The Commission has announced that its new customer interaction guidance will set prescriptive rules to require operators to take action when customers exhibit a range of indicators of harm. The guidance (yet to be published) will come into effect on 12 September 2022 and is expected to be published in “early June”. You can read the Commission’s announcement here and consultation response here.

The thorny issue of ‘affordability’ (i.e. defined loss thresholds and the action that must be taken when customers reach them) will be explored further in a future consultation.

The Commission’s consultation response reveals that the new LCCP requirement will move away from requiring operators to “interact” when customers exhibit potentially problematic behaviours, instead requiring operators to “act”. Operators will be expected take “more urgent and proactive action” where customers show “strong indicators” of harm, including by “refusing service…where necessary”. The devil will be in the detail of what this will actually mean for operators and consumers, but the updated LCCP requirement is a clear move towards setting prescriptive, minimum standards in order to raise the standards of player protection controls across the online gambling industry.