Crypto gambling needs government decision on licensing, Gambling Commission CEO warns
Andrew Rhodes has warned that governments can;t ignore crypto gambling as a demographic shift approaches.
UK.- Andrew Rhodes, CEO of the British Gambling Commission, has suggested that the government will have to address the question of whether to regulate crypto gambling sooner rather than later. Delivering his annual CEO Briefing Rhodes noted that the issue of cryptocurrencies was one of the biggest and most rapid changes affecting the gambling market.
He noted the that the “growth in cryptocurrencies amongst younger demographics means that there is a pressure building within the system”. He said this demographic shift could present a problem as younger customers find their currency not accepted in the regulated gambling system.
“What I thought was a five year away problem, perhaps a year or two ago, I think is now 18 months to two years challenge,” he said.
However, he cautioned: “That’s not me committing to saying we’re going to start licencing crypto. This is going to have to be government-level discussion, and it is a government-level decision because once you open that door, you cannot close it. It brings questions around are you considering crypto as a source of wealth? Are you considering that as a source of funds? What conditions would you put in place? What are the risks and how do we manage that?“
He added: ”The reality is, and this growth in those demographics means, I don’t think governments can ignore that pattern. And it’s good to see Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are doing a lot of work in looking at how we might create a regime for this.”
Rhodes also noted the growth in society lotteries with sales now over a billion pounds and also that of unregulated prize draws, where he believes there to be a lot of demographic overlap. “We’ve seen an interesting diversification in where consumers are spending their money,” he said. “In terms of participation, last year prize draws now sit just behind betting as a participation activity. So we’ve seen these things move quite significantly in recent times”.
He noted a shift in market ownership, with the verticals of lotteries and “traditional gambling” increasingly being held together in the same commercial groups due to mergers and acquisitions. “We’ve seen Flutter and Sisal, the lottery provider in Italy and elsewhere, we’ve seen Bally’s and Intralot, FDJ who run the lottery in France and actively involved in other areas acquiring Kindred group and Allwyn have made acquisitions in the wider gambling industry as well and I’m sure there are others that I’ve not mentioned,” he noted.
He forecast that this greater integration will bring some interesting questions as to how those very different types of products might intersect more.
“Expect more enforcement action”
During his speech, Rhodes said that operators can expect to see more enforcement action in the imminent future. And he said the regulator would no longer issue warnings before taking action.
“There will be no warnings,” he said. “We have undertaken nine suspensions in the last few weeks, and these are all on issues that we have repeatedly warned about: provision of software and also self-exclusion. There are no excuses. We will not accept any excuses. And you should as a sector, expect to see more enforcement action in the coming weeks and months. We’ve been working on this area very actively and we don’t intend to stop.”
The regulator’s most recent licence suspensions include those of VGC Leeds Limited, the operator of Victoria Gate Casino in Leeds city centre over anti-money laundering requirements, and the gaming software licence of Spribe OÜ due to issues with B2B activity not covered under the scope of its licence.
Rhodes also noted the regulator’s recent reports on illegal gambling in Britain and reiterated that there was no evidence of a rise.
