Gambling Commission introduces changes to LCCP

“Following on from our previous article in September last year, the Gambling Commission has announced amendments to its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice for remote operating licence holders.

The new rules, which come into effect on the 7th May  2019,  aim to make gambling safer and fairer by requiring licensees to:

• Verify, as a minimum, the name, address and date of birth of customers before allowing them to gamble;
• Ask for any additional verification information promptly;
• Inform customers, before they can deposit funds, of the types of identity documents or other information that may be required, the circumstances in which the information may be required, and how it should be supplied to the licensee; and
• Take reasonable steps to ensure that information about customers’ identities remains accurate.

To date, gambling businesses have been allowed 72 hours to complete age verification checks, although operators cannot permit customers to withdraw winnings until the age verification process has been completed.

The new rules ensure that a customer’s age must be verified before they can deposit money or gamble.

The Gambling Commission will also require that a customer’s age must be verified before they are able to access free-to-play versions of any online games.  Whilst free-to-play games are not technically gambling as there is no prize involved, the GC has stated that there is no reason why such games should be made available to children on a licensee’s website.

The amendments have been designed to help to protect children and vulnerable individuals and reduce the risk of crime associated with gambling.

Further details can be found here and a summary of the LCCP changes can be found on the Gambling Commission’s website.

For further information on this or any other gambling legal issue contact solicitor, Richard Bradley on 0115 9487424 or email r.bradley@popall.co.uk