UK Gambling Commission reiterates message to licensees of CoCC obligations

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has reminded its licensees about seeking approval before making any change of corporate control (CoCC) and stated the consequences of not following its rules.

As part of its bulletin for April and May, the UKGC has stated that the old policy of allowing late CoCC applications with valid reasons will be changing in July 2022.

This policy change will see the reasoning tightened dramatically and failure to do so could result in the regulator revoking the licence.

Currently, as part of Section 102 of the Gambling Act 2005, an individual or entity must inform the UKGC of a CoCC and either surrender its licence or ask the UKGC for the licence to continue. The Commission will then make its decision after that. If the licensee has not informed the regulator within five weeks of the CoCC taking place then its licence will be automatically revoked.

Now, this is set to change as the UKGC stated: “An increase in the complexity, and number, of applications, means we will be taking a stricter approach to late submissions.

“From July, where the explanation is considered not to be adequate or reasonable, there will be a refusal to grant an extension and revocation in instances where the new controller is unknown to the Commission and is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or is an immediate family member that is entering a small family business.”

The UKGC recommends that all levels of a company’s ownership structure understand what changes might trigger its obligations to inform the regulator of changes.

This message comes ahead of the publication of the white paper review into the Gambling Act 2005.