Gambling Commission to update its approach to operator fines
The Gambling Commission will update its Statement of Principles for Determining Financial Penalties document after industry-wide consultation.
Key points:
– Gambling Commission will update guidance on fines for operators on 10 October
– Changes are based on consultation with industry and intended to streamline the penal process
– A seven-step process for calculating and imposing fines will be clarified in updated Gambling Commission literature
In a bid to increase transparency and refine the penal process, the Gambling Commission has announced its intention to develop and improve how it calculates and imposes financial penalties on gambling operators.
Since 2023, the UK regulatory body has undergone a number of consultations, including this one regarding potential amendments to the Statement of Principles for Determining Financial Penalties (SoPfDFP).
The consultation itself finished in March 2024 and the resulting guidance changes will now be officially implemented from 10 October 2025.
John Pierce, Director of Enforcement and Intelligence at the Gambling Commission, has said: “The resulting changes will strengthen our decision-making and streamline the calculation of penalties – helping to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our enforcement work.”
The alterations broadly hinge on transparency, clarity of process, assessment factors and starting points for the penal element of any identified breach.
There are also caveats included that separate out society lotteries and external lottery managers from the updated remit.
A seven-step system for assessing and imposing any fine will now be clearly laid out in the refreshed SoPfDFP.
Good to know: The request for consultation yielded responses from 29 industry entities, though only 21 of those who answered the 61 questions on the accompanying document agreed to be named in this report
Furthermore, a five-tiered metric of seriousness will be clarified, to distinguish between different severities of breach.
The starting point of penal action will now be determined via combined analysis of the newly-clarified severity level and a percentage of Gross Gambling Yield (GGY).
Society lotteries and external lottery managers will not have their GGY used in calculating fines, while certain aggravating and mitigating factors will be defined and used to make adjustments to the penalty sum of anyone found to be in breach of the Gambling Commissions regulations.
Pierce continued: “Crucially, the new approach also encourages compliance at the earliest opportunity, supporting the protection of consumers alongside fair and proportionate outcomes for operators.”
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