Gambling: Licensing

(asked on 29th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the longest time taken by the Gambling Commission to make a determination on an application for a gambling licence has been in each of the last five years.


Answered by
John Whittingdale Portrait
John Whittingdale
This question was answered on 6th July 2021

The table below shows the average time taken by the Gambling Commission to make a determination on an application for a gambling licence. This is measured across all applicants, from the date their initial payment is received to the date a final decision is made and their case is closed.

Average time taken by the Gambling Commission to make a determination on an application for a gambling licence

Year

2020/21

2019/20

2018/19

2017/18

2016/17

Time (days)

99 days

66 days

75 days

123 days

85 days

The increase from 66 days to 99 between 2019/20 and 2020/21 was a product of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the Commission’s delivery capacity.

The average time is influenced by exceptional cases. These are reflected below in the table showing the longest time taken to make a determination on an application in each of the last five years.

Longest time taken by the Gambling Commission to make a determination on an application for a gambling licence

Year

2020/21

2019/20

2018/19

2017/18

2016/17

Time (days)

945 days

370 days

254 days

2023 days

441 days

These are complex cases, some of which go to panel followed by appeals to the tribunal and court of appeal. Some cases resulted in the applicant withdrawing the application, or the applicant requesting additional time to provide the necessary information.

The table below shows the number of gambling licence applications that the Gambling Commission is currently considering, and the length of time that each of the applications has been under consideration.

No. of gambling licence applications the Gambling Commission is considering; and how long each of those applications has been under consideration

Time (days)

0-30 days

21-60 days

61-90 days

over 90 days

No. of licence applications

6

23

16

38

The Gambling Commission has granted 1,117 licences in total over the last five years, and the table below shows the number of gambling licence applications that the Gambling Commission has granted and refused during this period.

No. of gambling licences the Gambling Commission has granted / refused in each of the last five years

Year

2020/21

2019/20

2018/19

2017/18

2016/17

No. of licences granted

170

216

212

291

228

No. of licences refused

2

1

3

8

4

The Commission introduced an incomplete application process in 2017/18, in order to prevent applications being submitted which would be refused owing to lack of necessary information. This has contributed to the small number of refused licences over the last three years, with rejected applications now tending to relate to novel betting products or uncertainty over an applicant’s source of funds.

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