The world’s biggest gambling market finally published its most important review of gambling after several years of delays and speculation. What were the key points? Was it all that the gambling industry anticipated?
In part one of CasinoBeats’s latest two-part series, Ismail Vali Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Yield Sec and Tom Farrell Chief Marketing Officer of ClearStake delve deep into the issue at hand.
CasinoBeats What are the most important points delivered to your business?
Tom Farrell I believe most people would agree that clarity is the most important thing the white paper offers. It’s great for operators to have numbers that show the level of various checks. The absence of these numbers was frustrating, at least to me and I’m sure I speak for most compliance teams in the UK.
It also clarifies the enhanced due diligence (any check that uses real financial data). The white paper ultimately supports the Gambling Commission. The white paper confirms the need for such checks and that the Gambling Commission was right to demand and expect them over recent years.
This is a sign that our pipeline is accelerating. Now that it’s clear affordability and AML checks using real data will not disappear, we need to find the most efficient way to implement them.
Ismail Vali : Yield Sec examines all gambling activities in the market – legal and illegal. For our legal stakeholder clientele, the UK’s most important white papers will be DCMS’s commitment to grant the Gambling Commission the statutory power to deal with black markets.
In this respect, it’s important to keep in mind that finding and stopping just one illegal website will never be enough. Yield Sec has found hundreds of illegal operators sites. These mirrors redirect to the same content and offer illicit commercial opportunities across dozens new, unique destinations.
We are proud to assist legal stakeholders such as the Gambling Commission and DCMS in their fight against illegal operations.
CB: Did you get any surprises?
IS We do not perceive as a harbinger for the end of what is currently the most profitable online gambling market in history. The white paper outlines the necessary changes and draws a line between requiring change and committing to consultation in areas like advertising.
There were no surprises, but I think many people in the industry were more worried than they should have been. The potential consequences of advertising measures are always a source of concern.
While it’s fine to propose a ‘gambling prohibition’, when they are certain to be ineffective, it doesn’t make sense to prohibit advertising for licensed, legal stakeholders while leaving the field wide open for criminal and illegal operators.
Yield Sec demonstrates that you have to monitor, police, and enforce your entire market, which includes both legal and licensed industries, and illicit and criminal ones.
TF The affordability levels were not surprising. The levels are in line with the expectations of the Gambling Commission and most operators. It’s not a big surprise but I was surprised to hear that the ‘enhanced checks’ on players who lose more than PS2,000 in three months can be carried out in a streamlined manner.
This is not possible in the present day, and I doubt that it will ever be acceptable (or desirable). Either the data aren’t accurate and therefore don’t solve the issue, or they are, but then it raises a lot of privacy questions. This kite-flying experiment will probably turn out to be a waste of time.
