March 6, 2019

On 4 March, the Gambling Commission released its full response to the informal consultation on the amendments to the protection of customer funds rating system.

For several years the Gambling Commission has required all operators who hold customer funds to make available information about their arrangements for the protection of those funds in their terms and conditions. This information is also required to be made available at the point of depositing money with the operator, in a manner which requires the customer to actively acknowledge the information and which restricts the customer from utilising funds until they have done so.

The most notable amendment introduced by the Commission’s response has been to what was known as the “basic” rating, which is the minimum requirement for all remote operators who hold customer funds. This will now be defined as “not protected”.

In accordance with Licence Condition 4.2.1 (disclosure to customers), operators are required to notify customers of the modification to the levels of protection upon any subsequent deposit following the change.

Operators will have 8 weeks to implement the changes introduced by the Commission’s response to this consultation.