The Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) set out the requirements for gambling operating and personal licences. There are four types of licence conditions, such as general licence conditions, individual license conditions, amendments to the law and stationary conditions. They have different status’ in the law, but gambling operators licenced by the Gambling Commission need to comply with all of them.
Codes of practice are either social responsibility code provisions or ordinary code provisions. Social responsibility codes are applicable to all licensed operators, while ordinary codes do not have the status of licence conditions but failure to comply with them can result in criminal or corporate penalties.
The LCCP is not static. The Gambling Commission makes amendments or additions to the LCСP on a regular basis to introduce the most effective means of promoting socially responsible gambling. All UK gambling operators should check for the most up to date LCCP version.
In July, the society lottery reform entered into force. The amendments reflected in the new version of the LCCP have introduced new requirements to help lottery consumers make better informed decisions about whether to gamble. Licensees must provide the details of how proceeds are used, the likelihood of winning a prize and how prizes are allocated before the customer is engaged in playing.
The social lottery reform has also increased the financial limits within Licence Condition 11:
- Individual draw proceeds of up to £5,000,000 (raised from £4,000,000);
- Annual aggregate proceeds of up to £50,000,000 (up from (£10,000,000);
- A maximum individual prize of up to £500,000 rather than £400,000, provided that the lottery proceeds reach the new maximum individual draw level.
The changes to the LCCP and guidance came into effect on the 29th of July 2020.
On the 30th of July, the Gambling Commission announced publication of its consultation response document entitled “Changes to information requirements in the licence conditions and code of practice (LCCP), regulatory returns, official statistics, and related matters”. This document summarises the proposed changes to parts of the LCCP relating to the information it requires licensees to provide to the Gambling Commission. The aim of the upcoming amendments is to improve regulatory returns, data collection and official statistics publications.
The amendments will be made to the following licence conditions: pool betting, reporting suspicion of offences, reporting of systematic or organised money lending, reporting key events, access to gambling by children and young persons, complaints and disputes. The new version of the LCCP will come into effect from the 31st of October 2020.
Compliance with the LCCP is a very important part of running your business and we recommend you regularly train your personnel on relevant LCCP changes. The Gambling Commission has powers to take action against licensed operators who fail to comply with the updated licence conditions and codes of conduct.
If you are interested in taking our LCCP course or would like to arrange a consultation with iGaming Academy, contact us today.
