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The UK's Gambling Commission has outlined its approach to evaluating the impacts of the Gambling Act Review, promising to assess changes as a package and some individually.
David Taylor, the Gambling Commission’s head of evidence assurance and evaluation, has assured stakeholders that the gambling regulator and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s (DCMS) involvement in the review will not end when proposed changes are implemented.
“The Commission and DCMS also need to monitor and evaluate the measures that are implemented carefully, given the number and scale of the possible changes,” Taylor wrote in a blog on March 19.
The Gambling Commission and DCMS want to understand if changes are delivered effectively and achieve their intended outcomes and impacts.
Additionally, they want to identify any unintended consequences.
Planning for the evaluations is already “well underway” but Taylor warns that it “will not be easy”.
The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) has been hired to design a framework with options for process and impact evaluations.
Practical recommendations for implementing evaluations will also be provided by NatCen, as well as an overview of the data needed to monitor and evaluate changes.
“Drawing on NatCen’s evaluation expertise will be vital in identifying the most appropriate approach. It is possible that this could include identifying opportunities for conducting evaluation trials once final policy positions and implementation dates are decided upon following the consultation process,” Taylor said.
He added that the regulator will continue to provide updates on its evaluation approach.
In a separate blog post on February 22, 2024, Tim Miller, the executive director of research and policy at the Gambling Commission, announced a two-stage implementation process for “frictionless, light touch financial vulnerability checks”.
For enhanced financial risk assessments, a pilot will be launched, enabling the commission to test the details of data-sharing in practice, by working with credit reference agencies and gambling businesses. This approach seeks to ensure that consumers are not affected during the pilot period.
