UKGC wants to fine offending entities 15% of GGY

Tampers around the reregulation of the gambling industry in the United Kingdom are frayed. A much anticipated White Paper that recaps some of the main points and goes into detail on how and what an effective change to the country’s regulatory framework would look like has stirred a heated debate.

At one point, calls for the dissolution of the UK Gambling Commission, the country’s gambling watchdog, were heard, even though the UKGC has been issuing penalties, enforcing the law, and generally clapping back at opponents.

Now, the commission seeks to further strengthen its regulatory mandate and to ensure that its powers allow it to curb operators from breaching rules. Commenting on the new consultation, Commission Executive Director of Operations Kay Roberts said:

"These consultations are part of our continued drive to ensure Britain has the world’s most effectively regulated gambling sector. We would urge all our stakeholders to take the time out to have their say on these consultations as all views on proposed changes will be considered."

The latest move in that direction is the introduction of a consultation that would seek to clarify the rules on issuing a penalty to offending parties, with a 13-week consultation period now available. During that time, a list of seven proposed changes will be addressed by stakeholders and the public, one of which wants to see a 15% penalty rate calculated on a company’s gross gaming yield applied to offending operators.

Before applying a penalty, though, the UKGC proposes to introduce a new six-step process and five-point severity system that will seek to gauge the offense committed by a particular operator and allocate a penalty that is proportionate to the seriousness of the offense. In the worst cases, a 15% penalty may be applied, but lesser offenses will naturally mandate a less severe response by the regulator.

Should a company end up guilty of breaching the most serious offenses, it could face substantially larger settlements or fines with the regulator. Of course, a silver lining here remains that the industry has been actively learning from previous enforcement actions and businesses are now not underestimating the seriousness of letting even a handful of customers slip through their AML and KYC procedures.

The regulator has also been introducing a series of other important changes, with the UKGC launching an anonymous service that allows people who suspect crime in the gambling industry to report to the watchdog.

The UKGC is also hoping to improve its methodology in collecting data about problem gambling, but cautions that a recently introduced approach and its findings cannot be related to previous findings conducted differently.

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