Gambling - Commission publish Response to Annual Assurance Statement

Last year the Gambling Commission published a consultation on proposed new social responsibility controls, details of which can be viewed on our earlier news report: 'Gambling Commission Consultation on proposed new social responsibility controls'.

The Commission has now published their response to the consultation which in general follows the original proposal.

It is interesting to note that although the Commission had previously stated that there were no plans to lower the £25 threshold that their “view remains that the £25 million GGY threshold strikes a reasonable balance between getting appropriate coverage (and thus assurance from the bulk of the industry) and not being an undue burden on smaller operators. We will, nevertheless, keep the basis of this threshold under review and adjust as needed to reflect prevailing market conditions.”

The Commission’s position is that they will introduce the assurance statement requirement through licence condition 15.3.1, piloting it initially. The pilot will allow operators to assess the level of effort they need to make to compile their assurance statement, as well as consider the most effective time for them make their submissions in future years.

The Commission propose to extend the pilot submission window to end on 14 February 2016, giving operators a further 6 weeks from the original end date of 31 December 2015 to submit their completed assurance statements.

The full response can be viewed here: 'Annual Assurance Statements Responses July 2015'