ARJEL signs MoU with UK Gambling Commission
Bilateral cooperation agreement will see regulators share information in order to combat illegal operators and fight gambling addiction.
The heads of L’Autorité de regulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL) and the UK Gambling Commission have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise cooperation and information sharing between the two gambling regulators.
“In the absence of a harmonised regulatory framework for online gambling, and despite the differences in approaches, bilateral cooperation agreements between regulators allow for more transparency in ensuring a fair and socially responsible regulation,” ARJEL president Jean-François Vilotte said in a statement this morning.
Similar to the agreement signed between ARJEL and Italian regulator AAMS last year, the MoU is designed to combat collusion, preserve integrity, ensure player protection, and effectively supervise licensed, and ban illegal, operators as well as protecting sporting integrity.
Earlier this year Vilotte announced that the Gambling Commission was in talks to join the ARJEL-AAMS MoU, with the Spanish General Directorate for the Regulation of Online Gambling (DGOJ) also becoming part of the information-sharing circle. However, this agreement is understood to only apply to the UK and French regulators.
It comes after member of the European Commission responsible for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier called for “more action” on pan-European regulation. Speaking at a conference in Brussels earlier this month the commissioner explained: “We need to tackle these challenges together.
“This is why I will be proposing to the Commission in the autumn that we adopt a plan of action to effectively regulate and supervise online betting and gambling,” he said.