We regularly write articles for industry and legal journals & magazines, including commentaries for Online Gambling Lawyer & iGaming Business, a monthly “Licensing Expert” piece for SBC News and a fortnightly page for Pub & Bar and, with their permission, are reproducing them on our website, together with our own news items and reports on topical issues affecting the leisure and gambling industries.

Operator closures raise questions on voiding bets

In this month’s Licensing Expert article for SBC News, entitled “Operator closures raise questions on voiding bets”, David Clifton looks behind the recent cessation of trading in the UK of two licensed betting operators, BetBright and 188BET, and addresses questions that go to the heart of both (a) the contract between bookmaker and customer and (b) the […]

Paddy Power and Betfred may face regulatory action regarding FOBT replacements

We reported on 29 March that, in advance of the £2 maximum stake limit on FOBTs being implemented, the Gambling Commission had written to bookmakers to remind them of their responsibilities in ensuring consumers are protected. We added an update to that website posting on 1 April, commenting on a Guardian article concerning: new high-staking “games” launched by Paddy Power […]

New gambling advertising standards to protect under 18s come into force today

As we have previously reported, the Committee of Advertising Practice have introduced new guidance on “Gambling advertising: protecting children and young people” to help interpret CAP and BCAP’s gambling rules as they relate to the protection of children (aged 0-15) and young people (16 and 17). The new guidance applies to marketing communications appearing in all media, including […]

RGSB renamed “Advisory Board for Safer Gambling”

It has been announced on both the RGSB website and the Gambling Commission website that the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board has been renamed the “Advisory Board for Safer Gambling”. The announcement, that also confirms the new National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms will be launched by the Gambling Commission on 25 April 2019, reads as follows: Ahead of […]

AGA report highlights overwhelming consumer support for legal sports betting

With SBC Events’ inaugural Betting on Sports America conference less than a month away now, it is interesting to read that the American Gaming Association (“AGA”) has unveiled new research findings on current and future sports betting behaviour that, it says, reveal “a strong consumer movement toward legal sports betting, a need for more awareness of legal markets, and consumers’ […]

Bookmakers warned not to circumvent FOBT stake cut

Ahead of the £2 stake limit on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (“FOBTs”, i.e. Category B2 gaming machines) that comes into force on Monday of next week, 1 April 2019, the Gambling Commission has written to bookmakers to remind them of their responsibilities in ensuring consumers are protected.  It states as follows on its website: From […]

RGSB publishes its final progress report

The Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (“RGSB”) has today published its final progress report on the National Responsible Gambling Strategy for 2016-2019, that provides an assessment on the success and implementation of the Strategy. Its conclusion is as follows: A lot has changed over the three-year period of the current strategy. We were probably over-optimistic about the speed with […]

Customer Interactions

David Clifton features in a KnowNow blog entitled “Customer Interactions” (that you can download below), published in advance of its Player Protection Forum event on 22 May 2019, that David will be chairing. Registration details, as well as the agenda for the day, are available on the KnowNow website here. The following day (23 May 2019) at the same venue, […]

It’s good to talk

The current edition of iGaming Business magazine contains an article by David Clifton entitled “It’s good to talk” that focuses on planned changes to the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (“LCCP”) that will see gambling operators charged with, amongst other things, improving customer interaction to help those at risk from gambling-related harm. […]