The new Gambling Act, which came into force in September, allows
the Gambling Commission to regulate lotteries and identifies what
is a lottery and what is a competition. Something cannot be a
lottery if it can be entered free, a rule that led television
producers to claim that an online entry capability was a free entry
route, allowing them to avoid being regulated as lottery
operators.
Guidance from the Gambling Commission has said that in
fast-moving live television competitions that need instant entries,
an online option cannot count as the kind of free entry system that
would allow producers to avoid running a lottery.
"The Gambling Commission don't accept that argument," said Susan
Biddle, an expert in gambling law at Pinsent Masons, the law firm
behind OUT-LAW.COM. "They accept that internet use is effectively
free but they say that in live quizzes where answers are needed in
a very short time frame many people don't have access to the
web."
Pinsent Masons is running free OUT-LAW Breakfast Seminars on the
new regime for promotions throughout October.
The Gambling Commission, which was itself created by the
Gambling Act, has said that it will take seriously any breaches of
the new, tighter law. Competition operators are widely seen as
having taken a cavalier approach to some of the previous rules.
A competition can escape being deemed a lottery if it depends on
a winner exercising skill, judgment or knowledge. Many competitions
used facile questions such as 'What is the capital of France?' to
attempt to satisfy that requirement.
The Gambling Commission said that it will treat that requirement
far more seriously under the new regime.
"There are many competitions which ask just one simple question,
the answer to which is widely and commonly known or is blatantly
obvious from the material accompanying the competition," said
guidance issued by the Commission. "The Commission considers that
these do not meet the test in the Act."
Controversy has dogged television quizzes in recent months. ITV
broadcaster GMTV was fined a record £2 million last week by media
regulator Ofcom and £250,000 by premium rate phone line regulator
ICSTIS over competitions it had run.
Broadcasters are likely to be particularly sensitive to rules
surrounding competitions. Biddle said that she would advise caution
in the early days of the new regulations.
"The rules have been made tougher, and there will be a period of
bedding down while it is decided what is allowed," she said. "It
will be easier to satisfy the rules if the competition has a series
of questions rather than just one. You will still be able to run a
one-question competition but the type of brain-dead trivia
competition will not satisfy the test."
"My instinct if I was advising someone is to go for lots of
skill in a competition and then if they want to, to gradually
reduce the level of skill," said Biddle. "The Gambling Commission
will prosecute somebody to show that they have got teeth. Whether
they will choose an easy win is not clear."
