Remote gambling has provided operators in the betting and gaming industry with opportunities to reach a larger, international customer base and represents a major proportion of the total worldwide gambling market.
To provide online gambling facilities in Great Britain, it’s necessary to obtain a Remote Operating Licence from the Gambling Commission. Granted by sector, these licences can be obtained for businesses wanting to offer casino games (including slots and poker), bingo, betting, and lottery products. With applicants wanting to offer gambling in more than one of these sectors able to obtain a single combined licence covering all activities.
Whether you intend to offer business to consumer (B2C) facilities or business to business (B2B facilities, an operating licence is required. Furthermore, companies supplying online games or other remote gambling software to Commission licensed operators must themselves be licensed by the Gambling Commission. If a remote operating licence applicant is to develop its own gambling software, then it must submit the gambling software application at the same time.
Yes, you’ll need Personal Management Licences (PMLs) for staff with senior management responsibility. This includes those individuals responsible (as head of the function) for strategy and delivery of gambling, financial planning and budgeting, regulatory compliance, marketing, and commercial development and gambling related IT and Security.
The cost of obtaining a licence will vary depending on what licences you require, the nature of the gambling product, the complexity of the ownership structure and the projected revenues – the licence application fees are broken down into bands of projected gross gambling yield.
When you contact our team, we’ll scope out the required work and provide an estimate of anticipated costs up to the stage that the application is filed.
We can help you with all areas of law and services relating to the establishment of a remote gambling business, including:
- Acting as the UK correspondence address for the Gambling Commission if you are based overseas
- Liaising with the Commission to make your application process as smooth as possible
- Regulatory Panel hearings where an application is referred to the Panel for determination
- Restructuring of gambling businesses
- Gambling Commission information requests
- Policies, procedures and controls and on-going compliance
- Change of Corporate Control applications
- Transaction due diligence
- Investor due diligence
- Acquisitions and disposals.
Contact us today to discuss your needs with an expert in an initial consultation.
Examples of our past work includes:
- Advising US based game suppliers on UK licensing requirements and securing Gambling Software Operating Licence and Personal Management Licences.
- Advising on proposed changes to a licensee’s corporate structure and the requirement to secure approval of the change of corporate.
- Advising on a section 116 review initiated by the Gambling Commission for an operator’s breach of Advertising Codes of Practice and the enforcement undertaken by the Advertising Standards Authority, including the review of numerous websites to bring them into compliance.
- Advising on a breach of data security and the consequent enforcement action.
- Advising operators facing enforcement action for breaches of AML and Social Responsibility controls.
Our team of gaming lawyers has lots of experience in the remote gambling sector. We regularly advise clients who wish to offer an online experience to their customers and includes members of the International Masters of Gaming Lawyers (IMGL).
We regularly act for clients engaged in the provision of gambling facilities and the manufacture and supply of gambling software.
We also regularly advise clients on the categorisation of products such as video games and whether they involve the provision of facilities for gambling because of the wide definition of games of chance in the Gambling Act. They may not constitute a gambling product in other jurisdictions, but if they’re to be offered in Great Britain, advice should be obtained whether a remote gambling licence is required.
