Licence fees received from operators

Request

Under the FOIA I would like to ask the following question please:

1. In 2022 the Gambling Commission received £21,305,000 from annual licence fees. Please can you provide me with the company names of the licence holders providing the 10 biggest proportions of this amount. By % and £ please

2. Please can you tell me the amount of annual licence fees and what % of the £21.3M amount is paid by the following companies:

• Bet 365
• Flutter Entertainment PLC
• Entain PLC
• 888/William Hill
• Betfred
• Betsson
• Betway
• Buzz Group Limited
• Genting Casinos UK Limited
• Rank Leisure Holdings

Response

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

In your email you have requested:

1. In 2022 the Gambling Commission received £21,305,000 from annual licence fees. Please can you provide me with the company names of the licence holders providing the 10 biggest proportions of this amount. By % and £ please

2. Please can you tell me the amount of annual licence fees and what % of the £21.3M amount is paid by the following companies:

• Bet 365
• Flutter Entertainment PLC
• Entain PLC
• 888/William Hill
• Betfred
• Betsson
• Betway
• Buzz Group Limited
• Genting Casinos UK Limited
• Rank Leisure Holdings

I can confirm that the Gambling Commission does hold information falling within the scope of parts 1. & 2. of your request. However, the Commission is of the view that this information is exempt under Section 43(2) of the FOIA.

In order to fulfil your request, we would effectively be releasing the Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) of individual operators. This information relates to the performance of the business and is not otherwise in the public domain.

Section 43(2) of the FOIA provides that information is exempt information if: its disclosure under the FOIA would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).

Having acknowledged that information within the scope of your request is exempt from disclosure; section 43 FOIA requires that we consider a public interest test to identify whether there is a wider public interest in fulfilling this request opposed to maintaining the exemption.

Public Interest Test

The factors the Gambling Commission has considered when applying the public interest test have been detailed as follows.

Arguments in favour of disclosure

The arguments in favour of disclosure are as follows:

• it is recognised that there is a legitimate public interest in promoting the transparency of the Gambling Commission and in making information available to the public. Further to this, in understanding the performance of the gambling industry
• there is a legitimate public interest in members of the public having confidence the Commission is being open and honest with the data it holds so that it can be held to account.

Arguments in favour of maintaining the exemption

The arguments in favour of maintaining the exemption are as follows:

• releasing the requested information would enable individuals to calculate the Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) of each licensee. Licensed operators have a reasonable expectation that this level of detail would not be published on an individual basis
• an extensive range of aggregated or anonymised data is already available to the public to give a necessary level of understanding of the gambling industry. Operators have a reasonable expectation that such information would not be published on an individual basis
• detail of individual companies does not contribute to the understanding of overall performance of the industry as a whole
• releasing this information would be likely to provide competitors a commercial advantage as they would be able to see the position of competing operators
• we consider that disclosing the information could discourage licensees from freely providing information to the Gambling Commission in future, which would likely prejudice the Commission’s ability to monitor and regulate its licensees
• providing operator specific information regarding the information requested could lead to comparisons being made between operators, leading to unjustified inferences being made without the full context.

Weighing the balance

Whilst the Gambling Commission aims to be open and transparent, there is a need to preserve the confidentiality of information relating to licensed operators and to be mindful of the commercial sensitivities of information that is held. Looking at all the circumstances of the case and the nature of the request, in our view there is more than a 50% chance that prejudice to the Commercial Interests of licensees would be caused by disclosure and the Commission’s view is that the public interest is best served through maintaining this exemption.

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