UK LEGAL COMMENT deagreez/Adobe Stock


A record month of regulatory penalties


Northridge Law’s Melanie Ellis looks back at a pretty bleak period for UK gaming I 32 SEPTEMBER 2022


n last month’s article, I talked about the new requirement for Gambling Commission licensees to incorporate “industry learning” into their policies and procedures. Since then, the outcome of four further regulatory actions have been published, including a


record £17m regulatory settlement with Entain (in respect of its online and land-based activities), as well as penalties against online operators Leo Vegas, Smarkets and a settlement with Spreadex. As is typical when the Commission publishes the outcome


of its licence reviews, the gambling activity to which they relate occurred around two years ago. When it comes to “industry learning”, this means the conclusions are less


relevant to operators’ current policies - regulatory requirements, particularly those for customer interaction, have moved on since then. However, there are a few practical takeaways from this recent round of action set out below, along with some thoughts on what is coming next.


1. Ensure regulatory changes are implemented in a timely and effective way


One of the mitigating factors for Entain was that it was able to quickly provide an action plan to address failings identified by the Commission. However, according to the Commission, it had not responded in such a timely way to the changes to customer interaction requirements in 2019. With new


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