How Are Gambling Sites Regulated In The UK?

For an online casino site to be legal, it needs to be registered and have a license issued by the country that it operates in. In the UK, the authority that handles these licenses is the UK Gambling Commission an organisation that closely monitor the sites that they grant licenses to.

Who Regulates The Gambling Sites?

The UK Gambling Commission is a government body that is tasked with regulating gambling sites in the UK and ensuring that they are compliant. This body issues licenses under the Gambling Act as long as the sites comply with that particular legislation and their license conditions.

What Do They Do?

The UK Gambling Commission work hard to combat any sort of illegal gambling activities and corruption when it comes to sports betting. They make sure to check on license holders and review their sites to ensure that they are following the rules when it comes to the players they accept. They will take action if they find anything suspicious and they might even review financial information to ensure everything complies thanks to their far reaching investigatory powers.

Non-Compliant License Holders

If the UK Gambling Commission finds that one of their license holders is not working hard to follow the terms of their license and the law, they may consider taking regulatory action. They can also intervene when license holders do not cooperate with investigations that are necessary for the UK Gambling Commission to complete. Applying for a license is the first step for any gambling brand before they begin trading.

Why You Should Only Use Regulated Sites

If you’re planning on signing up to a gambling site, then you will be giving them private details about yourself and your bank accounts. If you’re not using a regulated site this is risky business and you have no guarantee that your money is in safe hands. If you want to be sure that you’re gambling in a safe way, then you should make sure that you only use regulated sites with a UK Gambling Commission license.

How To Know If A Site Is Regulated?

A licensed site in the UK will carry the UKGC logo in the footer, but a word of warning: to be sure of the credibility of the license, you’ll need to do a quick search on the UKGC website to make sure the brand is present and licensed – most sites link the UKGC footer logo to the specific page which holds the information about their license making this check quick and easy. As a quick example, look at the popular Slot Games brand, as you can see there is a footer link to the brands license on the UKGC’s website:

If you find that the site that you use does not follow the regulations, then make sure to contact the UK Gambling Commission so that they can investigate

Gambling in the UK is highly regulated and as such the market is generally considered safe and stable for players, making sure this remains the case is everyones business.