Licence Condition 17

Request

In light of the following excerpt I have three questions.

‘Where a gambling business delays a request to withdraw funds due to insufficient ID, they may be in breach of Licence Condition 17 – Customer identity verification and may be subject to regulatory action.’

1. How many businesses have been found to have been in breach of Licence Condition 17- Customer Identity verification?
2. How many business found to have been in breach of Licence Condition 17- Customer Identity verification have been subject to regulatory action?
3. Specifically, how many businesses have been subject to regulatory action as a result of withholding funds due to a request for ID which they could have made earlier?

Response

Thank you for your request which has been processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

In your email you have referenced the following statement ‘Where a gambling business delays a request to withdraw funds due to insufficient ID, they may be in breach of Licence Condition 17 – Customer identity verification and may be subject to regulatory action.’ Following this, you have requested:

1. How many businesses have been found to have been in breach of Licence Condition 17- Customer Identity verification?
2. How many business found to have been in breach of Licence Condition 17- Customer Identity verification have been subject to regulatory action?
3. Specifically, how many businesses have been subject to regulatory action as a result of withholding funds due to a request for ID which they could have made earlier?

The Gambling Commission is a regulatory body with licensing, compliance, and enforcement functions; through our regulatory activity, the Commission aims to protect consumers and the wider public, and to raise standards in the gambling industry. Regulatory action may only be imposed where the Commission thinks that a condition of a licence has been breached. Section 116 of the Gambling Act (opens in new tab) gives the Commission the power to review the performance of licence holders and the operation of licence conditions. The section provides for two different types of review.

Following a review under section 116(1) or (2) of the Act, the Commission may:

• decide to take no further action
• decide to give the licensee advice as to conduct
• decide to exercise its powers set out in section 117 of the Act (Regulatory powers).

Under Section 117 of the Gambling Act (opens in new tab), it can:

• give the licensee a warning
• add, remove, or amend a condition to the licence
• suspend a licence
• revoke a licence
• impose a financial penalty.

Section 21 of the FOIA provides that information is exempt where it is reasonably accessible elsewhere. We release details of our enforcement activity through public statements.

The public statements will detail the nature of the failings by the operator and the amount of the fine or settlement. Further to this, the Commission also publishes a list of recent regulatory sanctions we have imposed on licence holders.

Any information falling within the scope of your request will be published on these page on the Gambling Commission website.

When we publish these statements and sanctions, we take care to present as much information as possible to ensure that lessons can be learned by operators. However, we must also be careful not to reveal any information that could hinder our ability to conduct investigations or enable those we may investigate to avoid detection.

Openness and transparency are central to the Commission’s work in upholding the licensing objectives. Publication of details of the Commission’s work in licensing, compliance and enforcement plays an important role in improving compliance in and beyond the licensed community, and in increasing confidence in the Commission as a regulator.

Only once a formal regulatory decision has been taken, such as the imposition of a financial penalty, the issuing of a warning, the suspension or revocation of a licence, or the agreement of a regulatory settlement the Commission will ordinarily publish all such decisions in full, even if a decision is subject to review or appeal. Such publication will take place 14 days after a decision has been taken. This protects the integrity of investigations and protects individuals or operators from being unfairly associated with unsubstantiated allegations.

Review of the decision

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your Freedom of Information request you are entitled to an internal review of our decision. You should write to FOI Team, Gambling Commission, 4th floor, Victoria Square House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B2 4BP or by reply to this email.

Please note, internal review requests should be made within 40 working days of the initial response. Requests made outside this timeframe will not be processed.

If you are not content with the outcome of our review, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have already exhausted the review procedure provided by the Gambling Commission.

The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (opens in a new tab), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Information Management Team
Gambling Commission
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham B2 4BP