In the United Kingdom, the Gambling Commission has announced that Sarah Harrison (pictured) is to step down as its Chief Executive from the end of February in order to take up a senior role with the government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Appointed to her current post in June of 2015 following a spell with the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OfGEM) energy regulator, Harrison is widely credited with giving the organization more teeth by imposing stringent penalties such as the record £7.8 million ($10.4 million) fine handed out to 888 Holdings in late-August due to the online operator being found to have had ‘significant flaws’ in its social responsibility processes. She was also at the helm last month for the £2.3 million ($3 million) punishment given to Ladbrokes Coral Group after the British sportsbetting giant allowed a pair of remote players to gamble away approximately $1.2 million ($1.5 million) in stolen funds.

Harrison has moreover been instrumental in the gambling regulator teaming up with the government’s Competition and Markets Authority in order to take action over industry terms and conditions and stated that she was ‘proud of the work that all at the [Gambling] Commission have delivered together’.

“I am very confident that as the [Gambling] Commission delivers its new strategy it will go from strength to strength and will continue to make gambling in Britain fairer and safer,” read a statement from Harrison.

The Gambling Commission declared that it has already started the search for Harrison’s replacement before revealing that its Chief Counsel and Executive Director, Neil McArthur, would serve as its acting boss post-February until ‘a new Chief Executive has been appointed’.

Bill Moyes, Chairman for the Gambling Commission, declared that Harrison has been ‘significant in shaping’ the regulator’s ‘direction of travel’ as it looks to establish its agenda and priorities for ‘treating customers fairly and making play safer’.

“I and my board colleagues wish Sarah every success for the future and look forward to continuing to work with her to deliver this agenda over the next few months,” read a statement from Moyes.