Gambling Commission strengthening ties with US industry

Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller has revealed the UK regulator is close to beefing up ties with the US industry through a raft of fresh partnerships.

Speaking at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas this week, Miller said the UKGC is “close to concluding” a number of Memoranda of Understanding with US counterparts that he said will help “establish clear working relationships that will support all of us to be more effective.”

He used his speech at G2E to call on gambling regulators across the world to be more collaborative in order to become “more effective” in cracking down on illegal activity.

However, he said collaboration can also feed into education on the issue for stakeholders acting in and supplying the industry.

“Only through working together can we ensure we all have safe, fair and crime free gambling,” Miller said.

“If as regulators we are able to speak more often with one voice then it will enhance our ability to influence those outside the industry – who need to play a more positive and direct role in tackling issues like illegal gambling.

“The collective voice of gambling regulators across the globe pressuring big tech companies, banks and even some other jurisdictions to address the role they play in facilitating illegal gambling, will be much harder to ignore.”

Miller said the UK regulator’s recent work on expanding collaboration efforts involved talks with the North American Gaming Regulators Association and the Gambling Regulators European Forum.

He pointed to GamProtect and the Single Customer View as another pertinent UKGC priority alongside the Betting and Gaming Council, with the regulator now “expecting a further update on the progress of this project before it is expanded to cover more operators and more consumers as a result.”

He said the regulator has received “thousands of responses” to the first tranche of white paper consultations, which close next Wednesday. They cover financial risk and vulnerability checks, age verification in premises, direct marketing and cross-selling and remote games design.