The Commission issued a warning notice after flagging incidents of games being used by illegal operators. It is once again calling on UK licensees to improve monitoring of business relationships to ensure partners are not facilitating illegal gambling.

It said it’s adopting a proactive approach to this matter and may decide at any point to conduct test purchasing activity to evidence potential breaches.

“The Commission has found that, in some instances, third party resellers are distributing games supplied by operators to the illegal market, often in breach of their contractual obligations. Commission licensees may have been negligent in allowing them to do so and in the process, place their own licence at risk,” it said.

The notice follows a number of comments made by Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes. Last November he advises operators to carry out due diligence on their supplier partners to ensure they are not engaged in illegal activity.

Then last week (15 January) he said the sector had seemingly misunderstood his comments on internal due diligence and he couldn’t understand why licensed players would want to be in business with a company supporting illegal competitors.

“Some interpreted my remarks as meaning the industry should police this rather than the regulator and actually I don’t understand why anyone in the licensed industry would want to be in business with a company that would be supporting illegal competition,” he said.  

In its latest note the Commission said it had identified licensed suppliers’ live games, live casinos and slots content appearing on unlicensed websites.

“The websites may have inadequate social responsibility and anti-money laundering controls in place and leave customers open to risks of fraud, data privacy issues and unfair practices,” the Commission said in its note. “It is therefore imperative the Commission, in collaboration with the gambling industry and key partners take all possible steps to mitigate risk to GB consumers.”

How are illegal gambling operators accessing content?

One of the issues flagged by the Commission include relationships with third parties. It said some third-party resellers are distributing games to illegal operators, often in breach of contractual obligations.

In these cases, the Commission said licensees may have been negligent in allowing the third parties to do so. In the process, it added, this places their own licence at risk and, as such, is encouraging constant monitoring.

“The Commission advises operators to actively monitor their business relationships,” the regulator said. “This will ensure any partners are not participating in offering illegal gambling facilities to the British market, and where identified, terminating relationships where non-compliance has occurred.”

Once an issue is apparant, the Commission urges licensees to “actively engage” with the regulator. It added that setting out a clear plan to mitigate the problem is a “minimum requirement”.

“Tackling unlicensed gambling is central to our objective of preventing gambling from being a source of crime and disrupting this illegal activity at scale,” the Commission said.

“The Commission is adopting a proactive approach to this matter. We may decide at any point to conduct test purchasing activity to evidence potential breaches.”