Changes to the sanctions system at the UK Gambling Commission

It was during the CMS law conference that the director general of the Gambling Commission, Tim Miller, announced that there would be changes in the level of sanctions. These modifications are intended to "better conduct compliance"

Financial sanctions

Consultations on the changes will be coming in a near future, Miller said. These consultations will give more information on how the Commission will calculate financial penalties for violations of the license terms and codes of Practice (LCCP) . The purpose of these changes is to "ensure that they contribute more to the compliance with the objectives of the license and to seek to be more transparent in the way we calculate them" . To this he added that in order to strengthening accountability , the Commission would consider extending the licensing scheme of personal management.

There methodology consultations will surely know changes in turn, following comments received on the current operation. "First of all, people have the feeling that we sometimes adopt a dispersed approach consultation. We find a problem and we launch a consultation, without taking into account what is happening elsewhere or what we have requested to the operators to do or to give their opinion at that moment. It is therefore difficult for stakeholders to predict the time required to respond and, if necessary, to implement changes. »

"Secondly, people have also wondered if the responses to the consultation really make a difference in the result. They worry about the fact that sometimes the question is so narrow or that the slightest details seem so locked that the opinion of the stakeholders will not change anything. ""These concerns have led the Commission to seek to modify the way in which it seeks the opinion of stakeholders and how it conducts consultations. »

The Commission will start organizing "consultation windows" on which will be published the proposed changes in a more predictable way. He then stated "I can't promise that we will never be forced to publish a consultation outside of these periods, but it should be the exception rather than the rule and we would clearly explain why we need to deviate from the usual "window" "

Participation rate

Tim Miller also spoke about the new method envisaged by the organization to evaluate the participation rate gambling and damage. In May, a study had been conducted and the results had been shared by the Commission, but the sample seemed overindex the players. They are still working on these numbers so that they are the more reliable possible and Miller wishes that his evaluations do not be used to calculate the amount of gambling harms in Great Britain.

He stated "We will use the next year to analyze more about the new methodology , correct the problems where we will find them and scale it so that it is ready to become the new 'gold standard' of participation and prevalence " " Of course, the data that we published as part of the pilot project were also covered. We understand that - the new data on problem players - whether they are at a suitable scale or from a pilot project, will always be interesting. " " But we would like to clarify that the pilot data cannot be used as an estimate of problem gambling at this stage. »

At the beginning of the year, the Commission had already strengthened its rules regarding the prevention against gambling addiction. "Our preferred approach is and remains in favor of a based regulation on the results and avoiding overly prescriptive rules and requirements " " However, this preference is not viable when we find systematically a failure in achieving positive results for customers. »