How much time have you spent on UK Gambling Commission compliance-related matters?

[MichaelCorfman]

The time and effort involved in dealing with compliance requirements has increased dramatically in the past few months. UK licensed operators are under heavy scrutiny by the UK Gambling Commission, and that organization is looking for opportunities to make examples of operators who are not in compliance with the regulations or are working with affiliates that are not in compliance. The result has been the issuance of new requirements from operators with a frequency that is leaving many affiliates dizzy.

So, for this week's poll, I figure it makes sense to ask affiliates how much time they have spent dealing with compliance-related matters over the past three months. Besides voting in the poll, share your opinion about how you see matters evolving. Do you think the time required now is as much as it was a month ago? How do you see the time required evolving over the coming months. Have you given up trying to be compliant and abandoned working with UK licensed operators or are you considering doing that?

Michael

[Former Member 14]

When BP and Fullcream were still accepting AU traffic, and I had active players, had no option but to provide KYC data, or I wouldn't get paid. However now that's a moot point - both no longer accept AU traffic. Don't promote to the UK. I have both AU and UK traffic blocked. Problems solved

[baldidiot]

Impossible to say really. Far too much - we've basically ended up redeveloping our entire network.

[ChRR]

voted 400 hours, and expect to do at least 2 times more than that, its a continuous work.... its a never ending thing to do and a "pain in the ass".

The compliance thing is easy to integrate into our network now, we started like 7 months ago, i think it took me around 2 months to fully make the whole network ready for this....

The downside is that every little program wants T&Cs displayed in different places .... which is a pain ....

[big fish]

A lot of time, no idea how many hours though. In the long run its good that the industry is getting tougher on regulations. hopefully land based casinos will start enforcing gaming regulations more as well. IMO legitimate online casinos are already more fair than land based casinos. all of these regulation enforcement from UKGC will help create a stronger industry over time. land based casinos cheat players and 99% of people are totally unaware of all of the tricks they do (speaking from experience spending too much time gambling in real world casinos)

[Parth84]

A real pain in the ass I would say. Everytime I think of being done, someone pings me up.... So frustrating

[casinodonkies.com]

I didn't notice how many hours, but now we aren't focusing on UK players anymore.

[Cash Bonus]

I never had to spend any time on compliance-related matters. I also only focus on UK players to a certain extent.

[Triple7]

Too much, not because I have a UK facing website, but because some operators apply UK crap to everybody and the whole compliance thing at many operators is a big mess.

[Sherlock]

Way way over 400 hours, maybe 4000 if all people combined. The worst is that it did not make sense, because UK market died.

[Pokerface]

There are times that far too much time is being spent of compliance albeit it is important. What is frustrating is many, if not each program puts their own spin (no pun intended) on the regulations and there is no consistency. In addition many programs demand changes with very short deadlines without considering that they are not the only program and as affiliates we have many programs that may need updating for compliance.

[Triple7]

There are times that far too much time is being spent of compliance albeit it is important. What is frustrating is many, if not each program puts their own spin (no pun intended) on the regulations and there is no consistency. In addition many programs demand changes with very short deadlines without considering that they are not the only program and as affiliates we have many programs that may need updating for compliance.

Exactly.

I've prepared a set of KYC-documents that I could use for every KYC request. One should say...

But no, always programs that are requesting more things. If you're doing business with a company, what sense does it make to have electricity bills of all shareholders and all directors? Or the details of all the senior managers...

[Sherlock]

There is a sense. But of course the real reason why those documents are needed is totally different than the declared reason.

The only real sense is to annoy you and leave you in uncertainty. When you are in such condition, you are never with a peace of mind and you are in stress. This way you can be manipulated, you will consume more and you try to fulfill even things that are not needed.

I do not think it is some conspiracy though. It is an evolution of societies (e.g. even now China is probably more successful than western liberal democracies, so China will most likely survive or Chinese model will be used elsewhere). I think that such a state of mind of citizens is simply needed for society to function. We are better robots when we send those papers all over again and every year more. I do not think this can be "fixed". The society and economy, that everyone is used to, need such obtrusions and it has a sense. The more we can be free in theory with the new digital world, the more we/society need those obtrusions. Because modern society and so many people at one place can not live in peace without giving up freedom.

You can be a good citizen who lives with paralyzing hidden fear... or outlaw who is fighting for a bit of freedom, but then live in constant open conflict, so with a constant real threat and also in solitude.