Undercover Investigation Into Gambling Sites

The UK Gambling Commission has released the results of an undercover investigation into Gambling Websites that operate under the UK’s new “remote gambling” licence. The investigation comes at the end of the first full year of the new regulations coming into effect.

The Gambling Commission used “mystery shoppers” to sign up (or attempt to sign-up) at 37 gambling sites, posing as regular punters and at times as under-age players.   The objective was to test the effectiveness of the gambling sites’ systems to prevent underage gambling, the availability of financial limits set by the player, the availability of gambling awareness information and the availability of an option for the player to exclude themselves from gambling.

The Commission adopted the identities of 16 year old volunteers (with parental consent) and attempted to deposit, gamble and withdraw winnings using a type of bank account that is widely available to this age group.  They entered false date of birth information to make it appear as though they were 18 (the legal age for gambling in the UK).

In total the sites tested have 14.3 million players registered with them.  The largest sites on the internet were targeted, along with some sites which had previously displayed weaknesses with their age verification or social responsibility processes.

Of the sites tested, just 2.5% were identified as having weaknesses in their age verification or social responsibility processes during the investigation.  Those who fell foul have been notified and will be re-tested in the near future to ensure they have improved their processes.  The Gambling Commission states :

Generally the weaknesses identified with Commission license holders occurred in operators with a small customer base…Over 99% of the active customer accounts were registered with operators that had responsible gambling information easily accessible, self exclusion measures available and financial limits available.  All Commission license holders with weaknesses have since improved their systems or have ceased operating a gambling website under a Commission license.

The investigation is on-going, with sites being regularly checked by the Commission to ensure they are complying with the terms of their licenses.  For players, the Gambling Commission investigations give reassurance that there is at last an effective regulatory authority checking up on gambling websites.  For a list of casinos, sportsbooks and gambling websites that comply with the UK Gambling Commission guidelines, take a look at our reputable casinos page.

Tags: Gambling News, Gambling Rules, investigations, UK Gambling Commission