The UK Gambling Commission will move forward with a proposal to increase the requirement for betting operators to submit regulatory declarations from once a year to once every three months.
Therefore, code provision 15.3.1 will be changed to require quarterly submissions.
Regulatory returns are used to verify that licensed gambling operators are in the correct fee category and to compile industry statistics and other data.
Although some have argued for a 42-day window, the regulator has decided that the period for declarations will be 28 days.
Regular industry data helps with future planning, says Gambling Commission
In November last year, a consultation on the change was launched, and it resulted in 45 responses. The Gambling Commission said 49% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the proposal.
But around a third disagreed and 15.5% neither agreed nor disagreed about the quarterly regularity of betting operators. Those in favor felt the measure would provide clearer and more timely insights into the harms of gambling.
At the same time, you can improve efficiency for licensees with more than one license type by aligning shipping dates for online and physical games. The proposal also involved simplifying submissions, reducing the number of data fields.
However, those who disagreed with the proposal stated that it would increase administrative burdens and costs for operators without providing better information. Thus, some players have suggested that less frequent reporting makes it easier to detect changes in rates.
The Gambling Commission is of the opinion that quarterly returns will benefit your ability to budget correctly and forecast accurately.
“Given the dynamic nature of the gambling industry, the quarterly returns will contribute to our objective of being a minimum risk-based regulator. Numbers that are always up to date help with results. Therefore, by aligning reporting periods across the industry, the quality of our data will improve.”
