UKGC Cites Cost to Withhold Compliance Data
Regulator reveals it would need to manually review over 22,000 records to provide a breakdown of its compliance activities since 2015.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed the UK Gambling Commission cannot easily provide a breakdown of its compliance assessments by licence type. The regulator cited the cost of manually reviewing over 22,000 records as the reason for withholding the data, highlighting a lack of transparency in its enforcement activities.
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UKGC Unable to Detail Compliance Activity by Sector
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has withheld detailed information on its compliance assessments, stating that the data is not held in an easily extractable format. The disclosure, made in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 5 June 2025, reveals a significant limitation in the regulator's ability to report on its own enforcement activities.
The request asked for the annual number of compliance assessments conducted since 2015, broken down by the type of gambling licence held by the operator. However, the Commission refused the request, citing cost and time constraints.
Why This Data Matters
Compliance assessments are a primary tool used by the UKGC to ensure gambling operators are adhering to the rules set out in their licence conditions and codes of practice (LCCP). These checks cover crucial areas such as social responsibility, anti-money laundering, and marketing practices.
For consumers, data on the frequency and focus of these assessments provides vital insight into how actively the regulator is monitoring different parts of the industry. A breakdown by licence type would show whether online casinos, high-street bookmakers, or lottery providers are receiving more or less regulatory scrutiny, helping consumers make informed choices about where they gamble.
Details of the FOI Response
The UKGC confirmed it holds the requested information but invoked Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This exemption allows public bodies to refuse requests where the cost of fulfilling them would exceed a set limit of £450, which equates to 18 hours of staff time.
To provide the data broken down by licence type, the Commission stated it would need to conduct a manual review of individual licensee records. The response revealed the scale of this task, noting it would cover 22,696 compliance records since 2015.
The regulator explained: "In order to breakdown the information by the licence held at the time of the assessment, we would be required to conduct a manual review of each record to obtain what licenses were held at the time... We estimate that it would take in excess of 18 hours to... locate, retrieve and extract any relevant information."
Significance for Regulatory Transparency
The refusal highlights a critical gap in the UKGC's data management systems. The inability to easily categorise and report on its own core regulatory activities by sector hinders public transparency and makes it difficult for external parties to analyse the Commission's strategic focus.
Without this data, it is challenging for the public, consumer protection groups, and researchers to assess whether the regulator's compliance efforts are being directed effectively across the diverse UK gambling market. While the UKGC offered to consider a narrowed request, the response indicates that fundamental data on its sector-specific compliance work is not readily accessible for public scrutiny.