According to news releases on both the City of London Police and the UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) websites, a 87% decline in the number of gambling operators’ adverts uploaded on illegal websites violating copyright has been registered over the last twelve months.
The sharp drop came as a result of a police action that the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) run in order to destroy the structure of illegal websites focused on providing pirate content such as music, games, films, TV, books, etc. As revealed by the PIPCU itself, the action was taken in order to prevent licensed gambling operators from unintentionally help such crime-committing websites.
Over the last few years, the UK regulatory authority has been aiming to make both gambling operators and society more ware of the new licensing condition implemented and has even taken some steps in order to make sure both companies and websites comply with it. On the other hand, the PIPCU introduced its Operation Creative and the IWL a few years ago in order to suspend illegal streaming websites.
Peter Ratcliffe, Head of the PIPCU shared his satisfaction with the figures reported, saying that they came as a proof of the successful joint working initiative between the PIPCU and the UKGC. He also confirmed that the City of London Police, and more specifically, the PIPCU would remain focused on encouraging the UK advertisers to become members of the IWL in order to make sure they were not funding illegal websites unintentionally.
The operation was carried out in correspondence to the provisions of the Gambling Act of 2005, which set keeping crime out of gambling as one of its major objectives. Gambling operators across the country are provided by the so-called Infringing Website List (IWL) which is aimed at keeping them up to date with the list of websites that violate copyright in order for the gambling companies to stop advertising their offering on such websites.
In addition, back in October 2016, the UK gambling regulatory watchdog – the Gambling Commission – set responsible digital advertising as a licensing condition for all gambling operators that offer their services to local customers. This licensing condition basically means that licensed gambling operators are not allowed to place adverts on illegal websites and need to make sure that all parties related to them do the same.
The Programme Director of the UK Gambling Commission, Paul Hope, confirmed the British regulatory authority’s commitment to ensuring that the gambling industry offered a safe and crime-free environment for both operators and customers. He also shared his delight with the latest initiative, carried out in partnership with the City of London Police.
As mentioned above, according to a recent research carried out by the global data company whiteBULLET, the ground-breaking action of the PIPCU ended up with a massive decline in the gambling operators adverts displayed on websites that infringe copyright. The data company gathered data on 40 gambling companies that run their operations under a licensed issued by the UK Gambling Commission and are currently members of the IWL. The results showed positive change for the operators that aim prevent making payments to illegal websites to promote their services.
- Author
Daniel Williams
