PM Boris Johnson is reported to have instructed his closest advisors to take direct control of the government’s imminent review of the 2005 Gambling Act, steering DCMS reforms and agenda. Reported by this weekend’s Guardian, Dominic Cummings and Munira Mirza – the director of the No10 Policy Unit – are rumoured to have taken a ‘personal interest in the review’, …
Read More »
GambleAware has announced the launch of ‘phase two’ of its flagship ‘Bet Regret’ campaign ahead of this weekend’s start of the Premier League 2020/2021 season. Promoted nationwide, GambleAware’s latest campaign carries the tagline ‘tap-out to avoid Bet Regret’, urging audiences to pause and reconsider before they place an impulsive bet. Measuring the impact of its Bet Regret series on UK …
Read More »
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has this morning formally launched its competition to award the ‘fourth National Lottery operating licence‘. The current (third) GBP multi-billion contract serviced by Camelot Group will expire in 2023, as the UKGC and its advisory panel open its new concession to competitor proposals. Launching its competition, the UKGC underlined that it will award its licence …
Read More »
Cross-party think-tank The Social Market Foundation (SMF) has called for further ‘protective regulation’ of wagering limits to be rolled out, advising regulators that gamblers should be limited to betting ‘£100 each month until they pass more stringent checks‘. Reported by the Financial Times, the think tank claims that it is ‘inevitable that gamblers will sometimes spend more than they can …
Read More »
Camelot Group, the operating company of the National Lottery, has faced media and political backlash following reports that 16 and 17-year-olds have spent £47 million on National Lottery games. The Sunday Times accused Camelot of ‘exploiting a loophole’ in UK gambling laws, allowing children to wager on National Lottery instant-win products without any form of intervention. Quoting ‘latest figures’, the …
Read More »
In last month’s “Licensing Expert” article for SBC News, I talked about a possible link between erosion of parliamentarians’ trust in the Gambling Commission and erosion of the Commission’s trust in the gambling sector. Since then, more recent events have served to underline even more the extent to which trust in both the regulator and the regulated has so regrettably …
Read More »
Casino venues remain in the lurch with regards to their future schedules, as the government denies them a July reopening. Yesterday afternoon, DCMS Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced the government’s latest easing orders for leisure and hospitality businesses – a ‘significant lifting of lockdown restrictions for arts, entertainment and sport’. From this Saturday (11 July), England’s outdoor pools, sports pitches …
Read More »
Lee Willows, Chief Executive of educational charity The Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM), said that the education sector must be further engaged in the regulatory makeup of the gambling sector. Willows made his statement reflecting on the significant events of last week, following three separate industry oversight reports being published by the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling (ABSG); …
Read More »
Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), has approved the re-election of Stephen Cohen as a Commissioner of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). This week, DCMS confirmed that Cohen’s tenure as UKGC commissioner would be extended for a further four years until November 2024. Described as an expert in corporate finance, auditing and governance of …
Read More »
A business survey carried out by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has revealed that UK gambling firms have been divided in their response to Coronavirus restrictions, with only one-third of corresponding companies accessing government support. DCMS’ survey, entitled The Coronavirus Impact Business Survey, suggested that the majority of gambling companies were land-based, however the specific details of …
Read More »
SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry