On a day to day basis, the details of your Gambling Commission operating licence are probably far down your list of business priorities. It is easy to forget about licence activity categories, bandings and variations until the fee demand arrives 6 weeks before the annual fee is due for payment. Given that late payment can lead to revocation, you end up simply paying the demand and going about your day to day business until the cycle repeats itself 12 months later.

But your Gambling Commission operating licence is the most important piece of paper that you hold – it entitles you to operate in the £14.1 billion UK gambling market¹ and provides assurance to your customers that you operate to strict standards and ethics. So it is imperative that you ensure that the licence that you hold is appropriate for your size and scope of business.

• Providing gambling products that are outside of those activities listed on your operating licence would be a licence breach. This could result in regulatory sanction, including revocation of your operating licence.
• Holding a licence that does not reflect the size of your business is also a breach of your licence and could be an expensive oversight.
• If your business has expanded over time, are you in the right licence band? If you have outgrown your current licence, then this could result in regulatory sanction, including in exceptional circumstances, risk of revocation.
• If you are holding a licence that permits you to carry out more business than you are currently, then you could be paying a significant amount more in licence fees than you need to. It’s your responsibility to ensure that the licence you hold is appropriate – the Gambling Commission won’t contact you to advise that the licence you hold is excessive. By ensuring your licence is appropriate for your needs then you could be saving tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds, every year.

This is where SKA Financial Consultancy can make all the difference to your business.  With our unparalleled knowledge of the Gambling Commission fee structure, we can take the confusion and uncertainty out of managing your licence, providing you with the peace of mind that you are always holding the right licence at the right price. We will undertake a full audit health check of your operating licence against your business activities and trading position, providing you with a clear and succinct summary report. This report is an ideal document to provide assurance to auditors, investors and interested third parties that you are holding the correct licence for your business and that you are regulatory compliant.

Providing further reassurance, clients can benefit from an ongoing quarterly review of licence compliance to ensure that you remain in the most appropriate licence category. As part of this review SKA Financial Consultancy are able to offer advice and support on the regulatory return data that you are required to submit to the Gambling Commission – should there be any changes or potential anomalies, we can discuss this with you prior to any further investigation by the Commission.

SKA Financial Consultancy will help you achieve what is rightly yours where licence fee savings are identified by the audit health check – a more appropriate, cheaper operating licence. We have the expertise and experience to give you the information you need to vary your licence, or, if you prefer, to engage with the Gambling Commission itself to submit the variation to ensure that you are being charged the correct fee for the business you operate.