Gambling Commission CEO: “No More Warnings” for Bad Actor Suppliers

Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes has made clear there will be “no more warnings” for suppliers who offer games illegally.

The chief of the British regulator made a speech at the CEO Briefing, where he touched upon a number of issues the Commission faces.

More action to come

Rhodes’ comments about suppliers and illegal activity seem particularly poignant while the Commission is reviewing Evolution’s supplier license. The review was initiated by the Commission last December, after it found Evolution’s games were accessible from the UK via an unlicensed operator’s website. Evolution has predicted the review will complete by the end of 2025, and it is as yet unclear what punishment it could receive.

Rhodes said:

“Last year, I very deliberately urged everybody who has any B2B partners who might be supplying them with games or software, to make sure you do your due diligence as to where they’re doing business.

“There will be no more warnings for those actors. We will not accept any excuses. And you should as a sector, expect to see more enforcement action in the coming weeks and months.”

Black market under scrutiny

The black market in the UK is a common current topic of discussion, with industry figures talking about a potential growth in activity in this area if the remote betting and gaming duty (RBGD) is announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves as expected later this month.

The RBGD would replace the current system of three separate remote betting taxes. A report published by Ernst & Young, which was commissioned by the Betting & Gaming Council, forecast more than £1 billion in annual revenue could be lost to the black market if a tax rate of 50% of gross profit is brought in.

While Rhodes did not touch on the debate about the potential RBGD, he mentioned the scale of work the Commission is forced to carry out as a result of the black market. In the current financial year, the Commission has issued 480 cease and desists to advertisers and operators, and has seen more than 104,000 URLs removed as a result of reports sent to URL search engines.

Rhodes said: “There is nothing more exploitative than the illegal market. For the avoidance of doubt, because every time I give a speech, there are people who will pore over it and feel the need to tweet about it, we have been extremely active in this space, but we know we don't have coverage of all the risks that are out there.”

Crypto not one for the Commission

With regards to potential regulation of crypto operators, who are currently not required to obtain a license from the Commission, Rhodes said this is out of the regulator’s hands, stating: “This is going to have to be government level discussion and it is a government level decision because once you open that door, you cannot close it.”

Unlicensed sponsorship is wrong

Rhodes was far more opinionated on British football clubs being sponsored by operators who do not operate in the UK, but use the exposure of British football to generate business abroad.

“The Commission thinks it is wrong that people are sponsoring football clubs who don't have a license in this country,” Rhodes said. “But it is not necessarily automatically an infringement of the licensing objectives, because if they are not taking any traffic from Great Britain, it is difficult to see how that would be an infringement.”

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