Andrew Rhodes: Gambling Commission to probe illegal football betting in Britain
Rhodes told the IAGA webinar Setting the Gambling Agenda for 2025.
UK.- Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes has said that the British regulator will look more closely into the issue of illegal football betting. In a speech during the IAGA webinar, Setting the Gambling Agenda for 2025: a less political year?, Rhodes said the Gambling Commission had already seen success in disrupting illegal activity but that more understanding is needed.
He said: “Everyone should accept there has always been an illegal market present and much as different people want to debate the size and value of it, the reality is we need to understand the flow into it and why that happens, as well as preventing its ability to operate at scale. We have been clear that we have focussed our efforts on upstream disruption as much as possible and much as I will not go into detail, it was announced by Evolution that they are subject to a review of their licence as a result of supplying games to illegal operators.”
Rhodes said the regulator would continue to carry out test purchasing to detect businesses working with unlicensed gambling operators of all kinds. He said “I have said before that everyone in the legitimate industry should undertake their own due diligence that their suppliers and partners are not engaged in unlicensed activity facing into the UK.
“Some have interpreted my remarks here as meaning I think the industry should be policing this rather than the regulator. Actually, I do not understand why anyone in the licenced industry would want to be in business with a company that is supporting illegal competition – it makes no sense to me at all and would suggest the illegal market is not the issue some suggest, if this was deemed acceptable.
“My deeper point though is as we enter 2025, we are continuing to use our new capabilities around covert test purchasing and other investigative tools to identify those who are assisting illegal operators, as well as targeting those illegal operators directly. If the Commission feels it is necessary to suspend or revoke the licence of any operator or supplier, then their activity ceases immediately. Whatever they are supplying you with, stops – immediately. So, I would say that anyone who is reliant on a third party needs to be comfortable they are not likely to face that risk and if you think you are, I would be doing something about that now.”
The challenge of inflation of gambling operators
In his speech, Rhodes also that British gross gambling yield (GGY) had grown to its highest-ever level, including GGY from horseracing despite the sector’s financial challenges, but he recognised the challenge posed by inflation. “What we know there is if you did adjust for inflation then the relative value of gambling has fallen in recent years, he said.
“That said, gambling as an industry has often weathered economic downturns of any kind reasonably well, but there isn’t very much evidence to suggest that if someone typically favours a £10, or £100 bet that becomes an £11 or £110 bet if inflation is running at 10 per cent. So, as parts of the industry face higher costs, they will not necessarily see an increase in staking as a result – there is little reason why they would. This presents an economic challenge.”
Rhodes particularly highlighted the growth of large society lottery sales, which have passed the £1bn mark for the first time. “This will undoubtedly be a consideration around the National Lottery, which has seen some reductions too,” he said. “As an aside to this, we are seeing the growth of participation in prize draws now sitting a little behind betting as an activity, and well ahead of a number of other activities.”
It will be another year of change for the gambling sector in Britain as the long-planned gambling levy comes into force from April. The mandatory levy to fund research, education and treatment is expected to be set at 1.1 per cent of gross gambling yield (GGY) for online gambling operators and suppliers, 0.4 per cent for betting shops and land-based casinos and suppliers, and 0.1 per cent for land-based arcades, bingo operations and society lotteries, including External Lottery Managers and local authority lotteries licensed by the Gambling Commission.
The government hopes to collect £100m through the levy, double the £50m raised through voluntary donations to GambleAware in 2023/2024 period. However, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has called for greater clarity on the rate that operators will be charged. It also wants the advisory board overseeing the levy to be made up of independent members.
