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As the UK gambling industry frets over how to improve its woeful public perception, one of the sector’s leading chief executives has sought to dampen fears over the outcome of the pending Gambling Act review.
Rank Group CEO John O’Reilly, a 30-year industry veteran who has lived through several changes to UK gambling regulation, advised that “when these sorts of reviews happen, normally common sense prevails”.
The industry and its investors fear that the new Gambling Act could include a £2 stake cap for online slots, stringent affordability rules and more besides.
Although a piece of legislation tougher on the industry than the 2005 Act is almost guaranteed, O’Reilly said people should not expect the worst.
“My sounding is that we’re heading in a fairly sensible direction,” he said, speaking at the Reputation Matters conference in London on Tuesday.
The event saw the industry confronted with statistics from YouGov that only 5 percent of the British public have a positive view of the gambling sector.
Although much of the discussion focused on how to improve that statistic, or whether it was even possible, O’Reilly said the sour public mood was mostly disconnected from the outcome of the government’s policy review.
“Gambling doesn’t generate votes,” he said, waving away suggestions that the government will seek to crack down on the industry in order to win hearts and minds.
That assertion appeared to be backed up by YouGov data. Polling of British MPs found that only 10 percent receive mail from their constituents about gambling.
One exception to this public disinterest may be sports sponsorships, O’Reilly said.
The sheer volume of betting company logos seen during sports, from football shirts to cricket boundary ropes, does aggravate the general public, he said.
The Rank chief said that in his personal view it was “probably the right thing” for the government to take action to limit gambling advertising in sports.
However, there were signs in the YouGov data that even this issue, which has been publicly backed by a gambling review committee in the House of Lords and by other high-profile reports, was far from a foregone conclusion.
Polling found that most Conservative Party MPs (54 percent) think it is acceptable for gambling companies to sponsor football clubs.
Behind the scenes, gambling executives said they are being given access to lobby gambling stewards at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).
Playtech chief compliance officer Ian Ince said his firm had “engaged with DCMS” and was heartened by the chance to present evidence that pushed back against prevailing negative narratives around gambling in the UK. He also pointed to Flutter as having had conversations with the department.
Meanwhile, the possibility of overturning the UK public’s rock-bottom view of the gambling industry was hotly debated.
Industry representatives claim that safer gambling standards have improved dramatically, but that has made almost no impact on prevailing narratives in the press and on social media.
“It’s also not reflected by MPs or the Gambling Commission,” Ince said.
PR consultant and former journalist Camilla Wright of Red Knot Communications said it would take nothing less than a massive piece of collective action to change the tone of public discourse around gambling.
The gambling industry needs a “Clause IV moment”, she said, alluding to the move by Tony Blair in 1995 to abandon one of the Labour Party’s core socialist principles and force the media to acknowledge the party had made a transition to “New Labour”.
Wright suggested it would take a move like voluntarily giving up all football advertising, and “has to be something unexpected”.
Despite the ongoing lobbying and debate, the Gambling Act review still appears to have a long road ahead.
Previous statements from the DCMS indicating it expects to publish a white paper outlining the government’s plans before the end of this year look increasingly in doubt.
Meanwhile, Rank’s O’Reilly pointed out that once a new Gambling Act was in place, there would remain huge volumes of detail to sort out through secondary legislation.
Here again, he said, the industry has a chance to exert an impact on the end result.
