Glossary

30 terms from gambling regulation and the gambling business, explained in plain language. Each entry links to the official source it is based on.

A

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR): An independent body that settles a dispute between a customer and a gambling company without going to court. In Great Britain licensed operators must offer it free of charge.
Anti-money laundering (AML): The rules that oblige businesses to spot and report money that may come from crime. For gambling companies it means knowing who their customers are and where large sums come from.

B2B licence: A business-to-business licence: permission to supply games, software or platforms to licensed operators, not to players. The Malta Gaming Authority issues such licences to game providers and back-office suppliers.
B2C licence: A business-to-consumer licence: permission to offer gambling directly to players. In Malta it is called the Gaming Service Licence.

Category B gaming machine: One of the classes into which British law sorts gaming machines by maximum stake and prize. Category B covers the higher-stake machines found in casinos, betting shops, bingo halls and adult gaming centres.
Cruks: The Dutch central register of people excluded from gambling (Centraal Register Uitsluiting Kansspelen), run by the Dutch gambling regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit.
Customer due diligence (KYC): The checks a business makes to establish who a customer is and to verify that identity from reliable documents or data. In everyday speech it is called "know your customer", or KYC.

EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA: EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, a rough measure of the profit a business makes from its operations. "Adjusted" EBITDA also leaves out further items the company chooses to exclude.
Enhanced due diligence: Extra checks on a customer or transaction that carries a higher risk of money laundering, on top of the standard identity checks.

Financial penalty: A fine a regulator imposes on a licence holder for breaking a condition of its licence. In Great Britain the Gambling Commission's power comes from section 121 of the Gambling Act 2005.
Form 6-K: The report a foreign company listed in the United States sends to the Securities and Exchange Commission to pass on information it has made public at home, such as results or major announcements.
Form 8-K: The report a company listed in the United States files with the Securities and Exchange Commission to announce a significant event between its regular quarterly and annual reports.

GAMSTOP: The online self-exclusion scheme for Great Britain: with a single request a person can block themselves from the gambling websites and apps of many companies at once.
Gross gambling yield (GGY, also GGR): What a gambling company keeps from players' stakes after paying out winnings and before its running costs. Outside Great Britain the same measure is usually called gross gaming revenue, or GGR.

Licence conditions and codes of practice (LCCP): The rulebook of Great Britain's Gambling Commission: the conditions attached to gambling licences and the codes of practice that licence holders must follow.
Licence revocation: A regulator's decision to cancel a gambling licence. Unlike a suspension it is permanent: the company can no longer operate under that licence.
Licence suspension: A regulator's order that a licence holder must stop offering gambling for a time, while the licence itself remains in existence.

Operating licence: The licence a company needs from the Gambling Commission to offer gambling in Great Britain, for example to run a casino, take bets or supply gambling software.
Order subject to a penalty (last onder dwangsom): A Dutch enforcement tool: the regulator orders a company to end a violation and sets a sum that becomes payable only if the company does not comply in time.

PASPA: The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a 1992 US federal law that stopped most states from authorising sports betting. The US Supreme Court struck it down in May 2018.
Personal management licence (PML): A licence held by an individual, not a company: senior managers of gambling businesses in Great Britain need one to be responsible for areas such as strategy, finance, compliance or anti-money laundering.
Politically exposed person (PEP): Someone entrusted with a prominent public function, such as a minister, member of parliament or senior judge. Their family members and known close associates are treated with the same care.

Regulatory settlement: An agreement between Great Britain's Gambling Commission and a licence holder that closes an investigation without a formal penalty. The company accepts its failings and usually makes a payment in lieu of a fine.
Remote gambling: The legal term in British law for gambling that people take part in at a distance: over the internet, by telephone, television, radio or other electronic technology. Online casinos and betting sites are the main examples.
Return to player (RTP): The share of all money staked on a game that it pays back to players as prizes, as an average over a very large number of plays.

Self-exclusion: A formal request by a person to be barred from gambling with a business, or with many businesses at once, for a set period.
Spelpaus: Sweden's national self-exclusion register, run by the Swedish Gambling Authority (Spelinspektionen). One registration blocks a person from all gambling that requires registration with licensed companies.
Statutory levy: A compulsory charge on gambling operators licensed in Great Britain that funds research into gambling harm, its prevention and treatment. It replaced voluntary industry contributions in April 2025.
Suspicious activity report (SAR): A report a business sends to law enforcement when it knows or suspects that a customer's money is linked to crime. In the UK such reports go to the National Crime Agency.

White label: An arrangement in which a brand offers gambling under another company's licence and on its platform. The licence holder, not the brand, is answerable to the regulator.