UKGC Withholds Data Science Project Details
Regulator cites cost limits in response to a Freedom of Information request for details on its new data programme aimed at safer gambling.
The UK Gambling Commission has declined to release detailed documents about its new data science projects, which are central to its strategy for making gambling safer. The regulator cited cost limits under the Freedom of Information Act but offered to provide a list of project titles to facilitate a more specific request. This leaves the precise methods of the UKGC's data-driven consumer protection efforts undisclosed for now.
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UKGC Cites Costs to Withhold Details on New Data Programme
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has withheld detailed information regarding its new data science projects, citing the cost of fulfilling the request would exceed the legal limit. The decision, revealed in a Freedom of Information (FOI) response dated 1 September 2025, limits public insight into the regulator's developing data-driven approach to making gambling safer.
Context: Scrutinising a Core Regulatory Strategy
The UKGC has identified using data and analytics as a strategic priority to enhance the effectiveness of gambling regulation. This involves analysing vast amounts of information to better understand gambling behaviours, identify risks, and target interventions to prevent harm. As the regulator expands its technical capabilities, understanding how these new tools and projects operate is of significant public interest, particularly for consumers who may be directly affected by these data-driven systems.
The FOI request sought to shed light on this work, asking for specific documents related to projects undertaken by two recently recruited data scientists. The request originated from a reference to a "data programme" in the minutes of the UKGC's Digital Advisory Panel meeting on 17 January 2024.
The Request and the Refusal
The requester asked for a range of documents, including:
- Details of projects assigned to the two new data scientists.
- Information on completed pilot projects.
- Records of new projects initiated since January 2024.
- Presentations on "data work" delivered to the UKGC's Executive team and Board in September 2023 and March 2024.
The Commission confirmed it holds the information but refused to provide it under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. This exemption allows public authorities to decline requests where the cost of locating, retrieving, and extracting the information is estimated to exceed £450, or 18 hours of staff time.
The UKGC stated that searching its file stores and reviewing all relevant documents for each project and presentation would take longer than the 18-hour limit.
Significance: Transparency vs. Administrative Burden
While the refusal prevents immediate, detailed scrutiny of the UKGC's data projects, the response is not a complete dead end. The Commission has offered to assist the requester by providing a high-level document that lists the names of the projects.
This suggests the regulator is engaged in multiple data science initiatives but that broad requests for all associated documentation are too resource-intensive to process. The offer to provide a project list would allow for future, more targeted FOI requests focusing on specific initiatives.
For consumers, this means that while the specifics of the UKGC's new data-led consumer protection efforts remain behind closed doors for now, a pathway for future disclosure has been outlined. The initial refusal highlights the challenge of balancing public transparency with the administrative resources of regulatory bodies. Further, more specific inquiries will be necessary to understand how the Commission is using data to protect players from gambling-related harm.