UKGC Publishes its ‘Annual Reports & Accounts’ Update

The UK’s gambling regulator, the Gambling Commission, has this week celebrated its progress against a number of strategic objectives. The annual publication of the organization’s general review into the condition of the UK marketplace suggested the regulator was currently delivering on its ‘three-year Corporate Strategy’

Given the rapid growth in popularity surrounding online gaming platforms, partially catalysed by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the Commission has introduced a number of more stringent sector controls to protect players in the more volatile digital environment. As a consequence of this campaign, the regulator has dished out £26m in operator fines, as it seeks to clamp down on non-compliant sites.

Although many of the penalties were meted out as a result of social responsibility breaches, the ‘Annual Reports & Accounts’ paper revealed some concerning gambling harm data. In accordance to the referenced Health Survey for England, there are approximately 160k-340k problem gamblers in England today, whilst 270k-480k English citizens were earmarked as gamblers of ‘moderate risk’. The Gambling Commission caveated these results by stating measuring the level of gambling harmwas a ‘complex’ task.

Group income registered at £20.1m, with a vast £18m of this figure attributed to operator licence payments. Expenditure was notably higher than usual, with a particularly hotly contested lottery contract tendering process contributing towards this spending incline. Indeed, funds allocated to lottery activity climbedto £23m, a colossal £9m uplift on the previous year. Total expenditure hit £45.1m, leaving the regulator with a net deficit of £25m at the 21/22 financial year end.

The report included the following statement:

‘’Our risk-based and evidence-led approach to regulation continues and we have continued to develop our teams within the Commission to ensure that we have the right foundations to regulate effectively, and ensure high standards are maintained by all operators who are licensed by us.’’