The Woods Valldata Gambling Regulatory Roadshow 2020

This February, we ran our annual Gambling Regulatory Roadshow at the Royal British Legion in London.

The room was packed, with over 65 delegates from over 20 charities attending. As always, the event was a huge success – our team here at Woods Valldata were thrilled.

The reason we hit the road…

As one of the UK’s largest External Lottery Managers (ELM), we’ll always go above and beyond to provide our clients with exceptional specialist support.

Maintaining a thorough understanding of current gambling regulations is of critical importance for charity lottery operators; to answer this need, back in 2016 we started running our Gambling Regulatory Roadshow, and it’s still going strong.

Our one-day event aims to provide charities with a clear, structured breakdown of the regulations governing prize-led fundraising compliance.

The Roadshow also helps licensed operators fulfil the required periodic refresher training on the Gambling Act, whilst helping those new to charity lotteries find their feet.

“As a person new to lottery fundraising, the fundamental overview was great” – Royal British Legion

The Roadshow Agenda

Andy Woods from Woods Whur, one of the UK’s leading Gambling lawyers, joined us as our key speaker for another year running. Throughout the day, he helped delegates reacquaint themselves with key elements of the Gambling Act & Licence Conditions & Codes of Practice (LCCP), covering vital aspects of compliance.

The agenda was split into a morning and afternoon session. During the first half of the day, Andy outlined the fundamentals of the Gambling Act and LCCP, explaining how they relate to charity lotteries.

In the afternoon, Remote Technical Standards were detailed, along with any recent changes made to the LCCP. Andy went on to discuss key concerns for the year ahead, addressing specific areas of interest flagged by the audience.

By the end of the day, every box on the regulatory compliance checklist was ticked, including licence types, rules, terms & conditions, reporting commitments, and organisations’ roles & responsibilities.

“This was my first GRR and I thought it was a very thorough session. The aim is to help our raffle and lottery clients understand their obligations to comply with the GC and LCCP requirements and it definitely delivers on this” – Emma Corbett, Business Development Director at Woods Valldata

Hot topics on the day

Emphasis was placed on a few essential areas that charities should be particularly mindful of…

Social responsibility

You must take care to ensure supporters are playing lotteries responsibly, taking care to analyse data and detect any patterns suggesting increased player activity. The number of games carried out per player should be restricted.

Corporate Compliance Inspection

It’s important to make sure all of your staff are trained in policies and procedures. If the GC was to carry out an audit, any member of your organisation could find themselves in the hot-seat. You need to be able to demonstrate when training was carried out and everyone should be able to correctly state where the policy is stored. Roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined and documented.

Woods Whur forecast that the GC will start to come down particularly hard on charities failing to get this right, as their income goes towards good causes. Fines are increasing and charities will face the same treatment as a casino would (if not harsher), should they infringe legal requirements.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The introduction of the GDPR has intensified focus on the security of players’ personal information; it’s therefore recommended that charities use a reputable ELM who can provide specialist guidance and support. As a well-established ELM, Woods Valldata is perfectly positioned to help charities of all sizes.

Another Roadshow success

We always receive incredibly positive feedback following the Roadshow, and this year was no exception.

One delegate commented:

“The event was very well organised. All important areas were covered in good detail and both Laura and Andy were helpful in giving in-depth feedback to questions.”

The Gambling Regulatory Roadshow only takes place once a year and is by invitation only. Due to its popularity, it’s always oversubscribed – fortunately, exciting plans are now in motion…

Laura Illsley, Account Director and GRR Organiser, said:

“We were so pleased with the good turnout this year. To meet demand, we’re going to be looking at running more interactive sessions or workshops next year.”

To make sure you have first refusal on a place at the next roadshow, or to find out more, please get in touch with Laura Illsley at laura.illsley@woodsvalldata.co.uk