"The commission stopped short of demanding that gambling operators make customers agree to data sharing as a precondition to betting"

Why is it that whenever a law is designed to protect you people try and get you to opt out (Or force?) EG Data protection, Working time? Its just stupid.

a) how do winnings from online betting get taxed? That's an issue that has come up in the US, since the off-shore gambling establishments have no requirement to provide 1099-Gs for winnings. Is the UK system any better? If I can win big (cheating or not) and not have any reporting, seems like that's the route I'm going to take.

b) what if I'm a citizen of, say, Canada? Would I be required to provide the information? Obviously, if I say I'm an American, nobody is going to take my bet (unless they plan to never, ever take a holiday to the US or even change planes here).

c) how do winnings for foreigners get reported? Seems that hypothetical Canadian has a tax free money maker, assuming he can actually win.

Somebody in the UK should ask these questions.

What I don't understand is why there is not a system in place that offers a "BetBooklet" pass or something (not necessarily a *card*, per se) that the Bettor applies for as a condition of betting with that Bookie or group of Bookies.

This pass would allow all bets made by that person to be ID'ed by a random number. It would be up to the Bookies to hold (and protect) the personal information of the Bettor (as it is now), and the only data that needs to be shared to the Sporting Bodies(tm) is the pass ID number. Then, if there is a problem, the Sporting Body(tm) makes a formal request to the Bookie, according to Data Protection principles.

What about multiple Bookies, you ask? If needs be, a separate service could be installed that does this, WITHOUT holding the person's information: when a Bookie makes an application to the Service for a new "BetBooklet" pass, a standard hash is made of the person's real (formal) name from a standardized form of ID and the ID of the document used. In the case of USA, a driver's license number or (note, not either - the same document type must be used across the board per country.) Social Security Number (God knows I won't be able to collect social security on mine, even if I live that long). If you don't have that kind of ID, you won't be able to bet anonymously, but you also probably would not be betting those kinds of amounts of cash that would want tracking, either.

This way, the anonymous service would be able to vouch for the authenticity of the Bettor based on the Bookie's held data (which would be the only copy), satisfying the Sporting Bodies(tm) tracking requirements, and all without violating personal data privacy. Heck, the service could even be in the US and not violate UK citizen's privacy at all (unlike the PNR fiasco) because the Service *never* knows what the personal data actually is!

In fact, you may make inquiries to my email address if you would like such a system in place (a man's gotta make a living, ya know). I could probably get it done in a fortnight, at that.