Their working area is covering sports betting, casinos, slot machines, arcade games, and lottery. This also includes remote gambling but excludes spread betting. The Commission is controlling all sorts of gambling – online and by mobile phones) using domestically made equipment. The creation was sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Their main goal is obviously to protect the players and ensure fair gaming for both sides. The UK Gambling Commission is also responsible for issuing licenses to operators. They also have many advisors who are giving suggestions to the Government about gambling-related matters. There were numerous cases of cooperation with police forces as well if there is any indication of illegal gambling. The first body created for this purpose was the Gaming Board for the UK, but it got replaced with the Gambling Commission in 2007. The Gambling Commission was created under the Gambling Act in 2005. Great work and reputation have granted them the right to regulate the National Lottery!
The Main Responsibilities
The main moto introduced by the Gambling Commission in their early days as to keep crime out of gambling, make sure that online platforms are regulated properly and openly, while also giving their best to protect the youth and people with an open vulnerability to gambling. There were a lot of betting sites a decade ago which tried to bypass the rules and sometimes even offer creation of sportsbook accounts to minors. The penalties for this nowadays are severe and would be damaging for industry brands. If you are looking to join betting or casino operator nowadays, make sure to check if they have a license issued by the Gambling Commission. This is the best indicator possible to know all games are set up properly.
When it comes to remote gambling activities, The Commission has the permission to issue licenses to companies who have their gambling equipment located in the UK. When it comes to operators who wish to enter the Great Britain market but their base is outside the country’s territory, they are required to gain the license from the Gambling Commission. All sides will have to follow the passage of the Gambling Act from 2014 to submit papers successfully. This Act states that all foreign companies who wish to advertise in England, Wales or Scotland must hold the appropriate license issued by the Gambling Commission. This was not the case before where gambling operators just had to come from the whitelisted jurisdictions and start promoting their product in the UK immediately. Of course, the Commission can also issue huge fines to operators not following the rules, revoke licenses in case of heavy breaches of terms and conditions, and conduct investigations and prosecutions of illegal gambling activities.
Notable Actions Taken
’The gambling commission has been very active in recent times against those operators that haven’t complied fully’ said to us John Pentin, leading betting expert at Betting Tips 4 You. Here are some of the most notable actions taken by The UK Gambling Commission in the last couple of years. The Commission conducted an investigation against William Hill in February 2018, accusing them of not protecting players after a series of system errors to prevent money laundering. The operator was eventually fined with 6.2 million GBP!
The next case was 600,000 GBP penalty issued to one of the most popular casinos provides Leo Vegas. This company has produced misleading advertisements to new players for a couple of months, which was obviously against terms and conditions.
In June 2018, The UK Gambling Commission fined 32Red, a company which is sponsoring a lot of football teams like Glasgow Rangers or Leeds United. They have failed a problem gambler player who made close to 800,000 in deposits with 32Red in the previous 24 months. The company failed to perform a check on that bettor who had a monthly income of 2,000 GBP but still could afford high stake bets despite the fact there were several regulatory laws in this area.
Occasional Criticism
The UK Gambling Commission was publicly criticized in a couple of occasions. People were not happy after Commission failed to stop the spread of so-called fixed odds betting terminals on the street. One of the UK-regulated online sportsbooks Canbet ended up owing millions of pounds to UK citizens. The downfall of this website caused many questions if The Gambling Commission is actually able to protect the players from thievery. The thing about this case which not many bettors know is that The Gambling Commission was given the responsibility to moderate UK online activities in November 2014, which was after the incidents. There are numerous legal and safe betting sites with license nowadays in the UK.
