UK Gambling Commission wants input on remote gambling

This week marks the start of the U.K. Gambling Commission’s consultation phase on remote (online and mobile) gambling licence conditions and codes of practice in preparation for the introduction of the secondary licensing and taxation regime next year…and it presents an opportunity for interested parties to submit views and suggestions.

Hopes are high that the Commission will effectively enforce its regulations, especially those concerned with consumer protection.

Credibility in some licensing jurisdictions has taken a serious knock in recent times following a less than energetic approach to enforcing regulations on requirements like segregated player fund accounts, resulting in players being seriously out of pocket when operators have gone to the wall….names like Full Tilt Poker and Media Corp’s Purple Lounge come immediately to mind.

There are also a myriad other issues that consumers may want to bring to the attention of the Commission such as disclosure of return-to-player percentages, upfront operator and ownership information, instalment pay-outs to big winners, misleading promotions, overly one-sided T & Cs, holding back withdrawals, arbitrary and unappealable management decisions and so on.

The Commission has already indicated that it is especially interested in player fund protection (ie segregated accounts) and regulations controlling online poker, where it has relatively limited experience.

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