The UKGC published its first-ever National Strategic Assessment. The document uses the latest available evidence, from a wide range of sources and case studies, to assess the issues and the risks gambling presents to consumers and the public. It sets out the Commission’s priority actions to address those risks and issues, as well as highlighting a number of areas where significant progress is already made to make gambling safer.
On November 6th 2020, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) published their first National Strategic Assessment, highlighting issues surrounding gambling fairer, safer and crime-free, and their annual Compliance and Enforcement Report aiming to minimise risks to the licencing objectives, reduce problem gambling, and ensure the safety of customers.
The latest annual Compliance and Enforcement Report is a compilation of findings of the UKGC’s casework against licence holders for the period April 2019 to March 2020 and highlights where work needs to be done to raise industry standards.
Commission Chief Executive Neil McArthur said: “We will use our National Strategic Assessment as the foundation for prioritising our work over the coming months and years.
“We look forward to working with the government on the forthcoming review of the Gambling Act and alongside that work, we will be working hard to address the issues that we have identified in our Strategic Assessment.
“We have demonstrated that we are willing and able to respond quickly to emerging issues and risks and that we will use the full range of our powers to protect consumers. We and have made considerable progress in many areas to make gambling safer – but we want to go further and faster.”
This year, the UKGC has amped up their push to combat illegal gambling and a tougher approach to enforcement.
Nonetheless, customer protection still remains a priority for the UKGC as case studies continue to demonstrate that benchmark triggers haven’t been effective in filtering out problem gamblers. Furthermore, affordability checks and appropriate evidence for funds available haven’t been satisfactory too.
This year’s report sets out how over the last financial year the Commission’s work has included:
- Commencing reviews on 49 people who hold personal licences to operate gambling businesses
- Suspending 5 operating licences
- Revoking 11 operating licences
- Issuing 12 financial penalty packages of regulatory settlements – totalling over £30 million.
- Carrying out 234 security audits and 33 website reviews
- Conducting 350 compliance assessments of land-based and online operators
- Dealing with 630 reports of suspicious betting activity, sports rules breaches and misuse of inside information
- Generating over 3,000 intelligence reports
Commission Chief Executive Neil McArthur for the UKGCMcArthur noted regarding the tougher licencing requirements enforced by the UKGC:
Holding an operating licence or a personal licence is a privilege, not a right, and we expect our licensees to protect consumers from harm and treat them fairly.
Our latest report shows that where licensees fail to meet the standards we expect, we will take tough action, including the suspension and revocation of licences. It also charts how we are shifting our focus towards personal management licence holders – those in boardrooms and senior positions need to live up to their responsibilities and we will continue to hold people to account for failings they knew, or ought to have known, about.
McArthur concluded with some final words, calling for the industry as a whole to create a safer gambling space:
“Everyone has a part to play to make gambling safer and learning the lessons from the failings identified in this report is one way of doing that.”
