UK Gambling Commission Advises GamStop Improvements Before Country-Wide Roll-Out

United Kingdom Gambling Commission has released a public statement in which they raise concerns over the online self-exclusion system, GamStop level of quality in the wake of its mandatory roll-out with all licensees that need to integrate it.

They are calling for more improvements and work to be done on the system before the majority of operators in the UK, who have partnered the system, go live with it. In fact, the regulator wants to make signing up for GamStop a condition for obtaining their license.

Plenty of Welcome Steps, But...

UKGC's lengthy statement can be best summarized with this excerpt:

‘’We welcome the establishment of GamStop and the ongoing steps they have been taking to continually develop and improve the scheme. We are pleased to see that a large number of people are already getting protection through signing up and we hear directly from people about the benefits it has provided.

However, the scheme has not yet reached the point where we are satisfied to trigger the requirement for all operators to become members. We will continue to support GamStop’s work to ensure the further developments and improvements are made.’’

RGA Approves UKGC's Measures

GamStop was developed...

…by Remote Gambling Association (RGA) that has designed it so to let all interested customers block access to all iGaming sites operated by brands who have signed up with this system. UKGC's idea is to make GamStop mandatory for all holders of license in Great Britain moving forward.

RGA's official stance is that it wouldn't mind if this idea came to fruition.

RGA's spokesperson has already stated that the Remote Gambling Association and their members support GamStop fully and that this “groundbreaking social responsibility support tool is helping more than 70,000 people who have self-excluded so far.”

"We would welcome the inclusion of being registered with GAMSTOP as a condition of licence. Self-exclusion is an important tool in tackling problem gambling and the industry has been very supportive of this system. We will continue to innovate and improve self-exclusion and other schemes to address the issue of problem gambling."

Working As a Duet

RGA's statement continues with reaffirmation of hopes...

...that this particular system can indeed become a requirement for license holders and that National Online Self Exclusion Scheme is working in tandem with the GC to make this happen.

Their commitment to work closely with the national regulator towards this scheme becoming a license condition is not even a question. "In the meantime our priority is to provide the best possible service to the many thousands of individuals who are currently registered.”

In April 2018, GamStop had a so-called “soft launch,” meaning it was only launched with test operators before the full-on release. It was supposed to go live in 2017, but has been under fire for flaws and certain poor aspects that were under scrutiny ever since.

December saw a major investigation by the BBC which established that players could bypass the system by changing user details. After this, the team behind GamStop was working diligently on fixing the issues with this.

To assist with this, UKGC introduced enhanced ID verification on May 7th.

Source:

“GC: Improvements needed before GamStop becomes mandatory”, igamingbusiness.com, September 2, 2019.