The British Gambling Council has provided new guidelines to casino operators that provide a “VIP Program” to their players. The new approaches will enhance affordability and help in keeping checks on responsible gaming.
The British Gambling Council has noticed that there has been unsolicited behavior in many online casinos that offer VIP membership to its players.
The new guideline by British Gambling Council comes with the warning that if the casino operators fail to comply with the new policy, their casinos or some of the loyalty services will be banned.
As per the new policies, casino operators must establish that spending on their casinos is “affordable and viable.” Operators need to keep a regular check on the source of funds. Casino operators will assess whether they follow the new guideline by checking their past years of gambling-related harm before establishing the VIP program.
In practice, casino operators need to maintain their updated database of player’s identities, contact numbers, occupations, and funding sources in the gambling industry. Operators must persuade gambler to take the gambling harm assessment once he\she joins the VIP Program.
Neil McArthur, Gambling Commission Chief Executive, has strictly warned the operators that if they do not abide by the new rules, the Gambling Commission will have no choice but to completely ban the entire promotional scheme.
The new rules made by the Gambling Commission will come into effect on October 31st, 2020, and hence motivate casinos to provide high-quality customer care services to consult on VIP Programs.
As per the stating’s of the Gambling Commission, “We push the note of concern of the source of funds to propose the Anti-money laundering (AML) concern. This may be conducted at higher-level inception, typically required to qualify for the High-Value Customer (HVC).
The Gambling Commission clarifies that any check on the fund source must be represented by proof requested form and must be provided by the individual. The submission of the source fund check must not base on the public-driven data.
The Gambling Commission rules also require operators to take significant steps to decide whether a player has self-excluded, which would become yet another important deciding factor to determine whether the player should be into the VIP program.
Operators must keep a full audit of the trial, which includes each event during the VIP Program. Operators should get a person in charge to keep a record of the VIP and casino relationship.
The Gambling Commission states that all the rules made by the Commission do not put licensees in loss; these rules are advancements to the pre-existing rules.
As per the Gambling Commission, the operators should regularly rotate the VIP managers to maintain an individual’s decision-making objectivity.
Commission also suggests that the VIP managers should get enhanced training on money management, anti-money laundering, and safe gambling to provide sufficient knowledge to their High Valued Clients.
VIP managers should be encouraged by incentives offered on the VIP schemes, which might induce risk behavior such as excessive time and money spent on gambling, chasing for losses, or accelerated gambling activities.
“We expect that the VIP managers should stop the gambling activity if they notice any client incentivization which might lead to possible harm,” stated by Commission.
The British Gambling Commission restricts players below the age of 25 to participate in the VIP programs. The Commission considers players under 18 – 34 years of age as problem gamblers, and the casino authorities must take extra caution for these customers.
The Betting and the Gambling Council announced that the casino operators must limit the spin speed up to 2.5 seconds per spin. Operators must ban the turbo play, allowing players to speed up the gameplay and play multiple games.
