Legal services
About technical licences
Manufacturers, developers and suppliers of gambling equipment and gambling software are subject to licensing requirements under the Gambling Act 2005 if their business or customers are based in Great Britain
Technical Operating Licences
The Gambling Commission issues a variety of technical Operating Licences, which permit:
- Gaming Machine manufacture, maintenance and supply;
- Gaming Machine software manufacture, supply, installation and adaptation; and
- Gambling Software manufacture, supply, installation and adaptation.
Licences can be remote (software delivered by remote communication, such as via secure file transmission or download from a website) or non-remote.
Technical licence
Technical requirements
Depending on your technical products, you may have to ensure compliance with the Gambling Commission’s technical standards including:
- Gaming Machine Technical Standards; and/or
- Remote Gambling and Software Technical Standards (RTS)
Technical licence
Gambling software
Not all software will be classified as ‘Gambling Software’ and operators should evaluate whether or not a licence is required from the Gambling Commission.
Gambling Software includes ‘key equipment’ which is used in the provision of facilities for gambling. The Gambling Commission has interpreted key equipment:-
| Equipment which contains: | Description |
|---|---|
| Virtual Event and game “Pages” | Software that serves ‘pages’ or other media that present virtual events on which people may gamble, including: • internet web pages (web server) • digital television (dTV server) ‘pages’ mobile ‘pages’ (WAP / mobile server) |
| Virtual Event Controller | Software that determines the result of a virtual event based on an RNG output |
| Settling | Software that marks up (as winner or loser) and settles (determines) the amount to be paid of gambles |
| Random Number Generator | Software or hardware that generates random data to be used by games / events |
| Gambling Transaction Records | Stored information about: • An individual’s gambling transactions, bet logs, game logs. • The results of an individual’s gamble, e.g. win/loss amounts, including summarised information about an individual’s wins or losses, where this is used in the provision of facilities for gambling. |
| Virtual Event State | Information stored in order to keep track of the last known state of a virtual event or virtual game that an individual participated in. |
Technical licence
Game hosts
Software developers often supply their games and products to other Gambling Commission licensees.
Some software companies also offer hosting services, with their games provided on their own servers. Ultimate consumers will access those games through the website or platform of another licensed entity, which may provide remote gaming or betting activities.
If you manufacture gambling software and also wish to provide facilities for gambling only in circumstances in which you host facilities through another operators’ platform, you may be eligible for a host operating licence.