Nick Arron, lead solicitor at Poppleston Allen, takes a look at the issue of how arcade and FEC operators can manage complaints from customers most effectively. 

As a firm of licensing solicitors who represent the betting and gaming industry, Poppleston Allen has seen an increase in the number of customer complaints received by operators in recent months.

Historically, there have generally been more customer complaints concerning online gambling, however lately, complaints regarding the operation of high street venues and land-based operators.

We can speculate as to why that might be the case. It could be the increased media attention that the sector has received; it may be in part that the media coverage of the White Paper has increased customer understanding of the regulatory regime, and in particular, it may be because of proposals for an Ombudsman to handle complaints. 

Land-based operators will have all received complaints at some point or another, as businesses that engage directly with the public. Complaints can vary considerably in their content – you may have received them in relation to perceived issues regarding the fairness of the gaming machines and the return to players. You may have more recently received complaints regarding a failure to protect the individual in some way, including failures to interact, or to understand whether the customer can afford to play. 

These complaints partly stem from the public’s understandable naivety when it comes to how gaming machines operate, and the concept of ‘return to player’. There’s a perception that because they don’t win, the machines are unfair, and of course, return to player is not a straightforward concept as it looks at the lifetime of a machine over thousands of spins.

You will also see complaints when customers lose more than they may have intended, and they may then complain about your failure to manage them as a player or the failings of the gaming machines’ fairness.

The complaints may manifest in different ways: we’ve seen a number of Subject Access Requests (SAR) under Data Protection laws. Sometimes they will follow the complaints procedure which operators are required to implement under Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice. Interestingly, we found that many of those who wished to complain do not want to follow the complaint and dispute process, and will not engage in alternative dispute resolution.

Complaints like these can have their own issues regarding the individual’s personal data, and in these cases, simply identifying the circumstances, date and time when they visited can be a problem. 

Handling SARs is not always straightforward, particularly if you’re not used to them and don’t have the resources or the knowledge. A failure to respond appropriately and in a timely manner to a SAR could result in the customer complaining to the Information Commissioner’s Office, who could then take action. 

Handling the complaint can also be a challenge, as the complainants are often (understandably) emotional. Sometimes they come with a legal representative, or even with families and friends who may approach you. Operators need to consider whether those individuals have the authorisation to act on behalf of the customer. 

If there’s any indication that the customer may engage in problem gambling or be at risk of harm, then you should immediately provide them with information about how to control their gambling, and how to exclude them from the premises. You should think about implementing an internal exclusion to protect them as well.

You’ll need to conduct a full investigation, reviewing CCTV where possible, speaking to members of staff, understanding the game logs where you can and identifying the play. 

Some questions to ask yourself and your staff are:

● have there been prompts on the machine regarding setting timer limits?

● have there been interactions with members of staff?

● have there been visits to any cash machines in the venue?

I tend to approach these types of matters with the end result in mind. Some complainants threaten to go to the Gambling Commission (GC) and you should deal with any complaints with the GC in mind, investigate thoroughly, document the investigation, record the contact with the complainant, ensure you’ve acted in a fair and open way. 

It’s also important to always follow your own complaint procedure and to keep to all deadlines.

Generally, in my view, the licensee is not required to inform the GC of a complaint. Operators only need to inform the GC of a key event or LCCP notification if the complaint had a material impact on the business, and the majority of these would not. 

We have seen a number of complaints go to litigation and again I can’t see any requirement to notify the GC in these circumstances. Litigation presents its own set of challenges that need to be dealt with, particularly as complaints to a county court to recover lost revenue are increasing – albeit still small. These require a different set of skills in terms of how to handle the claim and to defend it accordingly. 

With the introduction of the Ombudsman, I think inevitably we’re going to see an increase in numbers of complaints, as customers become aware of the introduction of Ombudsman, and complain when they are not happy about their gambling in our venues.