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Key provisions of the UK’s huge new Online Safety Act are now in effect, creating fresh compliance hurdles for gambling firms and social platforms.

The new act is aimed mainly at preventing children from accessing pornography and from seeing content that could be damaging, such as media related to suicide and bullying.

However, the legislation casts a wide net and, in particular, gambling companies that add social elements to their platforms face significant new rules.

The law was passed in 2023, but the elements connected to limiting underage access to certain kinds of content only came into effect on July 25.

This sees new requirements to age gate content that the government views as dangerous.

Legal experts say that while gambling could be considered as an area of concern, although it is not one of the “priority” issues laid out in the legislation, existing strong KYC policies are likely to render that a moot point.

However the act is designed to protect all internet users, including adults, and creates new responsibilities for websites that host social platforms.

That would include gambling companies that allow their users to chat with one another or otherwise make user-generated content.

“There’s definitely a bit of a compliance hurdle,” created by the new law, explained Isabel Davies, a senior associate with law firm Wiggin.

Specifically, companies with social features will need to have controls in place to prevent users sharing illegal content.

That may also mean conducting risk assessments to satisfy regulators that the appropriate checks and balances are in place.

The UK’s communications regulator Ofcom has produced huge volumes of , including information on how to create the necessary documentation.

Companies that provide the ability to users to share their own content, which may include sites related to gambling like affiliate platforms, “should have systems and processes designed to review and assess content the provider has reason to suspect may be illegal content”, says Ofcom.

Those platforms must also have procedures in place to “swiftly” remove suspected illegal content when it is flagged.

Streaming Under The Microscope

The law could also be deployed to add new pressure to online streaming platforms that continue to allow users to promote the black market.

Although the focus of the law is on porn, fraud and other child-unfriendly content, it does include provisions that empower the authorities to go after companies that allow for the sharing of user-generated illegal content more broadly, said Davies.

That could include video streaming sites, which are a major avenue of advertising for both the legal and illegal gambling markets in the UK.

Streams of influencers playing slots on sites without a UK licence are available in seconds via Google, with very limited age controls.

Popular platform Kick features pages of footage of unlicensed gambling companies and requires only a single click to verify that the viewer is over 18.

The Online Safety Act gives UK law enforcement extra-territorial powers to move against companies outside the country that it believes may be targeting the UK.

Its definition of “targeting” is also very broad, explained Davies, but she noted that the law only penalises user-generated content.

That said, it holds the platforms liable for what its users put out onto the internet, in contrast to the state of affairs before this new legislation came into effect.

Yet More Forms

Ofcom's voluminous guidance on complying with the new law is extensive and, for gambling companies, is as likely to create headaches with new forms of paperwork as it is a risk of fines or prosecution.

The regulator says that any website offering the ability for individuals to generate content should implement a complaints system to allow users to flag content they find offensive.

“Providers should design and operate complaints procedures so that they are easy to find, access and use,” says the guidance.

Ofcom is also demanding updates to terms and conditions where there is a risk of breaching the Online Safety Act, including “statements regarding the protection of individuals from illegal content, any proactive technology used and information on how complaints are handled and resolved”.