British Gambling Commission to hold seven more consultations
Stakeholders have been notified that the next consultations on gambling reforms will run into 2024.
UK.- The consultations regarding the reform of British gambling regulations will continue well into 2024, the Gambling Commission has revealed. The regulator has advised stakeholders that it will launch seven more consultations on topics stemming from the UK government’s gambling white paper.
Tim Miller, the Gambling Commission’s executive director for policy development, said the next consultations will deal with “socially responsible incentives, customer-led tools, transparency of customer fund protection, annual financial contributions to research, prevention, and treatment, regulatory data reporting, financial penalties, and financial key event reporting”.
The first topic mentioned will cover questions on incentives like free bets and bonuses. The second involves the potential for tools that enable consumers to more easily manage their gambling activity. Meanwhile, other consultations will propose an update to Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) to increase transparency on the protection of customer funds when licensees offer no insolvency protection.
Regarding contributions to research, prevention, and treatment, the Gambling Commission will consider removing the current requirement to make donations to designated bodies since the UK government plans to introduce a mandatory levy. The regulator will also propose changes to how it calculates financial penalties It says that here the aim would be to provide more clarity and transparency while ensuring that the cost of non-compliance is higher than the cost of compliance.
Other questions will include requirements for financial key event reporting. The consultations will remain open for 12 weeks, closing in February or March.
The Gambling Commission has already completed four consultations following the publication of the gambling white paper. These dealt with age verification, game design for online games, financial risk assessments and marketing and cross-selling.
