Gambling Commission to tighten age verification in gambling premises

Following on from a consultation in May 2024, the Gambling Commission’s new rules requiring all gambling premises-based licensees (to include smaller licensees), to carry out age verification test purchasing, will be enforced from 30th August 2024. A link to the consultation can be found below.

The Gambling Commission’s Ordinary Code provisions will also be updated as of this date, to state that licensees should have processes in place (this can include cameras and remote age verification checks), requiring their staff to check the age of any customer who appears to be under 25, as opposed to the previous 21 years of age, which was the previous threshold.

The proposed changes to the Ordinary Code are as follows:

3.2.2 Casinos ordinary code

4. Licensees should put into effect procedures that require their staff to check the age of any customer who appears to them to be under 25.

3.2.4 AGC ordinary code

2. Licensees should put into effect procedures that require their staff to check the age of any customer who appears to them to be under 25.

3.2.6 Bingo and FEC ordinary code

2. Licensees should require a person who appears to relevant staff to be under the age of 25 to be asked to produce proof of age, either at the point of entry to the gambling area or as soon as it comes to the attention of staff that they wish to access gambling facilities.

3.2.8 Betting ordinary code

2. Licensees should put into effect procedures that require their staff to check the age of any customer who appears to them to be under 25.

Licensees should note the requirement to report all test purchases to the Gambling Commission at the end of the financial year in which the test(s) took place and the expectation is a minimum of one test purchase per premises per year.