Gambling Commission publishes Summer 2023 Consultation Response and Betting & Gaming Council announces New Industry Voluntary Code

On May 1, 2024, the Gambling Commission published its response to the consultation on proposed changes to the LCCP and RT for summer 2023 ("Response to the Summer 2023 Consultation"), confirming the large-scale composition of the regulations governing the operation of licensed gambling operators in England, in the areas related to financial vulnerability testing and cash risk assessment, external game design, direct marketing, age and private management license testing.

In the period of the Gaming Council and Gambling (hereinafter "BGC"), it was the day of the new voluntary industry code for customer inspections and document requests (hereinafter "SR Voluntary Industry Code"), based on the cost of what would be work as a voluntary interim code for all the nuances of the Public Liability (hereinafter "SR") measures, not paying attention to all kinds of other legal requirements, the buyer's cost is considered as the basis for taking measures. In particular, the challenge is to secure more alternative arrangements for SR compliance to cost-based buyer checks and documentation requirements prior to the introduction of the economic vulnerability and risk assessments described in the Summer 2023 consultation response. This simultaneous announcement is not coincidental and these articles are two sides of the same coin, as explained below.

This blog explains the constructs proposed in the Summer 2023 consultation response and defines them in the context of the SR-Voluntary Code development announcement.

Summer 2023 Consultation Response

The Summer 2023 Consultation Response follows two advisory responses on the reforms set out in the Snow White Book (following the Department for Culture, Media and Sport publishing its own advisory response on betting limits on 23 February 2024 - see supplementary information blog: White Paper Series: DCMS Announces Betting Limits on Online Slots) - and one posted by the Gambling Commission.

The long-awaited response provides direction on the Gambling Commission's intention to change the standards set out in the Licensing Standards and Codes of Practice ("LCCP") and the Remote Gambling and Software Technical Standards ("RTS"). The configurations will be included in the stream in four steps - August 2024, November 2024, January 2025 and February 2025 - to simplify implementation - in a suitable 10 months.

The main configurations are as follows:

1. Economic vulnerability testing and financial risk assessment

The Gambling Commission will introduce a light test for financial vulnerability and also pilot a comprehensive frictionless financial risk assessment. In line with the government's aims set out in the Snow White Book, the latter will only be introduced if there is a sufficient likelihood that the test will be implemented frictionlessly in practice, if confirmed through experience.

The light test for financial vulnerability will be used for customers of gambling companies who have undeposited more than £150 per month. The test will be an assessment of public data (e. g. whether the customer is considered to be the subject of a bankruptcy order, a county court conclusion, a personal volunteer agreement, a Supreme Court conclusion, an administrative order or injunction, an order to facilitate a debt, or equivalent information). In conjunction with the branch assessment, the new test for financial vulnerability will not encourage licensors to consider their own data, but as a post-index or location.

As regards the comprehensive assessment of financial risk, the Gambling Commission (as previously announced in the Regulator - Blog) will hold a pilot scheme to explore how non-competes work in practice, in collaboration with credit bureaus (including Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) and Igoron)Business, to learn the likely impact on customers. The Commission is also considering a clear monetary threshold when collecting data, which will be introduced in the real environment as well and used when making the assessment in the footprint. The Commission will still look at what impact the footprint has during the assessment, as well as the assessment exposure, if the customer reaches the threshold again.

In practice, neither the minute-by-minute test of economic vulnerability nor the comprehensive assessment of cash risk is considered to have any impact on the customer's credit rating.

To simplify the implementation of the light-weight test of economic vulnerability (from the buyer's perspective, for example, for licensees), the new requirement will come into force from 30 August 2024, after which the new requirement will drop to £150 per month from 28 February 2025.

The pilot plan (in which only operators from the three highest license fee categories J1, K1 and L1, and volunteers from the higher fee categories must participate) will last for a minimum of six months and will connect to the in-yourself test data in three steps:

1. on buyers who are not active in real time;
2. space}on historical data related to intensive customers;
3. If the buyer reaches the threshold, it means the transition to the pilot period.

The test stage is expected from August 30, 2024 to March 31, 2025. However, the Gambling Committee has an option to extend the pilot period until the end of April 2025 if necessary for practical judgment.

Communication with industry volunteer practical norms SR

The announcement of the industry's volunteer norm SR on this day, a consulting answer in the summer of 2023, is unlikely to be an accidental event. This is to work as a voluntary temporary agreement to ensure priority in adjustable sectors until the financial response proposed in the summer 2023 consulting answer is developed and introduced. It was jointly developed by the BGC member and the Gambling Committee.

In particular, if a BGC member wants to arrange frequent deposits in the volume, it clarifies the SR volunteer code that BGC members are obliged:

1. More than 5. 000 pounds of the sliding moo n-in this case, the business operator needs to evaluate the buyer's risk to understand the buyer's economic condition and consider whether the buyer has damage. To do so, exchanges with no n-discretion players, tests, branches, positions, wages, savings, savings and assets tests, test infas from open source, and past information from customers 3 It is expected that any of the appropriate methods, such as cash data from a person, will be applied. As a result of risk assessment, if the most risky task is identified, it is necessary to take appropriate measures that may lead to the transition to the "intensive study process", but in fact, it is possible to gain trust. If not, basically, VVANTING-PERMISSIVENESS- will be intensively verified.
2. 25. 000 pounds, 12 months for each slidin g-In this case, the business operator must immediately implement the "intensive review process".

The standard amount of £ 5. 000 can be reduced to £ 2. 500 for the age of 18 to 24.

When deciding on this, whether the customer has reached the corresponding threshold, their overall no n-provided positions may be "considered" for the past 180 days, and in effect, they are actually for this stage. It means that there is a possibility that can be accepted to increase the profit repeatedly.

If a risk assessment is not carried out (for example, because the customer does not respond to the request for interaction), the buyer will enter into the footsteps to prohibit the threshold of the month of switching by deposit. If a risk assessment is not carried out and the customer exceeds the deposit limit for three consecutive months, the operator is obliged to restrict the access to the buyer until the risk assessment is completed.

SRO FIL Foundation - The industry still has an incomplete list of examples of actions that have every possibility to be implemented by the operator in the phase between thresholds for the test of economic vulnerability (as indicated in the LCCP), up to the need for "enhanced" consideration, such as sector voluntary CD, unilateral reports and messages, interactive questionnaires, selective polling, selective PGSI polling, telephone and chat dialogues, requirements to set filing limits, send reports and send reports in evidence - It points out that these effects are not urgently required to request the provision of documents by the buyer, and operators should be free in choosing the action that is the best way to meet their current set of interaction tools and thresholds optimized for the buyer.

BGC members are also requested to indicate that they expect the SR Industry Voluntary Code to be complemented by the BGC Money Laundering Control Code (hereinafter referred to as the "AML Industry Voluntary Code") to ensure uniformity across all sections of AML measures. The Gambling Commission and BGC will act on the basis of the Industry Voluntary Code AML.

The position taken by the Gambling Commission on the lightweight test of economic vulnerability and financial risk assessment is thankfully far from what the industry was scared of when the "Summer 2023" consultation was first posted. Thus, sincerely supporting all responses to the "Summer 2023" consultation and getting meaningful practical consistency is a step that overtakes the overwhelming Gambling Commission.

With regard to the financial vulnerability test, the Gaming Commission narrowed down the indicators to be considered, giving the example that local court rulings on parking fines should not be treated the same as bankruptcy, and made it clear that it does not believe that all indicators lead to the same type of measures. Licensees should tailor their actions to the nature and severity of the indications of harm to specific customers. Therefore, relevant licensees should review their existing responsible gambling policies and procedures to determine how, when and why they should be updated to take into account both the management of minor financial vulnerabilities proposed in the summer 2023 consultation response and, if adopted, the industry's voluntary CSR code.

As for the pilot project of a comprehensive financial risk assessment, this is undoubtedly a wise move by the regulator. Without a pilot implementation, there was a great risk that the new rules would have unintended consequences and cause irreparable damage to the industry. Looking forward, in the pilot, the Gambling Commission reiterates in its consultation response for summer 2023 that the financial risk assessment should not cause friction for the "vast majority of targeted customers", should be applied "only to the most profitable remote gaming accounts", and "does not constitute a gambling restriction". If the Gambling Commission can stick to these objectives, it will be a good thing for the remote gaming industry, which has long expressed concerns that such regulation would push players into the unregulated black market. One key aspect of the way forward will be the interpretation of what "vast majority" means in the context of the lack of friction in implementing enhanced financial risk assessments. It is expected that the Gambling Commission and the industry will have differing views.

We also welcome the confirmation from the Gambling Commission that the new enhanced financial risk screening requirements, if established, will not apply to betting at circuits or local bookmakers - likely the result of intensive lobbying from the industry.

All operators not in the three highest license fee categories but interested in participating in the pilot program can express their interest by sending an email to [email protected].

1. Distance game design - reducing intensity and improving consumer understanding

New rules apply to requirements that have already been applied to slot machines, other online products, and prohibited items:

1. A function that makes the result display time faster and the illusion of being controlled, such as "turbo" or "slum stop" (however, these changes are applied to bonus functions without additional rate. "Emergency games" and "scratch event" functions are not prohibited);)
2. The game cycle is less than 5 seconds in casino products excluding slots (note that it is twice as twice that of 2, 5 seconds applied to the slot along RTS);
3. Space} Auto Gam e-However, the prohibition of auto games does not prohibit bingo aut o-dub and peer poker auto posts (Not e-while, poker with three cards for the house is prohibited);
4. Sounds and visual messages indicating that the yield is less than the spee d-Expansion of existing requirements that are currently applied only to slot machines;
5. This requirement does not apply to bingo, virtual fare, or peer poker.

This requirement does not apply to bingo, virtual fare, or peer poker. As a further change, the operator is required to display the amount of consumer online spending and the time spent on gambling in real time.

The new remote game design rules will be enforced on January 17, 2025.

The Gambling Committee has decided to launch all proposals proposed in the summer 2023 consultation, and for game design, a small change to clarify that new requirements are not applied to specific products. Only did. Please read the first proposal on the previous blog: White Paper Series: Proposals from the Gambling Committee on Remote Game Design-Just follow the model?

Companies engaged in online gambling should be able to select a type of product that customers are interested in (casinos, betting, bingo) and channel (telephone, e-mail, text message) that receives marketing information.

The new direct marketing rules will be issued on January 17, 2025. However, customers (in line with the new rules) must check the marketing choice only when inputting the first system after that date. Until now, marketing has been continued based on customers' previous marketing wishes.

It is noteworthy that the gaming commission was deleted after reviewing:

1. lottery tickets as product images (after concerns were raised on the pretext that the lottery sector may be subject to legitimate interests for its wider fundraising operations), and email as a marketing channel (subject to going beyond existing claims in accordance with the Privacy and Telecommunications Regulations).
2. However, almost all of the nuances of the changes are still under discussion, especially those related to the virtual abolition of "soft consent" in gambling marketing. For the Gambling Commission's initial service on direct marketing, see our blog: White Paper Series: Direct Marketing and Cross-Fire Cross-Selling.

Please Note.

Age Testing - Strengthening Indoor Testing

1. The LCCP is further updated to indicate that it is best practice for casinos, AGCs, bingo, FECs and gambling businesses to require staff to verify the age of customers they believe to be under 25 (as opposed to under 21).

The new age verification requirement will come into effect on 30 August 2024.

This was one of the least controversial changes proposed in the summer 2023 consultation, so it is not surprising that it will come into effect in line with the original proposal and in a short time frame (i. e. just four months before electricity is installed - generally, this tender testing date is somewhat artificial, with results only required to be presented 42 days after the end of each financial year, meaning the last day for testing the premises in question is 31 March 2025).

We (if we have not yet provided voluntary test results), how to meet this requirement, when, and how much do we do? It is recommended that you consider how much cost it costs and whether to attract independent thir d-party organizations. Many of these licenses use inspection services through industry groups. Prior to the enforcement on August 30, 2024, the requirements of "Think 25" are required to train staff.

See this blog for the gambling committee's suggestions on age restrictions: A series of white papers: Time to Think is consulting the Gambling Committee on ag e-based facilities for age confirmation.

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Personal management license (PML)-Expansion of role

1. {space}

Space} Major executive director, managing director, and as equivalent position;

1. Space｝ Chairma n-Except for temporary and shor t-term positions for a specific meeting.
2. In charge of UNDER/FT, including employees related to money laundering reports and designated employees.
3. In addition, this change is in line with the first proposal, and some clarification is a little clarified in order to clarify that the PML chairman's requirements are only permanent or indefinite positions. This is a necessary change as an application because PML often lasts for several months in gambling commissions.

Next step

All licensed holders are familiar with the answer in the summer of 2023-How to incorporate new requirements related to their business in existing politicians, procedures, and management by the deadline. Recommended to consider. Furthermore, license d-Son should consider whether to adopt SR's voluntary norms as a provisional decision before the introduction of public financial vulnerability tests and financial risk evaluation (after the pilot project is completed).

This is a simple presentation for today's announcement. In the near future, we plan to make more detailed examinations and publish a change proposal for consulting answers in the summer of 2023. If you subscribe to the blog, you will receive further news and analysis materials.

Please contact Harris Hagan if you would like to analyze your company's internal rules and procedures, provide training on new PML requirements, and other gambling compliance issues.