Minister For Sport and Tourism Hugh Robertson has appointed two new Commissioners to the Gambling Commission ahead of it becoming the sole regulator of gambling in Great Britain.
Mary Chapman and Robert Foster currently sit on the National Lottery Commission (NLC), due to be abolished later this year.
The UK government opened a three-month consultation last August on proposals to form one gambling regulator, including its preferred option to use the powers in the 2011 Public Bodies Act to abolish the NLC and transfer its powers to the Gambling Commission (GC).
This merger, part of a wider government drive to cut the costs of and increase accountability for public bodies, is now expected to complete in August, subject to Parliamentary approval.
Chapman and Foster will move across to join the eight current Gambling Commissioners, which include chairman Philip Graf and CEO Jenny Williams, once the functions of the NLC have been merged into the GC.
The DCMS said this week that the GC could become the licensing and regulatory authority for all online gambling in Great Britain as early as April 2014, under proposals currently under review by the European Commission. A complaint by Malta has however extended the review period by a month, while operators in Gibraltar are understood to be preparing a collective legal action should the UK proceed with plans to regulate and tax online gambling in Britain at the point of consumption.
The widening of the GC’s remit also follows MPs branding it “an overly expensive, bureaucratic regulator” that had not gone far enough in efforts to reduce its operating costs. Parliamentarians also recommended in their report on the 2005 Gambling Act last year that an independent review of its expenditure “be carried out as soon as possible after a new system for remote licensing is in place.”
Article written by Katy Stirland
