New Gaming Regulation for the New Year

The Gambling Commission’s revised Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP), have now come into force, effective from 1 January 2009. Details of the revisions were announced in October and can be found here.

The revisions require gaming operators to adopt a more robust anti-money laundering policy, which includes the need to appoint someone with AML responsibility. The new code also sets out new measures concerning social responsibility, including suggestions for more robust age verification and self-exclusion rules to prevent underage and problem gambling.

The new LCCP comes into force at the same time the government has issued a consultation on its proposal to introduce a levy on gaming companies to help support research, education and treatment for problem gambling.

The Department for culture, media and sport has published the consultation following the Gambling Commission’s final report on the Review of research, public education and treatment.  The current proposal will see the government impose the levy under the Gambling Act 2005, and is expected to come into force next financial year of the industry cannot reach agreement on voluntary levels of funding for the next 3 years.

The proposed measures would lead to an increase in costs; the current commitment from the gaming industry under the voluntary regime is circa £3million, whilst the statutory levy would see this increase to circa £5million.

The consultation is open now and will close on 31 March 2009.

Consultation documents and supporting information can be found here.