Pointing to the next stage in the fight against gambling-related harm
Categories: Articles
In this month’s Licensing Expert article for SBC News, that picks up on last month’s article “Collaboration – the name of the game”, David Clifton comments on:
- the announcement by William Hill of a new corporate objective“Nobody harmed by Gambling” that seeks to “eradicate problem gambling within the UK” and the open letter written by its Group Chief Executive Phillip Bowcock,
- remarks on problem gambling contained in the Gambling Commission’s Annual Report published just days before that announcement,
- the recently published template for the third Annual Assurance Statement for completion by 39 of the largest UK licensed gambling operators and submission to the Commission by 14 December,
- the speech by the Commission’s Executive Director, Tim Miller at the World Gaming Executive Summit 2018 in Barcelona on 3 July,
- publication by the Gambling Commission on 28 June of its first ever report into enforcement action, and
- the questions that all operators licensed by the Commission should ask themselves with a view to avoiding the investigations, enforcement action and increasingly heavy financial penalties of the type detailed on the Commission’s “Lessons learnt – compliance failings” webpage.
David concludes his latest article (that can be downloaded below) as follows:
“Completely eradicating problem gambling might well be an overly ambitious aim but, with:
- increasingly high financial penalties being imposed by the Gambling Commission for regulatory breaches (most recently the £2million penalty package imposed on 32Red and with others understood to be in the pipeline) and
- a precedent now set in Italy (with effect from 1 January 2019) for a blanket ban on all forms of gambling advertising, marketing, promotions and sponsorship,
gambling operators licensed in the UK certainly do now have a real incentive to ensure they all play their part in the fight against gambling-related harm”.
Download article PDF: SBC News – Pointing to the next stage in the fight against gambling-related harm