UKGC shakes up its licensing procedures
Regulator reveals dedicated account management system to be scrapped in favour of a new sub-group system
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced that there will no longer be a singular point of contact for licensees as it looks to overhaul its licensing structure.
This new setup involves four sub-groups responsible for different areas of the licensing process.
The first of these is the Operating Licence New Group which handles the processing of applications for new operator licences.
The next is the Change of Corporate Control Group, which will be responsible for applications relating to changes in ownership and control for existing operators.
The Operating Licence Vary Group will process changes to existing operator licences, and the Personal Licence Group will deal with all applications relating to personal licences.
The UKGC said in a statement: “By working in this way, we hope to be able to process applications more quickly. We also hope to be able to resolve queries more efficiently and effectively.”
This move comes as the UKGC awaits the upcoming publication of the white paper resulting from the review of the Gambling Act 2005.
The long-overdue white paper is due imminently after undersecretary for the DCMS Nigel Huddleston said at the beginning of that June that it would be published in the coming weeks.
The white paper was due last year; however, the whole review into the gambling laws was slowed down by the 13,000 responses the UKGC received as part of a consultation.
The forthcoming white paper could change the current voluntary 0.1% levy that the industry currently gives to charities to help those suffering from gambling harm. Instead, it is proposed that this will become a 1% mandatory levy to support gambling-related harm treatment and research.
The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) also recently published an open letter to Gambling Minister Chris Philp with recommendations on how best to protect the public in the forthcoming white paper.
The letter said that marketing needed to be regulated further, and the promotion of public health should be at the forefront of gambling policy. The ADPH also agreed that there should be a sustainable funding source to support gambling-related harm treatment and research.