The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced its new 3-year Corporate Strategy to set out the regulator’s focus as it is still protecting the players and the wider public from possible gambling-related harm.
The new Strategy has been released alongside the regulator’s Business Plan for 2021 to 2022. The UKGC shared that it will be delivered through five priority areas, including ensuring a fairer gambling market and more informed players; keeping criminal activity out of the UK gambling industry; improving gambling regulation; protecting underage and vulnerable individuals from gambling-related harm and optimisation of National Lottery’s returns to good causes.
Bill Moyes, the Chair of the UKGC, explained that the new 3-year strategy of the gambling regulatory body maintains the goals and ambitions of the previous strategy but also goes beyond it, as the watchdog seeks the best ways to use its current resources. The release of its new Strategy and Business Plan has come at a year that is meant to be extremely important for compliance and consumer protection, as the UK starts to move out of the coronavirus lockdown after experiencing a challenging year.
Five Priority Areas Included in Gambling Commission’s New Strategy
The UK gambling regulator shared it is to remain engaged in the provision of a fairer gambling market and more informed customers. This means that the UKGC will continue to require fair products offered by gambling operators that remain compliant with the watchdog’s rules and at the same time will seek to improve the information for players and making it easier for them to find information regarding gambling. These objectives include some efforts from the Commission to make the licence holders’ complaints procedures easier to understand and access.
The UKGC also revealed that it will continue trying to tackle unlicensed and illegal gambling that is being offered to UK customers. The watchdog said that it will continue to collaborate with agencies that work in order to prevent money laundering. The efforts of the UK Gambling Commission to keep the integrity of sports betting and manage the risks associated with the practice will also remain as one of its paramount objectives associated with keeping crime out of the sector.
The UK Gambling Commission has been restructured over the past year in order to make sure it provides effective regulation in the years to come. Apart from supporting the Government in its review of the 2005 Gambling Act, the watchdog has also taken into consideration three major reports into gambling regulation that were issued last year. Furthermore, the UKGC said it will collaborate with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to make sure it has the necessary resources to regulate the UK gambling sector in the best possible way.
As for the protection of children and vulnerable people, the Commission will continue to make sure its operating licence holders make their best to minimise the risks associated with gambling for the most vulnerable groups of society. This will be part of its coordinated efforts aimed at understanding factors that affect problem gambling of local customers, while at the same time the UKGC will continue to enhance its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice.
Last but not least, the UKGC knows that the National Lottery is still one of the biggest and most popular ones on a global scale, with millions of pounds being contributed to good causes annually. This is exactly why the Commission said, a part of its new 3-year Corporate Strategy, it will ensure the effective management of the National Lottery’s third operating licence, whilst also guaranteeing open and fair competition for its fourth licence.
- Author
Daniel Williams
