UKGC suspended two licenses for GAMSTOP fail

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced the suspension of the licenses of two online operators with immediate effect, as they failed in fully integrating the GAMSTOP self-exclusion scheme.

In January, the UKGC informed all licensed online operators that they had to participate in GAMSTOP by the 31st of March. This was a requirement of their license conditions and the Social Responsibility Code 3.5.5 provision.

The two suspended incumbents that had their licenses revoked after failing to comply with UKGC’s decision are Dynamic, which is trading as Prophet, and Sportito.

It is worth noting that Sportito has integrated GAMSTOP into its website, thus its suspension has been lifted. On the contrary, Dynamic’s license is going to remain suspended until the Gambling Commission is certain that the operator has fully integrated the self-exclusion scheme and is compliant with its license conditions. Nevertheless, both operators remain under review.

The Gambling Commission Chief Executive, Neil McArthur, said regarding the matter that they had made it clear to operators that they were ready and willing to use their powers in order to protect bettors. He also stated that self-exclusion is an important tool, designed to protect vulnerable bettors and that is why they insisted that all operators had to sign up to GAMSTOP until 31 March. 

In addition, he claimed that they were forced to take action since those two operators had not complied by the deadline and that simultaneously placed vulnerable punters at risk. He also said that one of the suspensions has been successfully lifted, as the operator is now fully compliant; whereas, he stated that their investigations into both operators continue.