The UK Gambling Commission continues to move aggressively, in the face of ever-changing threats, to maintain its defences against any further encroachment of problem gambling. This time, the UKGC is soliciting contributions and input regarding its national gambling strategy. The task is a tall one, since the forms gambling takes are continually morphing with changes in business and in technology. The new consultation is open on the UKGC website until mid-February and seeks to lay the groundwork for a new strategy due in April.
The Commission has done sterling work in recent years, tackling major failings in the industry and broadcasting a strong and consistent message: fail your legal obligations, and face repercussions. Operators have had licenses withdrawn, and seven figure fines have been flying. There is an increasing amount of public dialogue on the challenges of ensuring a more ethical and community-minded gambling industry.
The Commission has posted a consultation document on its site touching on the major themes it intends to address with the new strategy, saying, in part, “We need to develop a way to comprehensively understand and measure the harms caused by gambling … how gambling behaviour varies across different products and environments … how gambling behaviour changes over time … identify best practice in industry-based harm minimisation … what works in preventative education … what works in gambling treatment and build the evidence base”.
The document makes it clear that the consultation is designed to yield a methodology for building this evidence base.
Part of the intended strategy is the imminent creation of an anonymised data repository, which would be hosted by an independent body. The data would be made available to researchers “in a controlled and transparent manner,” and there are also plans afoot to build research centres and a research hub.
The Commission’s second priority area, prevention, includes plans to help develop a public health model for gambling harm and to support the creation of national public health plans on this matter. The third area is treatment, where related proposals are put forward including that of forming further strategic partnerships to help accomplish treatment objectives.
The least clear area of focus in their document seems to be the fourth, evaluation, which the Commission acknowledges “remains patchy.” The fifth, gambling businesses, might be the most relevant to contributors to the consultation. The year one objectives proposed for this area include “targeted collaboration” between businesses, especially in order to assist businesses which “still sometimes fail to use the information at their disposal or take the basic actions needed to meet their responsibilities”.
The Commission stresses in this section that where there is evidence that something works to minimise the risk of gambling harms, they will expect widespread industry adoption.
As usual, the Commission is not messing about here. They are rolling up their sleeves for the challenging task ahead and inviting the industry to get involved in discussing ways forward, with an eye toward a need for fewer penalties and license revocations in 2019.
