Gambling - Further Test Purchase Operations By The Gambling Commission

The Gambling Commission (in conjunction with local authorities) has undertaken a further round of test purchasing in relation to the access by under 18’s to gambling premises and the use of gambling facilities by those under 18 year old.

This operation was aimed at small and medium sized operators and covered betting operators, bingo premises, adult gaming centres and casinos.

Some key pointers from the release by the Commission are to be noted;

• Around 60 premises were tested across 10 local authority areas.
• Those excluded from the operation were first those operators that employ a third party to provide independent monitoring and crucially share results with the Commission, and secondly those operators who are part of a trade association developing “similar robust scheme for all its members”.
• The largest betting operators were not tested as they provide data to the Commission.
• In 9 out of 23 AGC’s tested the under age individual was “able to enter the premises play a game for several minutes and exit the premises without any challenge being made”. Although in approximately half of those 23 tested the young person was challenged at the threshold.
• In “smaller betting premises” of 31 tested there was no challenge at all in 20 cases.

The Commission indicate that bingo premises and independently operated casinos were tested and “these tests demonstrated that the use of a membership scheme might provide a sufficient control but……the sample size of tests was small”.

What is clear is that the Commission will continue to pursue this area and in fact confirm there is an ongoing test purchasing programme and that further results will be available next summer.

It is clearly an area that all operators, large and small, need to consider and put in place preventative measures or the commission state “consideration will be given to mandating new measures to improve the degree of protection offered”.

For the full release and report please see the Gambling Commissions website.