Britain-facing operators to foot multi-million pound self-exclusion bill
Operators required to contribute towards £2m start up and £1m annual costs for nation-wide self-exclusion scheme
Operators licensed by the GB Gambling Commission (GC) will be required to fund a multi-million pound nation-wide self-exclusion scheme according to a draft framework published by the regulator last week.
The GC said it estimated the cost of creating and setting up the scheme would “be in the region” of £2m with annual running costs of £1m, and that it expected the industry to foot the bill.
“The costs will need to be funded by the industry in full, being both the cost of the scheme itself and plus any additional running costs to administer it,” the Gambling Commission said.
“A mechanism will need to be created so that all operators who participate contribute towards the cost in an equitable way,” it added.
Funding mechanisms being considered include a establishing a specific levy, an annual licence fee, or some form of direct funding scheme.
The regulator, which last May announced its intention to devise a scheme whereby customers could exclude themselves from all British licensed operators through one site, said it expects the scheme to be available by 2017.
The GC said it will now seek views on a scheme which has been formed by a working group led by the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) with help from bet365, Betfair, Paddy Power, Sky Betting and Gaming, William Hill and Coral.
The scheme has been dubbed CHOOSE – Central Hub for Online Operator Self Exclusion – and will offer customers the option to self-exclude from all licensed sites for a minimum of six months.
All licensed sites will be required to take part in the scheme bar society lotteries that do not offer instant win games. The Gambling Commission said National Lottery operator Camelot was planning to take part in the scheme despite being subject to different legislation.
The working group came to the conclusion that it would be more beneficial to costs and performance if larger operators were to integrate the CHOOSE platform and database into its own systems, while smaller operators could just access CHOOSE at each customer log-in.
Larger operators would also be given access to customer data in order to help firms identify instances of excluded customers using linked accounts, however smaller operators could only access encrypted data.
“[]â¦operators will obviously be required to manage the unencrypted data securely and prevent its loss. While the working group were content that the benefits outweighed the low data security risks, it was not felt that this approach could be shared by all operators,” the Gambling Commission said.
CHOOSE will work alongside operators’ individual self-exclusion schemes which, as part of the licensing conditions and codes of practice, operators are bound to continue with.
The GC said an 8-week consultation period will being in the autumn and will allow for a “competitive tender process” for a contract to deliver CHOOSE.