Why is gambling reform happening and how do plans tackle addiction?
The government’s white paper outlining proposed reform of gambling regulation runs to 268 pages, addressing almost every aspect of the £10bn-a-year British betting and gaming industry.
Most of the measures are far from final, with the finer technical points subject to a year-long consultation process due to begin this summer. But the proposals offer fascinating insight into how gambling might look in the future and why the review was needed.
Laws governing gambling in Great Britain – Northern Ireland has a different regime – were passed in 2005 and implemented in 2007. Between those two dates, the first iPhone hit the market, an invention that transformed the way people gamble.
Since then, online casino and sports betting revenues have soared, with regulation failing to keep pace. The result, say campaigners and MPs, has been that vulnerable people, addicts and children have been exposed to high-octane gambling products. The review follows a string of high-profile cases involving financial ruin, depression and even suicide, as well as multimillion-pound fines for misbehaving firms.
The government wants to impose “affordability checks”, with two degrees of severity. Under the proposals, if a punter were to lose £125 in a month or £500 in a year, gambling firms would have to perform low-level checks, such as searching to see if a customer has suffered a bankruptcy. If a punter loses £1,000 in a day or £2,000 over 90 days then tougher checks would be triggered. Those thresholds could be halved for 18- to 24-year-olds.
The government estimates that only 3% of gambling accounts would be subjected to these enhanced checks, which could in theory be performed without the customer knowing, using data from credit rating agencies. But
Read more on theguardian.com
