GC Looks into Soccer Clubs with Site Links to Gambling Operators
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Established in 2007, the UK Gambling Commission regulates, licenses, and guides businesses offering gambling services in the country. Moreover, the Commission ensures that all licensees follow the regulations in the UK. Now, the UKGC will reportedly launch an investigation regarding Premier League and Championship clubs that featured links to betting sites from their pages focused on children.
According to a recent report released by BBC Sport, multiple teams will be under scrutiny by the GC over providing direct links to betting sites from their pages that target children. As per the current gambling advertising and sponsorship rules, web pages that are targeting individuals under 18 must not feature credits to gambling sponsors or links.
Now it is up to the Commission to launch an investigation into the matter. The Premier League clubs that have reportedly breached the rules are Tottenham, West Ham, Arsenal, and Aston Villa. Championships clubs Reading, Millwall and QPR have also reportedly had direct links to betting sites from their children’s pagers.
The GC stressed that it is the sports teams’ responsibility to ensure that web pages that target children are presented appropriately. Additionally, according to the regulator, it is the teams’ responsibility to ensure that gambling logos and ads appear on the correct web pages.
Once BBC informed the clubs that they may be breaching regulatory rules, some of them responded with an apology. A spokesperson for Tottenham revealed that the club regrets the error and steps have already been taken to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Since then, the links that reportedly appeared on pages for younglings have been removed.
It was back in September when the UKGC slammed UK Lotto with a $1 million fine. Back then, the GC revealed that the fine related to breaches of anti-money laundering and social responsibility rules, dating back to October 2019 through November 2020.
After that, in October, the Commission found that Victoria Gate Casino (VGC) breached its obligations for social responsibility and anti-money laundering. Consequently, this was resolved under a $612,000 settlement that VGC agreed to pay.
Those are only a couple of cases that the GC has dealt with recently. Now, that the Commission will reportedly launch an investigation, it is yet to be confirmed if there would be any sanctions against the clubs for the alleged breaches.
