Former deputy leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson today told gambling executives that reform of the sector is “not all on the shoulders of the gaming industry”.
Watson, who led a year-long review of the UK’s gambling regulations in 2018, said, “The banks, loan companies and credit card companies have a huge responsibility in this area”, adding that “tech giants” could also do more to signpost problem gamblers towards help.
The speech opened this year’s ICE Vox Conference at London’s ExCel, and is likely to have come as a breath of fresh air to industry executives.
Striking a distinctly pragmatic and conciliatory tone, Watson called out the “draconian” approach of the UK government in reforming legislation around fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). But also criticised the industry for “doubling down” and “denouncing its critics”, rather than seeking common ground from which to negotiate.
“We should all recognise that a bare-knuckle fight to the death, like we had over FOBTs, does nobody any favours and we should all commit to never, ever, going back to those dark days of reform”, he said.
Acknowledging that he was prone to the occasional ‘flutter’ himself, the erstwhile politician said, “I’m no prohibitionist, hell-bent on saving souls and closing down the bookies. What I want is a system of regulation which protects the vulnerable, sets sensible boundaries, allows reasonable rewards for the industry, encourages innovation, and lets you get on with your business.”
However, he warned the industry against under-estimating the importance of gambling harm by getting bogged down in statistics.
“For some people, a harmless flutter is impossible”, he said. “If good industry-wide regulation is the price of preventing one bankruptcy, one divorce, one death, then I know you would all agree that that is a price worth paying”.
Watson’s harshest criticism was reserved for the unscrupulous marketing techniques known to be used by operators to retain high-value punters.
“What I cannot stand, and I will never accept,” he said, “is the psychological targeting of these vulnerable people with the most sophisticated forms of suggestion and promotion ever devised by man.
“That calibrated blend of sound, colour, music and words designed to release chemicals in the brain and generate harmful behaviours – all for profit. This is simply unacceptable.”
Watson’s call for pragmatism in reforming legislation that has been “marooned by the tides of technological advance” was broadly echoed by a speech later in the morning by the chief executive of the Gambling Commission of Great Britain, Neil McArthur.
Urging operators to recognise gambling-related harm as a public health issue, McArthur said, “The time to think that this is a competition between poachers and gamekeepers has gone”.
Warning that the regulator would “get tougher and tougher if we need to”, McArthur summarised his call for collaboration by saying, “We all need to see ourselves as working to make them safer. We each have a different part to play, but that must be our goal. And if that isn’t anybody’s goal, then they need to be the industry”.
