June 28, 2018

The Commission’s report, published today, provides a review of the enforcement work it has taken over the course of the last year. It summarises the published guidance that has come out of its investigations into a number of operators. The Commission explains that:

“Licensees are on notice that a failure to adhere to the guidance in both this document and within our public decision notices may see us bringing enforcement action more swiftly and with greater penalty if we are of the view lessons are not being learned”

The report is split into the key themes that have emerged out of the Commission’s casework which are, unsurprisingly, anti-money laundering, customer interaction, self-exclusion, unfair terms and practices and marketing and advertising.

The report reveals that the Commission instigated 22 investigations into remote casino operators following a broad compliance audit carried out earlier this year, which the report suggests are still on-going. Operators and suppliers will also need to be mindful of any decision notices which are published as a result of these investigations.

Neil McArthur, the Commission’s Chief Executive, described the report as a “call to action to the leaders of operators” to take heed of the lessons learned from the failures of other operators. The report helpfully provides a series of ‘health checks’ that can be read as a blue print for compliance, internal audit and/or assurance teams in the process of assessing the adequacy of existing systems and controls.