Gambling Commission Relying on POC to Boost Effectiveness

The UK Gambling Commission has stated that the pending point-of-consumption (POC) regulation will improve the UK regulator’s effectiveness.

This regulation states that from the 1st of December, all bets that are placed online in Britain will be subject to a 15pc “point of consumption tax”. This is expected to raise £300m a year.

This also means that anyone who wants to market gambling in the U.K. will need to be licensed.

According to Jenny Williams, the commissioner and CEO of the UK Gambling Commission, they are expecting over 150 applications with a lot of people already applying.

Williams stated that while the new legislation still needs to undergo the judicial review by the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association, she does not feel that this process will be delayed.

Williams stated, “Nothing is certain of course but as far as we’re concerned we’d be extraordinarily surprised if that delayed the process. It’s full steam ahead. It wouldn’t be fair to those that have spent a lot of time getting ready to hold back now.”

Williams went on to say that the UK Gambling Commission is concerned about applicants who are selling worldwide as this may be in breach of the regulations in other countries. As an example, Williams cited sportsbooks in the U.S.

As Williams explained, “I think one of the main reasons we argued for the change to a POC regime is that we don’t think we can be an effect regulator without access to the main operators and having knowledge of the way they work.”