Gambling Commission launches confidential reporting service
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“Tell us something in confidence” can be used to report a range of activities and issues to the Gambling Commission. These include match fixing and betting integrity, underage gambling, money laundering concerns, suspicious activity and unlicensed gambling or criminal activity.
Users can anonymously upload supporting information connected to their report such as photographs and documents. Additional information can be sent across via email or post.
There is also an option for users to share contact details should they wish to be contacted about the case.
Although billed as a one-stop service, the Commission says the new offering is primarily for signposting criminal and suspicious activity. Should consumers want to complain about a gambling business, they should do so via the existing complaint process.
The Commission added its confidential telephone service to anonymously report criminal or suspicious activity will continue to operate as usual.
“The tell us something in confidence service can be used to provide any information that people believe relates to criminal activity under the Gambling Act 2005 or any other information that people may think could be useful to the Commission from a regulatory perspective,” the Commission said.
Gambling Commission: Land-based gambling surge in 2022-23
The launch comes after the Commission last week published the latest statistics for Britain’s gambling market. Covering the period from April 2022 to March 2023, the data shows a rise in land-based gambling.
Gross gambling yield (GGY) grew 6.8% year-on-year to £15.10bn ($19.13bn/€17.61bn). This figure, accrued from all licensed remote and land-based gambling operators, was also up 6.6% on the last pre-lockdown period to March 2020.
GGY was up slightly more compared to the prior period when removing reported lotteries from the figures. The £10.9bn total was up 9.3% compared to 2021-22 and 7.6% compared to 2019-20.
Charity GambleAware also for the National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS). This showed people experiencing gambling-related harm from online slot games accounted for over a third of all contacts to support services in 2022-23.
Some 6,645 people contacted NGTS in the period. A total of 5,621 people (85%) accessed treatment from the NGTS, while the other 15% received support to address the impact of someone else’s gambling.
Of all contacts, 37.9% of those who accessed treatment were for online slots. Internet sports betting was second on 15.6% and fixed-odds gaming machines in bookmaker shops third at 12.8%. Sports betting and gaming machines in bookmakers each accounted for 10.1%.
