For most gambling operators, a lot has changed in the last few years as regards the regulatory measures they have been made to adhere to. As the case is, these measures in the same vein have shown ripple effects on the activities and lives of their customers.

As bet enthusiasts, most of the gambling regulations, like the self-exclusion scheme, GamCare, Gamban, and many others have likewise, in certain ways, affected our gambling patterns. What raises our concern in this text, however, is whether it is safe for us to send our personal data to these betting operators when they request such information at different points.

In this article, we will shed light on this situation, bringing you to the understanding of the necessity for providing such data and the number of further precautions that have been taken to ensure your data stays safe after you have sent it.

UKGC Obliged Operators To Ask For Personal Data

First off, why is there any need for you as a customer to provide your personal details to any gambling operator at any given point at all?

The reality is that the request for your personal data by any online casino or bookmaker is following the directives of the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC). This commission is the regulatory body in charge of gambling activities all over the United Kingdom. Requesting for customers’ personal data comes in line with some of its recent regulations as they require this information to ensure that the regulations are enforced. 

Following the directives of the Commission, no verification betting operators at https://casinogap.org/betting-sites-without-verification/ are to collect and preserve their customer data while they (their customers) are at it and after these customers stop using the gambling operators’ services. These betting firms are further expected to keep customer data for a minimum of five years after these customers have ended their relationship with the betting firms. This step is to be taken in a case where the data “relates in any way to regulatory compliance”.

The Gambling Commission again directed operators to make themselves ready to submit to them a copy of their data retention policies. The UKGC likewise explains that it could expect these firms to share customer data to review their compliance with the licensing responsibilities they (the firms) have been saddled with.

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission similarly explained that in a case where any gambling operator receives data as it relates to its compliance with the guidelines of the commission, such an operator should be ready to provide such data whenever the commission decides to investigate their compliance.

The regulatory body also explains that cases like when there is an investigation into whether a licensee’s compliance in areas like their corporate social responsibility and anti-money laundering prerequisites are credible due to the involvement of a bettor extorting funds for betting for a long period), the commission may request for account data that covers this long period.

General Data Protection Regulation Keeps You Safe

In furtherance of the request of this regulatory commission that gambling businesses should receive and retain customer data, the commission has further enacted a new regulation to ensure your personal information stays safe always. The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR is the new protection for your personal information.

This new regulation is set to ensure that even as the data provided comes in handy in tackling certain ills associated with gambling, the safety of the customers in question is not compromised. This safety affects their finances as well as their security details.

Even with growing concerns from various gambling companies stating that this new regulation will affect them in delivering a certain part of their required gambling regulation, the commission has been quick to allay these fears as they issued a note to these operators setting out the way the commission understands that betting outfits can still lawfully utilize personal data via technologies to satisfy necessary obligations to deal with money laundering, aid customer self-exclusion, and to satisfy additional social responsibility motives.

In this note, the commission clearly states their motives as regards this regulation. The UKGC similarly gave explicit insight into how the commission plans to protect you as the customers by ensuring your data is safe for as long as they will remain with these gambling operators.

The commission further assured customers that, “Where licensees have genuine well-founded concerns about GDPR, we are committed to working with industry to get the right outcome – one that safeguards personal data whilst also promoting the licensing objectives”.

Do you still doubt your safety due to the data you share? Gambling law expert Diane Mullenex of Pinsent Mason’s statement should rid you of such doubts as she explained that, “The Commission’s note is further evidence that as a regulatory body, they are determined to push their bid to continually protect your data as customers. It is only best for us to hope at this point that all licensed gambling operators would have progressed well enough in their preparations for this new regulation. If they are prepared, the Commission’s stance as has been stated in the note will not be a strange development to any in the gambling industry.

Note: The “licensees” are licensed gambling operators.