UKGC’s Changes in License Conditions and Codes of Practice Rules Come into Effect from May 7, 2019

The UKGC works tirelessly to establish a safer and fairer gambling environment for players. Last year, it has published the new rules for fairness, making sure players are treated with respect and in a fair and transparent manner. The regulator is determined to make as many changes as necessary just for the sake of the players.

At the beginning of this year, the Commission has introduced the new changes to the LCCP rules for verification of age and identity. Yesterday, the Commission has published the amended conditions and has reminded operators to comply with the rules, as the 7^th of May was the day these rules come into effect.

 

The New Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice Rules

The new rules follow an open consultation call by the UK Gambling Commission from last year. The Commission, along with the reminder that the rules take effect from 7^th of May, has published the responses document, providing players and operators with an explanation on the background and the nature of the changes.

The 37-page long document explains the changes in age verification and introduces the new identity verification condition, affecting some remote lottery and all remote casino gaming and betting operators. In short, the UK Gambling Commission changed the age verification-related Social Responsibility Code Provision 3.2.11 and 3.2.13 affecting some remote lotteries and remote casino and sports betting operators and introduced the new licence condition 17 to set out minimum requirements for identity verification. The Commission explained that the aim of these corrected and new conditions is to ensure that operators verify the identity of their players quickly and vigorously.

Even though they had the time to at least verify all their players’ name, address and date of birth details up to now, the UK Gambling Commission reminded operators that they will need to have completed the verification procedures before the players were allowed to gamble. With this, the Commission is adding an extra layer of protection against underage gambling. From Tuesday, the 7^th of May, operators will need to prevent unverified players from gambling and let them gamble after they have gone through the identification and verification process.

Requesting Information on Registration

Operators were also reminded that they need to inform their players of all the documents they would need to provide them with before the players are allowed to deposit and gamble, and not require from them to provide the necessary documents upon withdrawals. In fact, as established by the Competitions and Markets Authority last year, players are legally entitled to all the funds that they have deposited on the gambling site, to the winnings they have made with those funds and to the winnings they have made by playing through bonuses and after meeting the AML regulatory requirements.

Therefore, operators must not ask players to provide additional documents and information when the time for withdrawals come. Operators should have asked for those documents earlier, during the registration, identification and verification procedures.

Furthermore, the UK Gambling Commission requested from operators to regularly check and ensure that the documents and information on identification and verification are accurate and up-to-date.