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Consultation response

Test House framework development

A summary of our response to the Test House Framework development consultation. Includes consultation questions, responses, and our position on these questions.

Executive Summary

We use test houses to support us in meeting our statutory duties and the licensing objectives. One of these objectives is to ensure that gambling is fair. Test houses provide assurance to consumers, licensees and us that games are fair and suitable to make available to consumers.

Test houses must adhere to a framework set by the Commission; this framework provides us with a level of confidence in the products being offered by Great British (GB) licensees. The current framework by which test houses are approved and deliver their services has been in place since 2007.

As part of our ongoing commitment to raising standards in the gambling industry we consulted on strengthening the framework for test houses. The consultation focused upon enhancements in four areas, accreditation, approval, reporting requirements and suspension/revocation.

The proposal was for Test Houses to work to an enhanced framework on a voluntary basis. If test houses do not agree to this approach, we would seek to amend the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) to require operators to only use a Test House that meets the enhanced standards. This document summarises our response to that consultation.

We received 20 responses to the consultation:

  • 6 from test houses
  • 7 from gambling operators
  • 2 from members of the public
  • 5 from others.

Next steps

There was significant support from respondents to the proposals in the consultation and following consideration of the responses we will implement the majority of the proposals. Where we have adapted our proposed approach, this has been in direct response to the concerns raised by respondents.

By introducing these changes, the Commission will bring the requirements of test houses in line to those in place for Licensees and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) entities. We will work with test houses to determine the finer details of the reporting requirements and transitional arrangements

Accreditation – changes to the current accreditation requirements

We will only accept accreditation from those that are tested to the revised framework. We will implement this change in full.

Some individual role-holders within the test houses acquire personal accreditation. We will not implement this change.

Approval – requirements for individuals to be approved

Companies and individuals that have business influence require our approval. We will implement this change in full.

Changes to the ownership and/or structure of the test house are notified to us immediately. We will implement this change in full.

Reporting requirements

We will introduce new reporting requirements:

  • immediate reporting notifications
  • annual reporting requirement.
    We will implement this change in full.

Revocation of test house approval

Introduce a framework which enables us to remove or suspend a test house’s approval. We will implement this change in full.

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