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Report

Annual Report and Accounts 2020 to 2021

The Gambling Commission's 2020 to 2021 Annual Report and Accounts

Who we are

The Gambling Commission exists to make gambling fairer and safer.

We do that by licensing and regulating in the public interest and providing advice and guidance. We want a fair and safe gambling market where all consumers and the interests of the wider public are protected.

We are an independent non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) (opens in new tab) and license operators and individuals in Britain that provide arcades, gaming machines, betting, lotteries, bingo, remote gambling (online, telephone), casinos and gambling software.

We are also responsible for awarding the licence and regulating the operator of the National Lottery.

There are two main pieces of legislation that underpin our work:

We have 340 employees, most of whom are normally based at our Birmingham office. There are also around 20 people based in London working on the 4th National Lottery Licence Competition.

Licensing objectives

We regulate in the public interest, as guided by our statutory duties, to:

  • prevent gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime
  • ensure that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
  • protect children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

In respect of the National Lottery, our objectives are to ensure that:

  • every lottery that forms part of the National Lottery is run with all due propriety
  • the interests of every participant in the National Lottery are protected
  • subject to the above two duties, to secure that the net proceeds of the National Lottery are as great as possible.
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