More than two years after the previous government’s Gambling Act White Paper was finally released after a series of delays, a group of ministers are calling for a new review into gambling legislation.
The Health and Social Care Committee are calling on the new government to restart their Gambling Act overhaul, calling on MPs to introduce rules that would ‘better protect people from the possible harms from gambling.’
And in a letter to Ashley Dalton, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for public health and prevention, the committee called for gambling advertisements before the watershed of 9pm to be prohibited.
The introduction of any Gambling Act reform measures could yet be complicated by the news that the government is, reportedly, planning to abolish the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which currently holds the remit for regulating the industry.
Intrusive and Targeted
The Health and Social Care Committee is calling for a ‘comprehensive total system response’ to tackle gambling-related harms, with advertising and sports-based sponsorships in its crosshairs.
Their data revealed that around 80% the UK population is exposed to promotion of some kind from a betting firm each week, with ads said to work in encouraging people to open new gambling accounts. And of those surveyed, worryingly some were targeted with free bet inducements ‘in the middle of the night’.
“We were particularly concerned to hear how intrusive and targeted some gambling promotion has become,” their letter reads.
“All our expert academic witnesses emphasised the potential impact of the prevalence of gambling advertising on young people and other vulnerable groups.”
The committee agreed with the assertion that some forms of gambling are more harmful than others, and called for advertising of particular online casino games to be regulated more stringently.
They also want rules on social media advertising to fall in line with more traditional channels such as TV and radio, while calling upon the government to formally regulate sports team sponsorships – as opposed to allowing Premier League sides to govern themselves with voluntary bans.
Trimming the Fat
After taking a tonking at the polls during the local elections, the Labour government has hit back with a range of measures designed to get the electorate back on board.
One of them is to cut superfluous spending, with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) – under which the gambling sector falls – said to be in peril.
It has been suggested that the department will be abolished and split into constituent parts, overseen by the business and education department and the Treasury.
It’s a move that, according to some estimates, would save the government £1.6 billion a year, although the change would potentially be a negative for the gambling industry, with the DCMS currently acting as something of a go-between for the sector’s interests and senior government figures.
At the time of writing, neither the prime minister nor any of his senior Cabinet members have commented on the speculation.
Casino Royale
The implementation of some of the findings of the Gambling Act review continues at pace, with land-based casinos the latest tenet of the sector to experience overhauled legislation.
The reforms are, generally, positive for a business model that has suffered greatly in recent years for a variety of reasons.
As part of the new rules, the number of terminals and tables that a casino can have will be determined by the size of its gaming floor. The smallest venues, with 280 square metres of floor space or less, will be allowed up to 16 gaming ‘positions’, while the largest – which are classed as having 500 square metres or more of floor – will be allowed to increase their capacity to 40 positions.
These changes form part of the official Casinos (Gaming Machine and Mandatory Conditions) Regulations, which have been drafted as part of an overhaul of the Gambling Act. If formally approved by ministers, the law change will be implemented by July 22, 2025.
The changes could also see licensed premises allowed to offer sports betting to their customers, while licensing rules could be simplified in a bid to cut the amount of red tape required to open a new venue.
The Gambling Act White Paper review called upon regulatory reform to create more of a parity between the land-based sector and online gambling, with the changes proposed designed to achieve exactly that.
However, they will first need to be approved by both Houses of the UK Parliament before they can be enshrined in law in July.