EMAILAGE New UKGC regulations


Chris Thomas, Managing Director EMEA at Emailage asks: will fairness and safety come at a price?


t lot can happen in a decade. Few industries know this better than the UK gambling industry. In 2008, it generated £8.3bn gross  now an incredible £14.4bn GGY.


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This performance is impressive, however as the industry continues to grow, new legislations and compliance rules continue to change, and that could impede sales or cause customer drop-off. But, have no fear – there is always a time where necessity or technological evolution drive change in the regulatory landscape. The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) believes it is time for the iGaming sector to revisit several decades-old regulations and give those rules the critical updates needed to reflect current


technology and to make the industry safer and fairer for all users. We, at Emailage, couldn’t agree more.


WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR…


The UKGC held an open consultation with the industry at the end of last year and subsequently announced new rules in early February. The new regulation will require operators to verify customer age before funds may be deposited into an account or gamble including free to play bets. Effective from the 7th of May 2019, online operators will need to follow the new guidelines.


According to the UKGC announcement, the primary objectives for implementing these rules are to help prevent underage gambling, improve and regulate age and identity checks, and improve the overall customer experience.


Preventing users from playing until the appropriate age and identity checks have taken place will create a barrier


60 JUNE 2019 CIO


Current age and identity provisions for online gambling date back to a decade old requirement within the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). The provision has been noted by the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB) and UKGC in the 2018 open consultation that since the


implementation by the LCCP of a 72-hour requirement to verify age and identity of new gamers, the industry has seen  For example, application


programming interfaces (APIs) now exist


that can verify age and identity within minutes, shaving down the process from heavily manual to mostly automated. For operators, this means they are no longer at risk of losing potential customers due to time-consuming verification processes – they can verify in real-time and improve customer experience. But this feat was near impossible for the technology that existed a decade ago when the initial provision was written.


POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON OPERATORS As with any new regulation, operators can expect


initial friction, increased operational costs, and the possibility of customer drop off. But the new regulation will also bring benefits such as improved customer experience and will help push the industry further.


In terms of friction, preventing users from playing until the appropriate age and identity checks have taken place will create a barrier. However, as long as they understand why these checks are taking place, there is no reason why customers could not grow to trust the operators. This trust could make customers more inclined to loosen their purse strings. Why? Well, according to data from the UKGC, a significant portion of complaints come from valid consumers being unable to claim large winnings due to faults with the current age and


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