UK gambling is in a considerably different situation than it was last year, following a slew of legislative changes and an intensified attempt to build better support for operators.
The UKGC’s Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes emphasised that work will only accelerate in the coming year as he addressed delegates at the third annual briefing for industry CEOs and senior leaders, which, according to the regulatory boss, was attended by over 85% of the UK’s market GGY.
“Let’s be clear – this is a very different situation we find ourselves in,” Rhodes replied.
“Any operator of any real size and scale now who does not have well-developed algorithms, policies, procedures, interactions and interventions in place is increasingly an outlier and this will become more obvious as the industry continues to make developments in this area,” according to Rhodes.
Looking to improve assistance for operators facing changing headwinds, the UKGC collaborated with the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) to establish a voluntary code of conduct addressing the frictions common in consumer protection.
The Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) guideline was incorporated into that code, and operators are still adapting to the most recent 3.4.3 version.
The current set of regulatory advice has enhanced consumer protection assessment outcomes throughout 2024. According to Rhodes, only 42% of those assessments returned with ‘Good/Satisfactory’ scores between April and June of this year.
Data from July to September, however, has increased that figure to 75%, with only 25% representing serious inadequacies – with the broad expectation that this will shortly improve further.
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The UKGC’s assessment approach has shifted to incorporate a more in-depth study separated by sectors, sub-sectors, and operator tiers, resulting in a change in the number of operators with good outcomes. This technique will provide a more complete view of the gaming scene in the UK, making it easier to spot “outliers” in compliance.
Another aspect that the UKGC has committed to improving is the simplification of “complicated issues” resulting from numerous mergers and acquisitions, which, while not intentional, frequently lead to marketing mishaps caused by a complicated tech stack in which advertisements reach even those who are considered vulnerable.
Rhodes predicted that the first gathering of its sort in 2022 will lead to more complex regulation with less obvious solutions. “This is where I believe we are now.”
Increased action to combat the black market.
Rhodes also used his position to highlight the importance of better alignment and commercial due diligence in disrupting the illicit market.
The Commission is at the core of worldwide efforts to combat illicit gambling activities, as “since the start of April this year, the team has issued over 770 cease-and-desist and disruption notices, including 262 cease-and-desist notices to operators and 205 to advertisers.”
Rhodes hailed a “strong start in its approach,” but added that enforcement required more market data to help continued study into the exact scale of unlawful gambling in the UK and other regulated markets.
Commercial transparency is recognized as a critical method for safeguarding regulated markets. Rhodes urged licensed operators to perform due diligence to verify that suppliers are not facilitating unlawful activity. The Commission will be enhanced by enforcement actions targeted at increasing trust via increased compliance, transparency, and communication.
“Last year, I told you that I wanted to encourage you to use your economic power with any partner or supplier to guarantee they were taking all necessary efforts to ensure they were not assisting criminal activities in Great Britain. Today, I’m going one step further and strongly advise you to conduct due diligence to guarantee that none of your suppliers are directly or indirectly involved in supporting unauthorized activities in this sector.”
The Commission’s strategy for combating unlawful gaming revolves around generating as much upstream disruption as possible. This includes targeting internet service providers (ISPs), payment processors, search engines, software vendors, and others.
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