UK Gambling Commission Shares Gambling Act Review Implementation Update

Gambling Act since the White Paper was shared with the House of Commons in April 2023. At the time, Tim Miller, an Executive Director at the Gambling Commission who oversees multiple player-centric departments, spoke openly of the amount of work that lay ahead and his confidence that rapid progress would be made in mission-critical areas.

He was quick to point out that a need for expediency would not mean he would allow for shoddy work, saying:

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“Whilst we will move quickly to start implementing White Paper commitments, we will also want to ensure that as wide a variety of experiences and expertise inform the way that those commitments are turned into practical reality. History shows too many examples of well-meaning policy changes having unintended consequences for the public due to the way they were implemented in the real world. We will not want to make that mistake.”

This focus on process and due diligence was vital, given that most expected objectives would be achieved through updates and revisions to the current Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP).

 July 2023 Implementation Update

In his first update since his May blog post, Miller acknowledged the dead-air but assured readers that the Commission has been hard at work ensuring that the implementation of the Gambling Act Review White Paper is well underway:

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“Implementing the Gambling Act Review is a key part of our work to make gambling safer, fairer, and crime-free over the next few years. But so is our day-to-day work of ensuring compliance with our rules. So, whilst the work on implementation picks up momentum, rest assured we won’t be slowing down on protecting consumers across Great Britain either.”

At present, there are four essential consultations, which Miller advised will be posted later this month:

1. Enhanced age verification at land-based gambling premises
2. Remote games of chance design – reviewing game speed, bet settings and other player protection measures.
3. Added consumer control over direct marketing and cross-selling messaging.
4. More robust financial risk and vulnerability checks for online casinos and sportsbooks.

In addition to these four White Paper Review items, the Commission has been working on two more existing reviews: Personal Management Licences rules and Regulatory Panel procedures.

Upcoming Gambling Review Tranche

Speaking on what lies beyond the items mentioned above, Miller said:

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“Most major Gambling Act Review consultations will last 12 weeks as is our usual practice for significant proposals. And that is true of the four we will be launching this month, with expected closing dates to be in October.”

The next round of reviews will cover multiple topics, with two of the most highly anticipated being the Commission’s commitments to addressing Socially Responsible casino promotions and advancing the number and efficacy of Gambling Management Tools.

 White Label Info Hub is Live

While several areas will require further conversation and review before going live, the one area that has been addressed and launched is the information hub hosting the Commission’s operator expectations concerning White Labels.

The hub contains vital information on third-party provider responsibility codes, social responsibility codes, and a code of conduct white label gambling partnerships. One of the core outcomes of this section was to clarify that the licensee is ultimately responsible for the content associated with their agreement – even if they have brought in a third party casino game provider, payment processor or other service provider.

For more on this, we recommend visiting the official Gambling Commission website and finding the article 'Licensees responsibilities for third parties’ under the Compliance tab.