Gambling Commission sets out approach to test purchasing
The Gambling Commission has published an advice note setting out its approach to test purchasing for gambling in England and Wales.
The regulator said the purpose of the note was to provide clarity to operators, co-regulators and others about how they might reasonably expect the Commission to act.
“Test purchasing is one means by which the Commission can measure the effectiveness of licensees’ efforts to control risks to the licensing objectives,” it said. “It is a targeted activity focused upon what the Commission considers to be important aspects of managing risk. Examples include the effectiveness of self exclusion procedures, controls on underage gambling and anti-money laundering policies and procedures.”
The regulator said it would generally not prioritise test purchasing in sectors and on themes where it is satisfied that “operators have in place their own arrangements for monitoring compliance, that those arrangements are effective and the results are made available to the Commission”.
It suggested it was most likely to use test purchasing for two purposes: to assess thematic compliance of operators with aspects of the legislation and/or licence conditions and codes so as to be able to assess risk to the licensing objectives; and in an enforcement context, to gather evidence in relation to breaches committed by individual operators.
The Commission insisted it was not looking to ‘catch out’ individual operators when assessing thematic compliance. It will normally give notice to the relevant sector when carrying out thematic compliance test purchasing.
The advice note sets out the relationship and interplay between the Commission and licensing authorities, with their “overlapping but distinctive responsibilities”. The Commission’s focus in relation to test purchasing is on operators whose scale of activity is such that non-compliance would have either a regional or national impact.
The publication includes excerpts from the Co-Regulators Concordat and accompanying protocols on communication and compliance and enforcement. “In the normal course of business, the Commission would inform the relevant licensing authorities (those who have premises within their geographical boundaries which are planned to be included in a test purchasing operation) of the detail of the operation in advance,” it said. “A similar expectation applies to such operations when the lead agency is a LA.”
The Commission said such forward planning helped ensure the following does not occur:
- an operator or an individual premises is unnecessarily tested twice in a short period of time
- an operator who has been tested by one regulator, and has recently implemented an improvement plan, is then retested whilst implementing the plan
- an operator who is managing their business risk in a responsible manner by employing an independent third party to conduct test purchasing, and who is sharing those results and improvement plans with a regulator is tested without consideration first being given to the operator’s actions to date (and taken into account in terms of risk assessment)
- a test purchasing exercise conflicts with other compliance or enforcement work that may be in process in relation to an individual operator, premises or personal licence holder.
The regulator said that it had engaged with the Local Better Regulation Office and the Better Regulation Executive on the subject of Primary Authority schemes. “Whilst the question as to whether aspects of gambling regulation may be suitable for inclusion within the scheme are subject to further consultation it may be helpful to consider the Commission as acting akin to the Primary Authority,” it added. “This applies particularly to aspects of compliance that are most likely to be of interest to LAs in relation to test purchasing – for example age verification.”
In February this year some 10 out of 13 amusement arcades in County Durham failed an under-age test purchase conducted by Durham County Council and the Gambling Commission. It was the first time the council had used its powers in this way.
The publication can be downloaded from the Gambling Commission website.
Philip Hoult
