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The UK Gambling Commission is encouraging as many stakeholders as possible to contribute to its first round of white paper consultations in the coming weeks, as it repeated that it will approach them with “less haste and more speed” and said implementation will take "years" to avoid unintended consequences.
Speaking during the KPMG Gibraltar eSummit on June 15, Gambling Commission chief executive Sarah Gardner said she would not share too much detail on the specifics of the four consultations it plans to launch next month.
The summer consultations will cover age verification in land-based venues, removing features that increase the intensity of play on non-slot casino games online, giving consumers the power over what cross-selling marketing they receive and financial risk and vulnerability checks.
Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller recently said that the consultations covering financial risk checks are “probably the most significant thing” to be addressed this summer.
The most significant consultations will last 12 weeks, as is usual practice for significant proposals.
Gardner explained that "we want to get the implementation of the Gambling Act Review white paper right. And that means it’s worth taking time to do things like consultations and structured implementation timetables properly. Less haste and more speed will be our approach."
The gambling regulator executive again reiterated her motto of “less haste and more speed”, explaining that implementation will take “several years” when taking into account evaluating the impact of any changes, as the commission seeks to avoid any well-meaning policies having unintended consequences for the public.
A second group of consultations will be launched in the autumn.
Gardner added that the regulator is also “working with others on improving the data, research and evidence around gambling too”.
In March, the Gambling Commission held a conference for operators, academics and others to discuss and debate how it can improve the evidence base.
Since then it has published updates on the work it is doing to improve participation and prevalence statistics. The pilot of that program was delivered last year and a list of evidence gaps to be filled in the next three years has also been published.
“Again, we’ve done this to be transparent about the direction of travel and to invite others to help us with what needs to be done. Both these important projects also tie into our Consumer Voice research too. Last year we published our important Path to Play research and we will be continuing to study and publish on what drives and interests consumers and their gambling in the months and years ahead,” Gardner said.
Discussing the 24 enforcement cases in the 2022/23 financial year where operators paid more than £60m because of regulatory failures, compared with just three operators paying out £1.7m in the 2016/17 financial year, Gardner said the regulator does not “mete out penalty packages and agree to settlements just to mess with operators or make headlines”.
“We do it because the breaches and failings that we find have demanded it. These cases weren’t minor failings or debatable. They were serious. Each of the failings that led to these enforcement cases were failings of real people and failings that often led to the suffering of real harms as well,” she said.
However, she added that “we are seeing some hopeful signs that things are improving” and that “anecdotally in our compliance work, we do appear to be seeing less of the types of outrageous and indefensible examples”.
Various stakeholders have praised the white paper as a good balance between protecting parts of the industry and making necessary consumer protection changes.
However, just earlier this week, the influential All Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Related Harm (APPG) announced the launch of a white paper inquiry, aimed at analysing and assessing the measures included in the recently released white paper on gambling regulation, as well as setting out its recommendations for the government during upcoming consultations.
Carolyn Harris, chair of the APPG, explained that although the group “entirely welcomes” many of the proposals in the white paper, “there is clearly more work to be done”.
In particular, the APPG is “disappointed to see the relatively weak proposals set out on restrictions to gambling advertising, including for white label and affiliate products. Much more must be done on advertising to protect children and young people.”
Speaking during the Westminster Media Forum on the next steps for football governance in England on June 15, Ben Dean, a director of sport and gambling at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said he believes the Premier League's voluntary front of shirt gambling sponsorship ban represents “proportionate” action.
“We were most worried about appealing to children and young adults. The strongest link there was with Premier League players, where children want to wear the shirts of their favourite players, so stopping that was a priority for us,” Dean said.
When asked by VIXIO GamblingCompliance if the DCMS would take more action to curb gambling sponsorships, Dean rejected the idea, explaining that many of the lower football leagues are currently dealing with multiple financial challenges and the government does not want to add to their woes.