Alderney Gambling Control Commission

What Is the Alderney Gambling Control Commission?

Technically, Alderney is a part of the UK but since the 14th century, it is independent in its internal affairs. There are lots of islands like this in the geographical region called “British Overseas Territories,” but Alderney is the only one that gives an electronic gaming license. The important thing to know is that this island is not a part of the European Union, so it is not forced to comply with legal practices and regulations of the EU.

Alderney Gambling Control Commission is a governmental agency with only one purpose: Regulating the online gambling business on the island. It is a commission with 4 members. Since Alderney is one of the leading off-shore locations in the world, it has very liberal taxing regulations. To obtain a license, it is enough to own a company in Alderney. Note that this can only be an address, you do not need to “physically” be on the island: the servers of your casino can be anywhere in the world. Both of these terms are pretty normal, actually. The total area of Alderney is 7.8 kilometres only and around 2.000 people live on the island. There are no data centres due to problematic internet infrastructure, and the area size is not enough to physically host companies and their workers. So, in practice, the address of your company can only be a P.O. box.

There are two main types of e-gambling licenses. You need to hire an independent agent to represent you – again, you do not need to be physically in Alderney to apply for a license. The agent you hire will organize an address for your company and apply the Alderney Gambling Control Commission on behalf of you. AGCC license fees vary according to license types and the net income of your casino, but we can say that they are between 17.500 GBP and 400.000 GBP. For example, if your casino managed to make a net profit of more than 20 million but less than 30 million GBP, the license fee will be 290.000 GBP. You also need to deposit 10.000 GBP for the application.

Why Choose the Alderney Gambling Control Commission?

There are multiple reasons to choose the AGCC license. If you are a casino owner, you can save a lot of money by choosing this license. First of all, you can continue to operate anywhere in the world, there is no need to move on to the island. You do not need to change how your company works – just obtain a license and keep working like you always did. Moreover, since the address of your company is “technically” on Alderney, you will be subject to tax laws of the island. And as mentioned above, Alderney has almost no income taxes.

As a player, you should know that an AGCC license is as much reputable as a Malta (MGA) license. In fact, Alderney Gambling Control Commission casinos can apply for a UK Gambling Commission license too, and they are more likely to get it since the majority of investigations are already done by the AGCC. In addition, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission offers player complaint services, and it has a reputation for ruling in favour of the players. Take a look below to learn more about this.

Responsible Gaming and Player Protection with Alderney Gambling Control Commission

As always, we will examine these topics separately:

Player Protection

AGCC is responsible for monitoring and auditing the activities of online casinos that use its license. In this regard, all license owners must explain the rules of the games beforehand. In addition, misleading advertising is clearly prohibited. All players are free to issue a complaint to the AGCC about a casino that is licensed from here. This is actually a pretty serious process. After making a complaint:

• An officer of the commission will immediately contact the casino authorities and inform them about the complaint.
• If the casino and the customer cannot resolve the problem, a full investigation will start.
• The ruling of the commission is final. Parties are free to ask for a hearing, but they need to be physically on Alderney to do so.

Most other licensing institutions that offer a complaint resolution service work “automatically”: You send the complaint via a web form and wait for the result. Alderney Gambling Control Commission, on the other hand, takes these complaints seriously and works exactly like a court. If you are capable of doing so, you can even go to Alderney and represent your case in front of the commission.

Responsible Gaming

Responsible gaming practices are not a part of the AGCC license. In other words, online casinos with this license are not forced to offer responsible gaming services. However, the commission encourages the casinos to do so and promotes websites that are offering these services in their annual reports. It is expected that responsible gaming services will become mandatory pretty soon for the AGCC casinos too. Malta Gaming Authority added these practices into its license a couple months ago (May 2018) and Alderney Gambling Control Commission will be the next, it seems.