British iGaming licence: why and how to obtain

Let the numbers speak for themselves. SafeBettingsSites proves that the United Kingdom appears to be the biggest online gambling market, accumulating over $12bn of total gross revenue. The region outperformed even the U.S. Despite the latter boasting far more impressive population figures, more than $1bn of total gross revenue divides America from the winner. 

As for European rivals, none is even close – Italy, the second place, generally shows about a third of Great Britain’s gross gaming revenue achievements. Before we touch upon the subject of getting the UK licence, let us give you a quick overview of its specifics.

What’s the licence about?

It’s a gambling licence given by Gambling Commission, a public organization in charge of regulating gaming laws in the United Kingdom.

Either you’re an operator currently located in the UK or the one distributing your services across British clients, getting the UK licence (at least one) is a must. Why at least? 

In fact, Gambling Commission is also responsible for checking operators for compliance with local gaming regulations and combating illegal gaming. The organization issues a plenty of licensing types, among which are:

• Remote casino operating licence – to let operators share a vast variety of casino games in the remote mode. The most common scenario is to suggest taking your chances with poker or baccarat online, following the gambling website.

• Remote real event licence – as the name suggests, operators having this licence take a chance to distribute their betting services to people who’re willing to make a fixed-odds bet on the real race or match.

• Remote virtual event licence – as the remote real event licence doesn’t work when it comes to virtual competitions, this type of licence is obligatory if operators focus on enabling betting on virtual events.

There are also separate licences required to promote bingo or pool betting.

Any limitations of British iGaming licences?

Is your online casino business considering cryptocurrency as one of the key payments for gamblers? If you’ve answered “yes”, we regret to inform you that there can be certain issues with British licences in this very case. Although there’s no legal prohibition of cryptocurrency as a payment method when your solution is licenced, anti-money laundering regulations officially defined by Gambling Commission make it challenging to involve crypto in your business model due to its anonymity. 

Anyway, there are many more factors that make British licences utterly desirable and valuable among operators. It automatically provides them with utmost player recognition, as this licence is associated with a quality label and online gaming business credibility.

How to get the UK online gambling licence?

To obtain an online gambling licence from the Gambling Commission, an operator should first submit an application form via post or email, along with providing identity documents and the evidence of financial stability. 

Once submitted, this commonly takes up to 8 weeks for processing, in case all required documentation is complementing an application form; otherwise delays might occur. If you wonder what should be included in the necessary package of documents, we are here to show you the list of those always asked regardless of the case.

• Common policies
• Bank certificates (recent half of the year, all bank accounts coverage)
• Business strategy planning
• Gain and loss forecasts for the three coming years
• Financial guarantees
• Terms of legal contract between you and your customers
• Personal Management Licence or Annex A

The whole list isn’t always limited to the positions above. Depending on the circumstances or kind of the legal entity willing to get the licence, extra points can be included, like a copy of other licences (if any) or credit files.