SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published its ‘Enforcement Report – a new guidance to help operators make gambling fairer, safer and crime free’.
The UKGC urges betting leadership to pay close attention to the document which outlines the enforcement actions taken against UK licensed operators in the past year.
Presenting the Enforcement Report, Neil McArthur new Chief Executive of the UKGC outlines that the commission seeks to develop a business culture where betting operators act to:
- Minimise risks of licensing objectives and reduce gambling harm
- Place the interests of consumers first through fair treatment
- Create an open dialogue and co-operative working framework with the UKGC as gambling regulator.
“We want operators to pay attention to the lessons set out in this report. We want them to focus on ways to make gambling fairer and safer for consumers in Great Britain.” Neil McArthur states
“We also want gambling businesses to collaborate and to invest the same amount of resources into data, technology and research into building better protections for consumers, as they do to creating new products, or advertising and marketing campaigns.
“This is a call to action to the leaders of operators to set the tone from the top, to lead a culture of compliance that puts doing the right thing for your customers first, and to strive to continuously raise standards for consumers.”
The Enforcement Report breaks down operator gambling penalties into the following six criteria:
- Anti-Money Laundering
- Customer interaction
- Unfair Terms & Practices
- Self-Exclusion
- Marketing & Advertising
- Illegal Gambling
The UKGC outlines its casework on each penalty criteria, detailing why UK licensed operators had failed to meet standards, procedures or controls enforced under the 2015 Gambling Act.
Assisting UK licensed operators, the report further outlines best operational practices that can be undertaken by licensees when tackling the complexities of the above criteria.
The UKGC warns betting leadership that ‘operators are on notice that a failure to adhere to the guidance in both this document and within our public decision notices may see us bringing enforcement action more swiftly and with a greater penalty, if we are of the view lessons are not being learned’.
Nevertheless, the UKGC reiterates that as a regulator it is open to listening to operator concerns on penalties and that UK licensees ‘can expect lesser penalties if they report the matter to us promptly, cooperate during our investigation and proactively look to rectify matters’.
