Gambling Commission consults on revised statutory guidance for licensing authorities

The Gambling Commission has launched a consultation to review and reissue its Guidance to Licensing Authorities (GLA).

The Commission’s formal guidance on the functions of licensing authorities – required under the Gambling Act 2005 – was last published in May 2009 (the GLA3).

“Since then some references in the guidance have become out of date, and there are a small number of new topics that we want to cover, such as test purchasing and more explicit coverage of poker,” the Commission said.

The Commission added that it was aware that in early 2012 many licensing authorities would be reviewing and revising their three-year Statement of Policy.

“The revised GLA will not be published until after this work has been done, but you can continue to rely on the existing version as our revision will not represent a change in policy or approach by the Commission,” it explained.

The Commission added that Statements of Policy needed to be published four weeks prior to 31 January 2013 (i.e. on or by 3 January 2013).

The consultation will end on 6 July 2012. More information is available here.