UK Licensed Online Casinos

So let’s start with taking a closer look at how the UK Gambling Commission works, how the UK online gambling license is issued and why are the online casinos licensed and regulated in UK are a holy grail for all the gamblers not only in the UK but all over the world. We are not going to dig dip into the complicated commission documents — just a quick basic overview of everything you might be interested in.

How the Commission Works?

Generally, the UK online gambling jurisdiction works just like any other licensing institution in the world, with the only exception that it does takes its job very seriously and will live not a single stone unturned before any website can get a UK casino license. The United Kingdom Gambling Commission is responsible for regulating both offline and online gambling activities in the United Kingdom. It means it issues the UK casino licence to both local and international online casinos that want to operate under the UK Jurisdiction on the country’s territory. So if there is a website that wants to start offering its services to the British players, the first thing to do is to apply for a license and wait to become one of the best casinos with UK Gambling Commission License if everything goes smoothly. And it’s not an easy task as before a website can get into the list of the casino sites that are licensed in UK, the UKGC will make a thorough check of the casino’s safety and security. The casino’s owners will need to provide a set of documents proving their ownership and showing that they do have enough money to pay out the future winnings to the British players (including you, hopefully). When the casino gets the online gambling licenses in UK, the UKGC job is still not over as it continues to look after the casino and if something goes wrong, the license can be cancelled and the casino will be crossed out of the list of casinos regulated by UK Gambling Commission. The commission’s task is to protect the players so if they see that the casino allows itself to accept bets from minors or doesn’t protect vulnerable customers efficiently enough which may lead to addictions and overspending, nothing will stop them from revoking a license.

Application Requirements & Compliance Highlights

The application process is quite easy and can be done online but the list of the requirements for getting a Gambling License from UKGC is quite long. The company striving to become one of the UKGC online casinos will have to provide a set of documents that includes their ownership and management structure, individual identity documents of every person involved, policy documents, financial documents like annual reports and details of bonus schemes, and it’s just the beginning. Besides, there will be a criminal record check for the key persons in charge. If the casinos were proved to be good enough to become one of the casinos with UK Gambling Commission License, it will have to pay the annual fee in addition to application fee that was paid before. By the way, the application fee isn’t returned if the license was not approved for some reason.

Recently, the UKGC has tightened the license standards so the casinos licensed by UK Gambling Commission will have to adhere to stricter rules when it comes to players protection and money laundering prevention. If you are interested in more details about the UKGC licensing procedure, you can always check it up on the official website.

It may sound like there is only one kind of license fo the casino sites UK that they can get and operate freely whatever they offer to the customers. In reality, there are several separate licenses — the online casinos licensed in UK may need just one or even all of them, depending on what kind of games and services they provide to the players. In this part, we’ll briefly describe the main types of licenses the UK Gambling Commission casinos may need to apply for if they want to operate in the United Kingdom.

Operating License

This is the main document all the online casinos regulated by UKGC should get and it’s the license that allows the casino operate and provide gambling services to the players in the United Kingdom. This license has a long list of subtypes, depending on what kinds of games the casino is offering. There is an arcade operating license for family entertainment centres, bingo license for online and offline casinos, limited and unlimited remote gambling licenses, separate gambling software license, and so on. It’s hard (and absolutely unnecessary) for a player to understand which license exactly the casino has as the main thing to know here is that the licensed UK Online Casinos, regardless of their license type, are absolutely safe and provide the highest level of gambling services.

Personal Management License

Not only the casino itself has to get a license but also every person in key position meaning everyone who is responsible for finances, general strategy, regulatory compliance, IT provision and security, and so on. They will have to provide their personal IDs, declarations, and applications form to be separately reviewed and approved by the UKGC. It’s made to make sure that the online casinos with UKGC License are literally in good hands and none of the company managers are involved in any criminal activities or other not-so-good-looking things.

Personal Functional License

This license is issued to every casino employee who is going to be involved in gambling or handling money so it’s more applicable for the offline than online casinos. The list of employees needing a personal functional license from the UKGC includes croupiers, cashiers, gaming supervisors, and security staff including the ones who perform a monitoring surveillance. The list of documents required is once again quite long and includes ID verification documents, police and credit reports, all the residential addresses within the last 5 years, and so on. This procedures ensures that every person involved in the casino’s gaming activities is reliable and doesn’t threaten the players’ security.

Premises License

As you can guess from the name, it’s the license issued to the land-based casino or any other offline gambling businesses like bingo or arcade halls only. If the casino is located outside of the UK, it should get a premises license from the local regulators and then provide the licensing documents to the UKGC.

You are probably already impressed by the UKGC approach to the matter but there are still some things to know. Every reputable licensing institution has its key principles of operation which prove that the casinos’ licensed by them are good for the players and there is nothing to worry about. The main points of interest of the UK Gambling Commission are player protection, fair gaming, funds protection, and operator responsibilities. What does this mean? Keep reading to learn.

Players Protection

The first thing to be happy about when playing in the casinos licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission is that your personal and financial information is properly protected, not shared with third parties (unless confirmed in the & Conditions) and is not going to be stolen. The UKGS makes sure that the casino has enough power to keep your information safe from any cyber attacks and will never issue a license to the one that does not. Besides, the players should be protected from the gambling addiction. That’s why, the UKGC takes actions to keep minors away from gambling and generally decrease the online gambling popularity, like introducing the additional taxes for players.

GamStop is a special service that self-excludes players from gambling and available only for UK casinos.

Fair Gaming

We all come to the online casinos for games and it’s vital that the games are fair, otherwise, what’s the point in playing? So one of the most important things to be checked by the UKGC before issuing the license to the casino is that it uses the Random Number Generators, gives a player a real chance of winning, and clearly states the Return to Player rate for every game so you can now what your chances are from the very beginning.

Funds Protection

Well, not only the personal information but also the customer’s money should be absolutely safe in the casino. the UK Gambling commission checks whether the players’ funds are keeping separately from the casino’s operation funds, and, talking wider, regulates the payment options that can be used for online gambling in the country. Recently, the talks on banning the credit cards payments for online gambling purposes has started. It will more likely make a significant damage to the whole industry but the players will be much more protected from the overspending and disclosure of financial information.

Operator Responsibilities

The key principle of the UKGC is that the casino operator is responsible and able for any action taken to the player. It means that if there is an issue or the player suspects any shady activities, they can fill in the form on the UKC website and get the quick response that will be followed by the real actions taken.