Tag Archives: clifton davies

Bitcoin’s return into the spotlight after the value of the crypto-currency recently hit a two-year high has reignited interest in gambling industry circles in the potential of harnessing blockchain technology. The launch in May of a new Bitcoin-only sports-betting offering – going by the familiar name of Sportsbet but with the fashionable-in-the-tech-world domain suffix of .io – has once again …

I moderated a European Update panel session at the annual conference of the International Association of Gaming Advisors, which took place earlier this month in Malta. Predictably, one topic that produced heated debate was the lack of harmonization, or even hope of harmonization, of gambling laws and licensing processes across the EU Member States but this led on to the …

The last month has seen a large number of regulatory developments that will have direct bearing on operators licensed by the Gambling Commission. Although it was not the first in chronological terms, my starting point is a speech given by Sarah Harrison, the Gambling Commission Chief Executive, at the Bingo Association AGM. It represented a summary of: what she called …

With ever increasing compliance responsibilities pursuant to the Gambling Commission’s LCCP and more soon to arise on implementation of the 4th Money Laundering Directive, betting operators might be forgiven for thinking that there was a limit to the extent to which even more onerous regulatory burdens could be heaped upon them in the near future. However, even greater focus on …

Licensing expert David Clifton, of gambling consultancy Clifton Davies, takes a look at the recent movement by the regulator to tighten up money-laundering processes and doesn’t see any good news for bookmakers. The recent publication on the Gambling Commission’s website of a public statement highlighting failures in Paddy Power’s anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility processes is the latest in what …

Most start-up businesses share a common expectation of commercial success. Whilst wholly admirable in terms of optimism, a danger nevertheless exists that this can on occasions border on misplaced over-confidence in what they perceive to be the inevitable consequence of their earnest endeavours, without there necessarily having been adequate advance focus on their advertising and marketing strategies. In the gambling …

As all operators licensed by the Gambling Commission reading this will surely be aware, they are required to uphold the licensing objectives under the Gambling Act 2005 and to have in place effective policies and procedures to identify and manage the risks to those objectives arising from their business. In order to uphold the first licensing objective to prevent gambling …

Gambling operators licensed by the Gambling Commission are required by LCCP social responsibility code provision 6.1.1 (which has the force of a licence condition) to: put in effect a written procedure for handling customer complaints and disputes and offer dispute resolution by an ADR provider. This is to ensure that customers with a dispute about the outcome of their gambling …

  Last year, when conducting its detailed review of the social responsibility elements of the Licence Conditions & Code of Practice (LCCP). The Gambling Commission announced that it would be consulting separately on crime provisions in the LCCP that would build on its experience gained through its growing body of casework on money laundering and criminal spend. That consultation has …

Consolidation within the betting industry, propelled by tougher regulatory requirements and higher rates of tax, has been hitting the headlines in recent months, with Ladbrokes and Coral, Betfair and Paddy Power, Bwin.party and 888/GVC leading the charge. Taking the first of those as an example, a combination of Ladbrokes 2,209 betting shops at the end of 2014 and Coral’s 1,834 …