Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the U.K. Gambling Commission (UKGC) told an audience at the CasinoBeats Summit in Malta that his commission will soon implement the changes called for in the white paper after its final consultation period, SBC News reported May 24.
Rhodes has been chief executive for almost exactly a year—although he has been in civil service for decades. The commission’s job was complicated by “significant government delays” in publishing the white paper connected with the pandemic and with the government having three prime ministers in the space of a couple of months last summer, he said.
Consulting with the industry has been important. “My view is that to get good regulatory outcomes, you’ve got to have good relationships, good cooperation with the industry,” he said, per SBC. “We are the regulator, and realize people have opposing views, but you don’t have to have an adversarial relationship. The thing I set out in November last year was that I wanted the industry to demonstrate its compliance at the earliest opportunity.”
That way, if an issue comes up they can work together to fix it ASAP, he indicated.
Rhodes also clarified what the white paper actually is. He told SBC, “I read articles of commentators saying it’s a new bill…it really isn’t legislation. I think probably the time from the flash-to-bang of the original call for evidence through to the publication probably didn’t help in terms of people’s responses.”
He added, “I think the White Paper is well balanced in its context. Naturally, when it’s something like a Gambling Act Review or any other piece of important legislation it becomes a complicated scenario, and one that builds a huge amount of expectation. And that can’t be lived up to.”
The main question the government wants to address is “whether people are spending too much money on gambling and therefore being harmed…is it too easy to lose money”? He added, “At present there are 62 work streams at the commission working on gambling reforms. Normally, that will probably be a piece of legislation.”
He continued, “What you’ve got in reality is delivering all of those things and some of them through secondary legislation by DCMS, a lot of it by the commission through upcoming LCCP changes – we have to consult legal requirements to make changes and that will take time.”
That means a long summer of examination before implementation, which “the civil service in Britain typically defines the summer as anywhere up to the end of November,” he said, per SBC. “We’re talking about around mid-July for the first tranche of consultations, as we want to get through to the bigger items and prioritize them.”
The commission’s Deputy Chief Executive Sarah Gardner added more comments on when the gambling industry will learn the results of the consultations, Gambling News reported. Speaking to the Lotteries Council Annual Conference, she emphasized that the UKGC needs to “get it right,” adding, “Less haste and more speed will be our approach.”
She added, “It is, however, our intention that the first set of White Paper-related LCCP consultations will be published this summer and pre-consultation engagement with stakeholders will have begun in a number of other policy areas.” This jibes with Rhodes’s statements.
According to Gambling News, she urged gaming firms to operate according to three principles: “putting people first; doing the right thing; and, regulation that works for all.” This would, for example mean preventing the industry from becoming a source for “crime and disorder” and to protect “children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling.”
On May 23, the commission announced the end of the consultation on proposed changes to “License Conditions and Codes of Practice, ” which was launched in February and whose purpose was to expand GAMSTOP’s self-exclusion program to all gaming licenses.
If GAMSTOP is extended to all online and land-based gambling, the commission would need to update the “Social Responsibility Code on Remote multi-operator self-exclusion duties.”
The second phase of this consultation will consider whether license holders should be required to inform UKGC about customers who commit suicide.
In addition to the consultation, the commission has released another gambling paper to deal with the next three years. It focuses on implementing regulations that need evidence-based development, according to iGB.
UKGC’s goal is to do evidence-based research on gateway gambling products, the impact of gambling harms and the variation of gambling experiences, among others such as operator practices, characteristics, risk and crime.
The UKGC’s Executive Director Tim Miller told iGB: “At the Gambling Commission we are a people focused and evidence-led regulator.” He continued, “That means we recognize that better data, better research and better evidence will lead to better gambling regulation and better outcomes for consumers who gamble, their communities and the gambling sector itself.”
The research on gateway gambling products, said Miller, will study those under 16-years-old, the group 16 to 17 and young adults 18 to 24. With a focus on how young people begin gambling and how it changes as they grow older.
The commission will also employ the Gambling Survey to learn more about national gambling participation. It will use the same survey to understand how individuals experience harm and to improve its ability to identify those risks.
Per iGB, Miller added, “This paper is about highlighting the challenges ahead and asking the questions that need answering. Answering those questions is something we can all play a part in.”
Meanwhile the UKGC just imposed a fine on SkillOnNet for failures in social responsibility and anti-money laundering, Yogonet reported on May 23. The company, which operates 50 websites, will pay a £305,150 ($377,917). The commission alleges that between January 2021 and December 2022, SkillOnNet failed to protect vulnerable people and to prevent gambling from being a source or associated with illegal activities.
One example: patrons were able to deposit and lose more than the £2,000 limit the company set. The company also allegedly managed interactions ineffectively, and was “not effective in capturing the necessary information” to make a risk assessment on such issues as money laundering. It didn’t adequately take into account customers’ financial resources and risk profiles. It also failed to comply with annual reporting on anti-money laundering, said the commission.
The company is taking remedial action. The money it agreed to pay in lieu of a fine will be earmarked for socially responsible causes and towards the costs of the investigation.
