Strategy
National Strategic Assessment 2020
This report sets out our latest assessment of the issues we face and the risks that gambling poses to consumers and the public
What are the issues - Ownership and governance
Gambling provision is becoming global in nature with licensees providing services in several international markets. This means the risks we face including money-laundering and betting integrity are global in nature and require global measures in response.
International co-operation is becoming increasingly important to understand trends and address the risks posed by international digital platforms and providers.
Over the past few years there has been significant consolidation in the gambling market, with high-profile mergers, meaning regulation must adapt to manage the risk posed by larger entities.
This increased market consolidation results in large, well-resourced organisations that are well placed to develop creative regulatory solutions but conversely are better equipped to pose regulatory challenges.
A growing number of licensees providing facilities into Britain have complex international ownership structures. To ensure only suitable entities and individuals are licensed requires additional investment in forensic accounting skills, to assess the increasingly complex financial arrangements in ownership and funding structures and specialised legal opinion.
While these skills are primarily relevant to licence applications, changes of corporate control and variations, they also form an increasingly important component of our compliance and enforcement work.
Any entity or individual wishing to operate in the British market must be prepared to be transparent and co-operative with us. Our licensing casework in relation to changes of corporate control has exposed a failure on the part of some applicants to provide complete information resulting in drawn out and expensive licensing processes.
GC action
We will continue to apply stringent processes to ensure applicants are suitable to hold a licence, undertake a comprehensive programme of compliance work to test licensees remain suitable to hold a licence and take swift enforcement action in cases of non-compliance.
We will publish the response to our consultation on our corporate governance including our approach to regulatory panels.
What do we know Next section
What are the issues - Change of corporate control
Last updated: 2 June 2021
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