Britain Merges Gambling Regulator Public Bodies

The British plan to merge the Gambling Commission and the National Lottery Commission into one public body has reached its consultative stage.

British gambling laws require the government to call for consultation on their proposals before submitting a bill draft. Comments and public discussions are welcome, and an impact assessment must also be published.

Details for the phase can be found here. They stipulate that the goal will be to continue to deliver appropriate and effective regulation of gambling and the National Lottery along with other organizational benefits.

The government is now seeking to use the powers in the Public Bodies Act 2011 to put in place the merger of the Gambling Commission and the National Lottery Commission by abolishing the NLC and transferring its powers to the Gambling Commission.

The Public Bodies Bill, passed last December, ordered the two bodies to be merged. According to the Bill, the National Lottery Commission will be abolished and its powers will be transferred to the Gambling Commission.

Besides the obvious organizational benefits, the British government argued that the formation of a single regulatory body will protect the public better. Online gambling is changing on a daily basis, operators appear overnight. According to a statement on the NLC website, the Bill is supposed to allow regulated sectors to flourish.

The function of British gambling regulating bodies

The Gambling Commission is Britain's most important gambling regulatory body. It was established under the Gambling Act in 2005. Apart from regulating arcades, betting, bingo, casinos, slot machines and lotteries, the Gambling Commission is responsible for the British online gambling.

The Gambling Commission also regulates most of online sportsbooks in the UK.

The National Lottery Commission is a non-departmental public body set up under the National Lottery Act in 1999 to regulate the National Lottery. The public body runs tender for being the commercial operator of the National Lottery, currently the Camelot Group.

Camelot recently warned that bets put on the lottery online while being outside the UK are not valid, and company would not be able to pay the prize if these tickets should win.