Archive | May, 2020

Latest UK gambling industry statistics published

The Gambling Commission has published its current gambling industry statistics report, covering the period April 2015 to March 2019, updated to include October 2018 to September 2019. Such statistics are derived from the data provided by UK licence holders through their regulatory returns. They are published twice a year (in May and November) in order […]

AML and customer interaction failings revealed as background to PTES operating licence surrender

The UK Gambling Commission has today published on its website the findings of its investigation into Playtech subsidiary company, Isle of Man-based PT Entertainment Services Limited (“PTES”) that, until the surrender of its operating licence during the course of that investigation, traded as winner.co.uk and titanbet.co.uk. Notwithstanding surrender of the licence, the Commission decided that […]

Timeline set for betting shops and arcades to re-open from 15 June 2020

The Government has announced that betting shops and arcades (together with other “non-essential” retail outlets) are expected to be able to reopen from 15 June 2020 if the Government’s “five tests”  to ease the current coronavirus lockdown are met and the operators of such businesses follow the COVID-19 secure guidelines. The five tests are: Making […]

Children’s exposure to TV gambling ads falls to 2008 levels

The Advertising Standards Authority has today published a report entitled “Children’s exposure to age-restricted TV ads: 2019 update” in which one of its findings is that children’s exposure to TV advertisements for gambling products or services has fallen to similar levels as those seen in 2008. However, it also finds that children’s overall exposure to […]

UKGC reports no uplift in illegal gambling website complaints during the COVID-19 lockdown

Fears are often expressed by online gambling operators in reputable jurisdictions worldwide that the greater the gambling regulatory crackdown, the greater the risk that consumer will seek out the services of unlicensed online gambling operators. It is interesting therefore to read the following report published today (19 May 2020) on the UK Gambling Commission’s website: […]

UKGC warns of heightened ML and TF risks during the coronavirus pandemic

The UK Gambling Commission has issued a reminder to all of its licensed operators entitled “Reminder to all licensed operators: impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and heightened money laundering and terrorist financing risks” This reminder should not be ignored because otherwise a breach of Licence condition 12.1.1 is likely to arise. That licence condition (set […]

BGC launches national gambling education and support programme

The Betting and Gaming Council has today (15 May 2020) announced the launch of the independent gambling education initiative to which reference was made in its November 2019 five safe gambling commitments, as previously reported by us here. The first of those commitments was to “prevent underage gambling and protect young people”, in relation to which […]