Industry in a "panic" over reality check compliance
Slew of companies forced to ask GB Gambling Commission for extension after missed 30 April deadline
Online casino operators and providers are struggling to comply with the latest player protection requirements installed by Great Britain’s Gambling Commission last week, EGR has learned.
As of 30 April, operators are required to give customers the chance to set a ‘reality check’ – a warning which pops up at certain intervals throughout their game session. Likewise, providers are required to comply with new auto play rules which gives customers the chance to set loss limits before starting an autoplay session.
However, several industry insiders have told EGR the technical side of compliance has proved a lot more complex than expected with a host of games still not compliant.
One major UK operator told EGR its games only just managed to meet the deadline and was aware of major issues around the industry. “Vendors struggled to hit the time frame and it was an 11th hour situation,” the operator said.
The head of casino at a European operator questioned whether suppliers and operators gave themselves sufficient time to get the necessary technical work completed.
“It’s been left for so long from all sides that the deadline created a lot of panic – there’s a lot of operators and providers who aren’t ready,” the casino head said.
“No one looked into the documentation and realised how complex this project was going to be and by the time we realised, it was too late for the industry to work together on this and everyone ended up with a massive piece of work.
“I know there are some UK sportsbooks who are not ready, which is surprising to me given that the majority of traffic is from the UK.”
One UK sportsbook contacted by EGR said 90% of its games were compliant and the ones that weren’t came from third-party suppliers.
It also said the Commission had been understanding on the issue, with extensions granted without a specific deadline and non-compliant games allowed to remain on offer to customers as long as the issue was rectified as quickly as possible.
“We’re aware some operators have had issues,” a Gambling Commission spokesperson told EGR. “But, where operators have notified us of these in advance, we have been able to ensure they are dealt with appropriately and games are compliant as quickly as possible.
“Reality checks are an important way to provide customers with facilities to assist them to keep track of the time they spend gambling,” he added.
An executive at a European online casino called for increased collaboration among operators to ensure future regulations could be met without a similar struggle.
“The industry should come together on things like this in the future and agree on a standardised solution rather than 50 different ones,” he said. “There’s a lot of regulated markets and a lot of compliance issues and an operators forum or something could really help the industry.”