UKGC strengthens ties with Spelinspektionen

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and the Swedish gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their ties.

The partnership, which originally became effective on 11 November this year, is aimed at achieving a closer working relationship between the two regulating agencies so both can benefit from sharing their best practices in areas such as regulatory policies and procedures.

“This is an important agreement for us,” said Director General of Spelinspektonen, Camilla Rosenberg. “We have common interest in many areas. By opening the communication channels between the authorities, we become stronger in our supervisory activities. This is the beginning of a broad and long-term cooperation. Earlier this year we have entered a MoU with Malta Gaming Authority and Gibraltar Gambling Division.”

UK Gambling Commission chief executive Neil McArthur stated, “We have excellent relations with other gambling regulators from across the world and our new link up with the Swedish Gambling Authority will give more opportunities to share good practice on a whole host of regulatory issues, cooperate closely and take shared action where appropriate. We look forward to working with colleagues in Sweden over the coming months and years.”

This MoU includes provisions that open the doors for the two agencies to provide operational assistance to each other to enhance their effectiveness. The enhanced relationship will lead to the Spelinspektionen and the UKGC working hand in hand with each other for promoting a common approach to protect the legitimate interests of their markets, engage on issues related to operational interest and mutual regulatory policy.

Both the regulators will meet periodically to review the memorandum of understanding to evaluate the effectiveness of this pact and propose any suggestions for amendments to strengthen the MoU going forward.

Both the UKGC and the Spelinspektionen will work closely to oversee supervisory and general wagering issues, topics pertinent to operators engaged in remote gambling, as well as measures associated with counter-terrorist financing and anti-money laundering. The two agencies will also connive on matters associated with gaming, betting and related transactional data to safeguard the interests of their respective gaming markets.

All the information collected by the two regulatory agencies as part of their operations will be shared to spot any potential adverse impacts on remote bookmaking operators. The agencies will also share data related to regulatory actions or enforcements that could also lead to material impacts on any remote operator.

Regulatory authorities around the globe have a mandate to improve the playing field in their respective markets, the best way to achieve that is to support each other in developing best practices and assisting each other in enforcing compliance. This step will certainly help both the agencies in increasing their effectiveness.