of the company's servers was located. The court found that SCI had sufficient contact with Canada to be prosecuted under its criminal code. SCI was fined $100,000 and forfeited nearly $4 million in profits. It has since moved its operations overseas.

In 2004, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation launched Canada's first legal online casino, PlayNow.com, which makes legal online gambling available to residents of British Columbia and Manitoba. A survey conducted in 2007 showed that only about 2.3% of Canadians reported participating in online gambling. However, in 2012, Manitoba Lotteries Minister Steve Ashton estimated that gamblers in Manitoba alone were spending $37 million a year at illegal online casinos. Quebec's lottery organization Loto-Quebec launched a similar service, known as Espacejeux.

According to John A. Cunningham, Joanne Cordingley, David C. Hodgins and Tony Toneatto a telephone survey was recorded in Ontario that shows there was a strong agreement that conceptions of gambling abuse as a disease or addiction were positively associated with belief that treatment is needed, while there was a strong agreement that disease or wrongdoing was positively associated with the credit that abstinence is required.

France

On 5 March 2009, France proposed new laws to regulate and tax Internet gambling. Budget minister Eric Woerth stated the French gambling market would expand to adapt to "Internet reality." He further stated "Rather than banning 25,000 websites, we'd rather give licenses to those who will respect public and social order."  Betting exchanges, however, will remain illegal under the new plans.

Germany
The German Interstate Treaty on gaming, which came into force on 1 January 2008, banned all forms of online gaming and betting in the country, with the exception of wagers on horse racing. The European Gaming & Betting Association turned to the European Commission with the request to take action against the German legislation, because such stringent legislation violated EU rules. In 2010, the European Court of Justice ruled that the monopolised gambling industry in Germany has to be liberalised. Schleswig-Holstein is the only German state that has already come up with their own gambling bill allowing gambling online. From 2012, casino operators can apply for an online gambling license in this state.

India

Online gambling is illegal in the state of Maharashtra under the "Bombay Wager Act". Other acts/legislations are silent with respect to online gambling/online gaming in India.  The most recent law to address gambling online was the Federal Information Technology Rules where such illegal activities may be blocked by Internet providers within India.  Another act is the Public Gaming Act of 1867.  States tend to operate on their own authority.

Online gambling legal issues in India are complicated in nature as Gambling in India is regulated by different states laws and online gambling is a central subject. To ascertain the position of Indian government, the Supreme Court of India sought the opinion of central government in this regard but the same was declined by the central government. This has made playing of online cards games like rummy, poker, etc. legally risky. Playing Rummy in India is legal as according to the verdict of Supreme Court of India, Rummy is a Game of skills and cannot be considered as Gambling.

On 3 September 2015, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) issued a Circular titled "Clarification on Tax Compliance for Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets" under the black money act which directs the online poker players in the country to declare their money transactions on foreign poker sites through the e-wallets and virtual cards.

Israel
The Israel gambling law (Israeli Penal Law 5737 - 1977) does not refer specifically to online gambling (land based gambling and playing games of chances is prohibited except in the cases of the Israel Lottery and the Israeli Commission for Sports Gambling). In December 2005, the attorney general ordered all online gambling operations, online backgammon included, to close their businesses and at the same time commanded credit card companies to cease cooperating with online gambling websites. In May 2007, the attorney general had excluded the online backgammon website Play65 from the ruling, due to "the unique circumstances of the site's activity", allowing it to return to full activity in Israel.

In 2012, the Tel Aviv Police Commander ordered local ISPs to block access to several online gambling sites. The District Court invalidated this order. The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal in 2013, finding that the police do not have legal authority to issue such orders. The government responded by proposing a bill that will authorize such orders, referring to child pornography, drug trafficking and online gambling websites.

Poland
In December 2016 the amendment to the Polish Gambling Act was scheduled to come into force on 1 April 2017. Online gambling will be only possible on the sites with Polish license.

Russia

Russian legislation, enacted in December 2006, prohibits online gambling altogether (as well as any gambling relying on telecommunications technology).

Singapore
In 2014, the Singapore parliament tabled the Remote Gambling Bill as a counter-measure against online gambling locally, while parliamentary member Denise Phua spoke against legalised gambling in Singapore.

Ukraine
Gambling was prohibited in Ukraine in 2009 after a fire occurred in an illegal gambling hall in Dnipro (former Dnipropetrovsk), in which nine people died.

The Law On Prohibition of Gambling Business, signed by then President of the Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, made all forms of gambling, including slots machines, bookmaking and online gambling illegal in Ukraine.

Despite the 2009 law, many venues continued to operate using legal loopholes for many years. In early January 2020, over 900 such gambling operations were closed down in preparation for a legalised market.

On January the 24th 2020, legislators in the Verkhovna Rada passed the first stage of the law to reintroduce legal gambling in Ukraine. In August 2020 bill 2285-D passed, making online gambling, bookmaking, slot halls and casinos legal in Ukraine.

During the Russia-Ukraine war, several Russian online casinos were accused of targeting Ukrainian customers in order to sell their data to Russian security services.

United Kingdom

In 2003 Tessa Jowell, then Culture Secretary suggested a change in the British Gambling laws to keep up with advances in technology.

The Bill identified updates to the laws already in place in the UK, and also created the UK Gambling Commission to take over from the Gambling Board. The commission will have the power to prosecute any parties in breach of the guidelines set out by the bill and will be tasked with regulating any codes of practice they set forward. The Bill set out its licensing objectives, which are as follows:

 Ensuring no link between gambling and crime or disorder
 Ensuring that gambling is conducted fairly and openly
 Protecting children and vulnerable adults from harm or exploitation

The Bill also set out guidelines stating that gambling will be unlawful in the UK unless granted a licence, permit or registration. It outlined the penalty for being in breach of these guidelines, that being a maximum of six months in prison, a fine, or both for each offence. Any person under 18 will not be allowed to gamble and it is an offence to invite or permit anyone under the age of 18 years to gamble.

The UK's Gambling Act 2005 passed in that year. In 2022, the Conservative government postponed (for the fourth time) the publication of a whitepaper detailing the process of an update to the 2005 act. A government spokesperson said that due to the departure of Prime Minister Boris Johnson the report would be delayed until a new leader's policies were in place. The next Prime Minister Liz Truss appointed Michelle Donelan as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whose voting record indicates pro gambling reform views.

Remote gambling
The Bill defined remote gambling as,

This would be using the internet, the telephone, radio, television of any other device used for communication. Any operator must have a separate licence for remote gambling and non-remote gambling. The licence must state what form the remote gambling would come in and any conditions appropriate to each operator. Offences for breaching remote gambling guidelines are the same as breaching non-remote gambling guidelines.

United States

Legislation on online gambling in the United States was first drafted in the late 1990s. Bob Goodlatte and Jon Kyl introduced bills to the Senate that would curb online gambling activities except for those that involved horse and dog races and state lotteries. Those bills were not passed.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in November 2002 that the Federal Wire Act prohibits electronic transmission of information for sports betting across telecommunications lines but affirmed a lower court ruling that the Wire Act "'in plain language' does not prohibit Internet gambling on a game of chance."  But the federal Department of Justice continues, publicly, to take the position that the Wire Act covers all forms of gambling.

In April 2004 Google and Yahoo!, the two largest Internet search engines, announced that they were removing online gambling advertising from their sites. The move followed a United States Department of Justice announcement that, in what some say is a contradiction of the Appeals Court ruling, the Wire Act relating to telephone betting applies to all forms of Internet gambling, and that any advertising of such gambling "may" be deemed as aiding and abetting. Critics of the Justice Department's move say that it has no legal basis for pressuring companies to remove advertisements and that the advertisements are protected by the First Amendment.  In April 2005, Yahoo! instigated a restrictive policy about gambling ads.  The USDOJ has no authority to enact or interpret laws, including via announcement.

In July 2006, David Carruthers, the CEO of BetonSports, a company publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, was detained in Texas while changing planes on his way from London to Costa Rica. He and ten other individuals had been previously charged in a sealed indictment with violations of US federal laws relating to illegal gambling.  While as noted above, a United States Appeals court has stated that the Wire Act does not apply to non-sports betting, the Supreme Court of the United States previously refused to hear an appeal of the conviction of Jay S. Cohen, where lower courts held that the Wire Act does make it illegal to own a sports betting operation that offers such betting to United States citizens.

The BetOnSports indictment alleged violations of at least nine different federal statutes, including 18 USC Sec. 1953 (Operation of an Illegal Gambling Business). Carruthers is currently under house arrest on a one million dollar bail bond.

In September 2006, Sportingbet reported that its chairman, Peter Dicks, was detained in New York City on a Louisiana warrant while traveling in the United States on business unrelated to online gaming. Louisiana is one of the few states that has a specific law prohibiting gambling online. At the end of the month, New York dismissed the Louisiana warrant.

Also in September 2006, just before adjourning for the midterm elections, both the House of Representatives and Senate passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (as a section of the unrelated SAFE Port Act) to make transactions from banks or similar institutions to online gambling sites illegal. This differed from a previous bill passed only by the House that expanded the scope of the Wire Act. The passed bill only addressed banking issues. The Act was signed into law on 13 October 2006, by President George W. Bush. At the UIGEA bill-signing ceremony, Bush did not mention the Internet gambling measure, which was supported by the National Football League but opposed by banking groups. The regulation called for in the UIGEA was issued in November 2008.

In April 2007, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced HR 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, which would modify UIGEA by providing a provision for licensing of Internet gambling facilities by the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.  Several similar bills have been introduced since then in the House and Senate.

In June 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice seized over $34 million belonging to over 27,000 accounts in the Southern District of New York Action Against Online Poker Players.  This is the first time money was seized from individual players as compared to the gaming company.  Jeff Ifrah, the lawyer for one of the account management companies affected, said that the government "has never seized an account that belongs to players who are engaged in what [Ifrah] would contend is a lawful act of playing peer-to-peer poker online."

On 3 December 2009, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on UIGEA and Rep. Frank's Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2267) where experts in the fields of online security and consumer safety testified that a regulatory framework for Internet gambling would protect consumers and ensure the integrity of Internet gambling financial transactions. On 28 July 2010, the committee passed H.R. 2267 by a vote of 41-22-1.  The bill would legalize and regulate online poker and some other forms of online gambling.

On 22 November 2010, the New Jersey state Senate became the first such US body to pass a bill (S490) expressly legalizing certain forms of online gambling. The bill was passed with a 29–5 majority. The bill allows bets to be taken by in-State companies on poker games, casino games and slots but excludes sports betting, although it allows for the latter to be proposed, voted on and potentially regulated separately in due course.  However, a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll in April 2009 showed only 26% of New Jersey voters approved of online sports-betting. On a national level, two-thirds (67%) of voters polled by PublicMind in March 2010 opposed changing the law to allow online betting. Men were more likely than women (29–14%) and liberals more likely than conservatives (27–18%) to approve of changing the law to allow online betting.
In May 2012, FDU's PublicMind conducted a follow-up study which asked voters if they favored or opposed online gaming/gambling and "allowing New Jersey casinos to run betting games online, over the Internet." The results showed that (31%) of voters favored while a sizable majority (58%) opposed the idea. Peter Woolley, director of the PublicMind, commented on the results: "Online gambling may be a good bet for new state revenue, but lots of voters don't think it's a good bet for New Jersey households."

On 15 April 2011, in U. S. v. Scheinberg et al. (10 Cr. 336), three online poker companies were indicted for violating U.S. laws that prohibit the acceptance of any financial instrument in connection with unlawful Internet gambling, that is, Internet gambling that involves a "bet or wager" that is illegal under the laws of the state where the bet is made. The indictment alleges that the companies used fraudulent methods to evade this law, for example, by disguising online gambling payments as purchases of merchandise, and by investing money in a local bank in return for the bank's willingness to process online poker transactions.  The companies argue that poker is a game of skill rather than a game of chance, and therefore, online poker is not unlawful Internet gambling. There are other legal problems with the government's case, and the indictments did not mention the Wire Act.  On 31 July 2012, it was announced that two of the three companies indicted for money laundering and forfeiture settled with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney for $731 million without legally admitting guilt. The government also asked the judge to approve a settlement with the third defendant, Absolute Poker. In March 2016, PokerStars spokesman Eric Hollreiser said his company finally had established an important beachhead in the U.S. market by being able to operate legally in New Jersey.

The online gambling laws also apply to online gambling platforms which exclusively use cryptocurrency to handle deposits and withdrawals. This is demonstrated by the 2015 landmark case of Seals with Clubs bitcoin poker site's run in with the law. This was the first criminal investigation of an illegally operating bitcoin gambling platform on US soil. The owner of the site, who operated out of Nevada, tried to justify the clear violation of both federal and state law by saying that the platform and players only ever used cryptocurrencies to do transactions, and those are not recognized as a currency by the federal government. Therefore, this constitutes social gambling. He was sentenced to two years probation and a $25,000 fine.

New Jersey legalizes online sports betting
On 8 November 2011, New Jersey voters were asked to consider "Public Question No. 1", also known as the Sports Betting Amendment. New Jersey required a majority vote to amend its state constitution. The result was 671,797 "Yes" (63.91%) to 379,339 "No" (36.09%). The voters' approval allowed the New Jersey legislature to legalize sports betting.

New Jersey state Senator Raymond Lesniak promptly introduced the Sports Wagering Act, S3113, on 21 November 2011. The act would decriminalize sports betting in New Jersey. It passed the New Jersey Senate and New Jersey General Assembly on 9 January 2012. Governor Chris Christie signed the act into law on 17 January 2012.

Sports leagues sue Governor Christie Twice
On 7 August 2012, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB sued Governor Christie in . The leagues contended that New Jersey's new Sports Wagering Law violated the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA).

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled for the NCAA et al. New Jersey appealed the district court's ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, who affirmed the lower court's ruling. New Jersey then appealed the Circuit Court's ruling to the Supreme Court of the United States, who failed to grant Certiorari. Thus, New Jersey's Sports Wagering Act was successfully enjoined from going into effect.

New Jersey tried to legalize sports betting again on 16 October 2014, when the Senate and General Assembly passed the Sports Wagering Law. This legislation would partially repeal laws that criminalized sports betting. The law permitted state-licensed casinos and racetracks to provide sports betting. Moreover, the state would not be involved in the licensing or regulation of sports betting itself. Once again, US Sports Leagues opposed the law.

On 20 October 2014, the NCAA filed suit against New Jersey again in . The plaintiffs asked the court to grant a preliminary injunction against the law, arguing it was a clear violation of PASPA.

On 21 November 2014, the New Jersey District Court ruled for the plaintiffs, deciding that the Sports Wagering Law violated PASPA. Once again, Governor Christie appealed to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, who again upheld the lower court's opinion.

PASPA overturned
On 7 October 2016, New Jersey appealed the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision to the United States Supreme Court. The court granted certiorari on 27 June 2017, considering the question of whether a federal statute (PASPA) that prohibits modification or repeal of a state's law prohibiting private behavior impermissibly commandeers the power of the states.

 was argued before the Supreme Court on 4 December 2018. On 14 May 2018, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 to reverse the Third Circuit Court of Appeal's decision, holding that PASPA's provision on banning state authorized sports betting violated the anti-commandeering doctrine of the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

PASPA was declared unconstitutional because it interfered with a state's right to repeal its own anti-gambling laws. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey offered legal sports betting to its residents. Many other states have since legalized online Sports betting for their residents.

Other countries
Various forms of online gambling are legal and regulated in many countries, including some provinces and territories of Canada, most members of the European Union and several nations in and around the Caribbean Sea.

Online gambling industry statistics

UK
In the UK, between 2009 and 2010, 4% of adults had bet online. Between April 2010 and March 2011, online gambling which is regulated by the UK Gambling Commission yielded £660.74 million, a 5% increase on the previous year. The British regulated online gambling sector was worth a 12% market share of the British regulated gambling industry within the same time period. Most British consumer online gambling activity is on overseas regulated websites, and estimates place the UK consumer market for online gambling at £1.9 billion for 2010. (Approximately three times the size of the British regulated market). In the year to March 2011, 5000 adults were surveyed and reported that 11.2% of them had participated in at least one form of remote gambling in the previous four weeks. Approximately half of the respondents had only participated in National Lottery products. Another group of interviews conducted by the Gambling Commission.

In March 2011, the UK online gambling industry employed 6,077 full-time employees. A number that has declined since 2008 where 8,918 full-time employees were in employment within the industry. Also, there were 291 remote gambling activity licences held by 225 operators at this date. Three of the sectors within online gambling are betting, bingo and casino which between them turned over £13,456.07 million between April 2010 and March 2011. During this time period, betting turned over a substantial proportion of this amount, turning over £13,081.44 million, with bingo and casino turning over £26.75 million and £347.87 million respectively.

European Union
According to the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), online gambling is a growing sector within the EU, with gross gaming revenue (GGR) expected to reach €29.3 billion in 2022. According to EGBA, the EU online gambling market was valued at €22.2 billion GGR in 2018 - growing 11% from €20 billion GGR in 2017 - and accounted for 49.2% of the global online gambling market. The EU online gambling channelled or white market accounted for €15.9bn, reflecting an average EU-wide channelling rate of 71.7%. Online gambling now represents 23.2% of the total EU gambling market activity, while offline gambling (lotteries, casinos, bookmakers shops, etc.) had a total GGR of €73.5bn, accounting for 76.8% of the overall EU gambling market. In 2018, the UK market (34.2%) accounted for the largest portion of the EU online gambling market, based on GGR, followed by Germany (11.1%), France (8.8%) and Italy (8.1%).

Problem gambling

A 2015 review found evidence of higher rates of mental health comorbidites, as well as higher amounts of substance use, amongst  internet gamblers, compared to non internet gamblers. Causation, however, has not been established, and the review postulated that there may differences in the cohorts between internet and land-based problem gamblers.

In the United States in 1999 the National Gambling Impact Study stated "the high-speed instant gratification of Internet games and the high level of privacy they offer may exacerbate problem and pathological gambling". A UK government-funded review of previous research noted a small scale patient survey leading to press reports claiming that 75% of people who gamble online are "problem" or "pathological" gamblers, compared to just 20% of people who visit legitimate land-based casinos.

A study by the UK Gambling Commission, the "British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2010", found that approximately 0.9% of the adult population had problem gambling issues, more than shown in a previous study in 2007. The highest prevalence of problem gambling was found among those who participated in playing Poker at a pub or club (20.3%), Dog races (19.2%) and online slot machine style or instant win games (17%). Additionally the report noted a 15% increase in overall gambling since 2007, from a rate of 58% in 2007 to 73% in 2010. Significantly, the 2010 prevalence survey notes that whilst the overall gambling figure had increased, the prevalence among men at 75% was not dissimilar to the amounts in two previous surveys in 1999 and 2007 which were 76% and 71% respectively. However, the prevalence among women for 2010 was 71%, which was higher than 68% in 1999 and 65% in 2007.

In August 2014 the National Council of Problem Gambling (NCPG) partnered with the Gambling Integrity Services (GIS). The GIS will evaluate these recently regulated internet gambling operators in order to ensure they comply with NCPG's internet Responsible Gambling Standards.

A study released by the University of Buffalo in November 2014 states that the explosion of online gambling in the United States in the past decade has not given rise to more people with gambling problems.

According to Darren R. Christensen, Nicki A. Dowling, Alun C. Jackson and Shane A. Thomas a survey recorded in Australia shows that gambling severity rates were estimated at non-gambling (34.8%), non-problem gambling (57.4%), low risk gambling (5.3%), moderate risk (1.8%) and problem gambling (0.7%).

Money laundering
It has also been alleged that the largely unsupervised electronic funds transfers inherent in online gambling are being exploited by criminal interests to launder large amounts of money.  However, according to a US GAO study, "Banking and gaming regulatory officials did not view Internet gambling as being particularly susceptible to money laundering, especially when credit cards, which create a transaction record and are subject to relatively low transaction limits, were used for payment. Likewise, credit card and gaming industry officials did not believe Internet gambling posed any particular risks in terms of money laundering."

In 2011, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed United States v. Scheinberg, a federal criminal case against the founders of the three largest online poker companies, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus Poker Network (Absolute Poker/Ultimatebet), and a handful of their associates, which alleges that the defendants violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and engaged in bank fraud and money laundering in order to process transfers to and from their customers.

A BBC investigation in 2019 described how cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin were being used for under-age gambling, money-laundering and political corruption in the Caribbean island of Curaçao.

Player perception
Players' attitudes towards sites plays an important role in online purchases and customer loyalty. Lack of trust in payment systems and security are primary reasons for avoiding online gambling. Due to the virtual nature of online gambling, it is hard for players to verify the authenticity of sites they are using. Unlike in physical casinos, randomness and deck shuffling cannot be verified by visual means unless the casino is provably fair. Players interact with other players through GUIs, which connect to the gambling site's server in a non-transparent manner. In an online survey of 10,838 online casino and poker players from over 96 countries, respondents reported a high level of mistrust of online gambling. 91.5% believed that reputable third party reports on randomness and payouts were important to gain their trust. However, contrasting research shows that seals-of-approval granted by these third parties does not have a strong influence on purchasing behavior, nor are customers usually aware of their existence.

Responsible gambling

Responsible Gambling Features (RGFs) are features that online gambling sites use to promote responsible behavior and reduce harm. These include limiting amounts that can be bet or deposited over a designated period of time, self-assessment tests for gambling problems, and warning signs of prolonged play or high expenditure. RGFs are usually opt-in features for players and are required by certain jurisdictions. For example, operators in Denmark, Germany, and Spain must provide deposit limits, but this is voluntary for Australian operators. A sample of online poker players from Sweden indicated that RGFs increase their trust in a company and reduce their anxiety about winning from other players. However, in jurisdictions that mandate Responsible Gambling Features, only a small percentage of customers use them. In Australia, 0.8% used the deposit limit on SportsBet and 6% used deposit loss limits on BetFair Australia.

See also
 Behavioral modernity
 Evolutionary mismatch
 Gaming control board
 List of mergers and acquisitions in online gambling
 Provable fairness

References

Online gambling