Return to Player Games

Request

1. Please provide any internal guidance, operational framework, or assessment methodology used by the Commission to determine whether information provided by licensed operators complies with LCCP 5.1.6 ("clear, fair and not misleading").
2. Please provide any documented criteria, checklist, or evaluation standards used to assess whether information may mislead the average consumer.
3. Please provide details of any enforcement case (since 2015) in which the presentation of Return to Player (RTP) information was assessed under LCCP 5.1.6.
4. Please provide any internal risk assessments, research briefings, or policy discussions specifically addressing consumer misunderstanding of RTP and its regulatory implications.

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. Please provide any internal guidance, operational framework, or assessment methodology used by the Commission to determine whether information provided by licensed operators complies with LCCP 5.1.6 ("clear, fair and not misleading").
2. Please provide any documented criteria, checklist, or evaluation standards used to assess whether information may mislead the average consumer.
3. Please provide details of any enforcement case (since 2015) in which the presentation of Return to Player (RTP) information was assessed under LCCP 5.1.6.
4. Please provide any internal risk assessments, research briefings, or policy discussions specifically addressing consumer misunderstanding of RTP and its regulatory implications.

I can confirm that some information falling within the scope of your request is held by the Gambling Commission. However, in relation to question three of your request, this information is not held in a central location due to the date range for which you are requesting information. Therefore, each entry and record across multiple locations would need to be reviewed manually in order to firstly assess whether it falls within the scope of your request and to then extract the information you’re requesting.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for public authorities, such as the Commission, is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.    

When a public authority applies the Section 12 exemption to a request, the FOIA guidance specifically states that a public authority should avoid providing any information found as a result of a search as it denies the requestor the right to express a preference as to which parts of the request they may wish to receive within the appropriate time limit. The section 12 exemption is therefore engaged to the entirety of a request if applied, and as a result information cannot be partially disclosed.

In order to locate, retrieve and extract all of the information requested for the time period stated within your request, staff would be required to conduct a manual review across Commission storage areas to firstly find the information and then to identify if it falls within the scope of your request. In line with Information Commissioner Office (ICO) guidance, we do not have to search up to the appropriate limit if we have identified that the section 12 exemption is engaged.

Further guidance on the application of section 12 can be viewed here:  

Requests where the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit (section 12) | ICO (opens in new tab)

If you are able to refine your request, for example a shorter date range, we may be able to narrow the number of records that we need to search.

Until we are able to process the search of the information you have requested, we are unable to ascertain if other exemptions will apply to any material identified which would also prevent disclosure.

Please note, any refined request would be processed as a new request and the 20 working day statutory time limit would apply. 

Further, you have referred to LCCP 5.1.6 within your request. This social responsibility code is concerned with rules for marketing and does not specifically reference "clear, fair and not misleading" or display of RTP.

In order to be of some assistance in relation to the other areas of your request, we can advise the following:

• The Commission’s assessment of unfair practices and unfair marketing is based on the CMA investigation which can be found here: Online gambling - GOV.UK (opens in new tab).
• Return to Player (RTP) requirements on gaming machines are mandated through Section 3 of the The Gaming Machine (Circumstances of Use) Regulations 2007 (opens in new tab).
• There are also rules for remote gambling, such as the display rules of games and RTP, which can be found here: Remote gambling and software technical standards (RTS) - RTS 3 – Rules, game descriptions and the likelihood of winning.
• Games are required to be independently tested against our RTS before a game is made available to customers. This includes verifying that the advertised RTP is correct and the game follows the rules as advertised to the customer. Further details can be found in our Testing strategy for compliance with remote gambling and software technical standards.
• RTP calculations would be included within our technical standards testing procedure which is outlined on our website: Gaming machines and software sector guidance.

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. 

It should be noted that if you wish to raise a complaint with the ICO about the Commission’s handling of your request for information, then you are required to do so within six weeks of receiving your final response or last substantive contact with us.

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

Information Management Team
Gambling Commission