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The UK Gambling Commission has fired a warning shot to suppliers: stop doing business with unlicensed businesses.
In a press release published on Monday (January 20), the commission wrote that it has "become aware of casino games supplied by licensed operators appearing on unlicensed websites available to Great Britain consumers illegally”.
The commission warned that unlicensed websites are not held to any standards of compliance regarding anti-money laundering measures or addiction prevention and make consumers easy prey for fraud.
Resellers are a particular point of concern for the regulator.
“The commission has found that, in some instances, third party resellers are distributing games supplied by operators to the illegal market, often in breach of their contractual obligations.
“Commission licensees may have been negligent in allowing them to do so and in the process, place their own licence at risk,” it said.
The third-party resellers that the commission referred to are more commonly known as aggregators, which often bundle casino games from multiple suppliers and resell them as a package deal. The original developers do not necessarily know the final destination of the games that are resold in this manner.
Monday's statement marks the first time the Gambling Commission has explicitly called on operators to hold themselves responsible for wherever their games are played.
“The commission advises operators to actively monitor their business relationships to ensure any partners are not participating in offering illegal gambling facilities to the GB [Great Britain] market, and where identified, terminating relationships where non-compliance has occurred,” it said.
In a concluding warning, the commission said a clear plan to “mitigate the issues at pace is a minimum requirement” for licensees.
The commission's move comes on the heels of a formal licence review of supplier giant Evolution after it was found that the company's games were being offered in the UK by black-market operators.
Although the commission did not comment at the time, CEO Andrew Rhodes in November told industry executives: “I said to you last year that I wanted to encourage you to use your commercial influence with any partner or supplier you have to ensure they were taking all the relevant steps to verify they were not supporting illegal activity facing into [the UK].
“I’m going to go one step further than that today and strongly suggest you all undertake due diligence to ensure none of your suppliers are directly or indirectly engaged in supporting unlicensed activity in this market.”
Speaking at satellite event on the fringes of the ICE conference in Barcelona, DLA Piper lawyer Benjamin Fellows said: "Operators should be looking at affiliate terms."
He also warned suppliers, "if you are providing services to the illegal sector, the commission will fine you and that brings attention".
Additional reporting from Joe Ewens
