Licensing Expert

As we await the supposedly soon to be published White Paper arising from the UK Government’s current Review of the Gambling Act 2005, we can only guess what will be proposed in terms of its stated aim to achieve “an appropriate balance between consumer freedoms and choice on the one hand, and prevention of harm to vulnerable groups and wider …

Perhaps it’s due to the House of Commons adjourning on 22nd July for the summer recess, but equally it could be down to the easing of travel restrictions opening the door to foreign holidays once more now that the (hopefully) final pandemic lockdown has ended. Come what may, I can’t help but feel that the ding-dong war of words between …

Licensing expert David Clifton, Director at ‎Clifton Davies Consultancy, tries to read the runes (or the many strategy documents) to discern what the new Gambling Commission (UKGC) CEO has to deal with during his 18 month tenure. The last month has seen the arrival of a new, albeit ‘interim’, Chief Executive at the Gambling Commission. With an employment background of …

8th December 2020 was a momentous day for all involved with the UK’s gambling industry. It was on that day that the UK Government launched its Review of the Gambling Act 2005 and published its Policy Paper entitled “Review of the Gambling Act 2005 Terms of Reference and Call for Evidence“. There is a very specific reason why the government …

Since my last “Licensing Expert” article for SBC News, the stand-out issues in UK gambling regulatory terms have been (a) the circumstances giving rise to the UK Government’s 20 April announcement of an independent review into the collapse of Football Index and (b) the sudden unexpected departure of Neil McArthur from his position as Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission …

As the well-known saying goes, “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”. It was wrongly attributed to the nineteenth century UK Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, but that’s not going to stop me from using it as the starting point for this monthly round-up of UK gambling law and regulation. Fast forward 150 years from Disraeli’s time …

In the Gambling Commission’s March 2018 Online Gambling Review, published very shortly after Neil McArthur took over as its Chief Executive, the view was expressed that “overall, progress by the online industry to minimise harm has been significantly slower than we expected and required”. That set in motion a chain of events that has reached its zenith in the last …

Not that long ago, gambling advertising was far from the highly controversial subject it has become in more recent times. Re-reading findings from 2014 research into “public perceptions of gambling advertising in the UK”, commissioned by the Advertising Standards Authority, makes me realise just how much both public sentiment and the regulatory mood have changed since then. Six years ago, …