Gambling - Discussion paper on the Gambling Commission's approach to setting fees

In July 2012, the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee published a report “The Gambling Act 2005: A Bet Worth Taking?". In response, the previous Government indicated that it would consider reviewing the Gambling Commission's fees and costs once the changes to the regulation of remote gambling had been fully implemented.

The Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 came into force in November 2014 and made changes to the regulation of remote gambling. Further, the Government changed the basis of remote gambling taxation with effect from December 2014.

As a year has nearly elapsed since the changes to regulation, the Commission considers that a review can now commence as they will have the first full year's data after the commencement of the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 and therefore a clearer picture of the immediate impacts the changes to remote gambling regulation have had on the Commission's costs and income.

The Commission is therefore now planning to advise the Government to amend the current fees regulations to take account of the significant changes in the population of operators that are regulated and to address identified problems in the current fees structure and is developing its advice to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The Commission states that purpose of this discussion document is to “explain our approach to recovering costs through licence fees, our current thinking on how the fees structure can be improved, and the implications of the 2014 Act on our costs, income and therefore on the fees needed to recover those costs; and to invite comments to help us prepare our advice on these issues to government.”

This discussion paper on fees explains:

• How the Commission has set about recovering the costs of its operations via fees.
• How that approach has developed both with better information and with the maturing relationship between the Commission and its licensees alongside the Commissions continuing drive to reduce the costs of regulation.
• How the Commission envisages that approach underpinning its advice to the Department on changes needed to the fees regulations.

The Commission has requested that any comments or suggestions on the approach set out in the paper be provided to discussion@gamblingcommission.gov.uk by 27 October 2015.

They will also be arranging a workshop with the main trade associations to be held on 24 September 2015.

The full report can be viewed here: 'Gambling Commission - Fees Discussion Paper'