The Gambling Commission is reminding licensed gambling operators of their responsibility to ensure children and young people cannot gain access to age-restricted gambling premises and products.
This reminder comes in light of some initial results from the Commission’s latest test purchasing exercise. Recent tests of smaller adult gaming centre and independent betting shop operators have indicated some weaknesses in identifying and challenging young persons who enter premises in order to play a gaming machine.
All licensed operators are required to put into effect policies and procedures designed to prevent under-age gambling and to monitor their effectiveness. The recent tests were conducted with local authorities and police across England and Wales and have focused on access to gaming machines by young people, without them seeking interaction with staff, to assess the ability of operators to identify and prevent under-age gambling.
In over half of the tests, young persons were able to access premises and play gaming machines without challenge. Of particular concern is that, in some instances, the young people were spotted or even acknowledged, but were still not challenged.
“These early results broadly reflect the Commission’s concerns that certain sections of the industry may not have sufficient safeguards in place to prevent underage gambling,” a spokesperson said. “The Commission expects to see improvements in results as its rolling programme of test purchasing continues.”
