GB black market yet to emerge, says Gambling Commission
Regulator hits back at PoC critics saying black market fears have proven false with "no evidence" of offshore operators targeting Britain
Great Britain’s Gambling Commission has hit back at critics who suggested the implementation of its Point of Consumption regime would lead to the growth of a large black market, saying there is “no evidence” of any illegal operators targeting British players.
“As far as unlicensed activity is concerned, we have found no evidence of the threatened move underground or emergence on any scale of illegal websites targeting Britain,” the Commission wrote in its annual report released earlier this week.
Last year several industry figures predicted that PoC would see a large black market develop in Britain when it was finally introduced in November, with Phill Brear, the Gambling Commissioner of Gibraltar, warning that the regime would give “free-reign” to unlicensed operators.
“The evidence and consequences of such an approach from the US, France, Italy and Spain have been under-weighed and the same problems will emerge in months and years to come, but it is their choice,” Brear said.
But the Commission said this scenario had yet to emerge and highlighted arrangements with payment service providers, platforms such as Google and Facebook and advertisers, which it said was “working well” in disrupting the activities of a small number of unlicensed operators.
It added that it now regulates “nearly 100% of the domestic remote market” instead of the less than 15% it regulated before last year’s legislation came into force and GGY for the remote sector in the UK is expected to be £2.8 billion in FY14-15, compared to £1.1 billion in FY13-14.
Earlier this week UK courts ruled that the PoC levy could be in breach of European law and will be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union in what was seen as a major boost in the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association’s attempt to overturn the legislation.