UKGC Withholds Data on Withdrawal Rule Breaches
Regulator declines to provide specific figures on operators penalised for late ID checks, citing existing public records.
The UK Gambling Commission has refused a Freedom of Information request for data on operators penalised for delaying withdrawals with late ID checks. The regulator stated the information is publicly available in individual reports, but this lack of a clear total makes it difficult for consumers to assess the scale of the problem and enforcement effectiveness.
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UKGC Declines to Tally Penalties for Late ID Checks
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has withheld specific data on the number of gambling operators penalised for delaying customer withdrawals with late identity verification requests. In a response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 6 February 2023, the regulator stated that it would not provide a consolidated figure, directing the public to its existing publications of enforcement actions.
Why This Data Matters to Consumers
Licence Condition 17 (LC17) of the UKGC's regulations is a key consumer protection measure. It requires operators to verify a customer's identity before they can gamble. A crucial aspect of this rule is to prevent a common frustration where a player deposits and plays freely, only to face ID verification hurdles and delays when they attempt to withdraw their winnings.
The FOI request sought to quantify how effectively this rule is being enforced by asking for three key figures:
- The total number of businesses found in breach of LC17.
- How many of those businesses faced regulatory action.
- Specifically, how many faced action for delaying a withdrawal by requesting ID they could have asked for earlier.
This data would provide a clear, top-level view of the prevalence of this issue and the scale of the UKGC's response.
The Commission's Response
Instead of providing the requested numbers, the UKGC invoked Section 21 of the FOIA, which exempts information that is “reasonably accessible elsewhere.”
The Commission explained that it publishes details of its enforcement activity through public statements and a list of regulatory sanctions on its website. These publications detail the operator's failings and any resulting action, which can range from a warning to a financial penalty or licence revocation.
However, the regulator's response confirms that it does not compile or release this information in an aggregated format. This means that to find the answer to the request, a member of the public would need to manually review all individual public statements issued by the UKGC and attempt to categorise them, a time-consuming and potentially inconclusive process.
Significance for the Industry
The UKGC's refusal to provide a simple tally raises questions about regulatory transparency. While individual enforcement actions are made public, the lack of aggregated data makes it difficult for consumers and industry observers to gauge the overall effectiveness of enforcement on this specific, widespread consumer issue.
Without a clear total, it is challenging to assess whether breaches of withdrawal rules are a growing or shrinking problem, or how consistently the Commission applies regulatory action in these cases. For consumers, it means there is no straightforward way to know how many operators are being held accountable for a practice that can unfairly prevent them from accessing their own funds.