Gambling Commission presses ahead with licence fee revamp
Great Britain's regulator proposes new fee structure which could see biggest firms pay more
The Gambling Commission has launched a consultation on a series of proposed changes to its British licence fee structure which could see leading firms in the market pay more than double their current fees.
The consultation, which was released in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, proposes an increased number of sub-divisions based on gross gaming yield to calculate licence fee payment.
The Commission said the proposed structure, which should be in place for April 2017, would better reflect the size of a business with smaller operators likely to see reduced fees but larger firms pay more.
The new structure would also, according to the Commission, reflect a more proportionate recovery of regulatory costs and remove a barrier to entry and business expansion.
While an increased number of bands will see smaller firms pay less for their licences, those of a greater scale could see their fees more than doubled.
For instance, operators with betting GGY of between ?220m and ?550m per year would see their betting licence fee rise from ?117,746 to ?281,058 – an increase of 138%.
The regulator considers GGY derived via customers based in Britain and also international transactions where the operator uses the Gambling Commission licence in order to do business to calcuate licence fees.
Meanwhile, the proposals also laid out plans to introduce a new licence type for B2B suppliers which also host games through B2C remote casino or bingo partners.
At present providers need to hold both a B2B and B2C licence however, it is proposed that a more cost effective ‘game host’ licence type be introduced in order to reduce the burden on such suppliers.
The consultation comes after the Gambling Commission had last year requested a review of the licence fee structure, with the regulator now having greater scope and demand following the re-regulation of the remote market in late 2014.
Industry has until 9 September to respond to the consultation.