David Clifton was attending the KnowNow “Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the Gambling Industry“ conference this morning when Gambling Commission Chief Executive, Neil McArthur, delivered the keynote speech.

He concluded his speech (that can be downloaded below) with the following points on the subject of harm minimisation:

• Funding for research, education and treatment
  • “I want to see the industry up its game in meeting the expectations set out in the National Responsible Gambling Strategy. This includes securing more funding for Research Education and Treatment. If the industry can’t provide what is needed, there is strong case for a statutory levy”
• Problem gambling rates
  • “Stable statistics are not, in my view, a good news story. I want to see problem gambling rates reduce. We want to stimulate a culture of innovating, trialling and evaluating different measures to identify what works best to protect consumers. Part of that is understanding the consumer, the customer much much better”
• Diversity
  • “We want the industry to be innovative, to innovate and collaborate to better protect consumers Collaborate by sharing ideas, best practice and lessons learned. We want to support the industry to do that, and we will. Key to moving beyond group thinking is diversity – not recruiting from the same pool. Moving beyond what looks, sounds and feels like us to be diverse in terms of backgrounds, ages, opinions. It’s this diversity that will create challenge, scrutiny, which in turn leads to the best thinking, the new ideas and the brave steps forward. The initiatives that change the world come from this kind of thinking and without diversity of input at every level within your organisation you simply do not get that”