UK GAMING
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Former UK Shadow Gambling Minister Nick Hawkins sorts the wheat from the chaff in his bi-monthly column…
he big news and potential problem for the UK gambling industry, from casino to machines to Bingo to online in the past month has been the release in February of the “every three years” so-called Prevalence
Study. If there is apparent bad news in one of these Studies for the industry, it is “manna from heaven” for the anti-Gambling so-called “faith groups”. Sorry to be potentially boring and talk about statistics, but these ones matter, in terms of media coverage and hence potential political responses. This study into a sample of the population, to assess the participation in gambling, paid for by the taxpayer, ought to produce really good news. What should be the headlines from this sample of nearly 7000 people (which is big enough to be “statistically significant”, I gather from maths/stats experts), showed about three-quarters of the UK population had some involvement in gambling in the year prior to the survey (sampling done in 2010). Of that three- quarters (the biggest bit unsurprisingly being the National Lottery), 99% – yes, NINETY-NINE PER CENT – had no problem with their gambling. If you wanted proof positive that gambling is
Nick Hawkins is a Barrister specialising in Gambling and Leisure law. In his 13 years in Parliament previously, he held roles in Government and Opposition, including Shadow Solicitor-General and Shadow Sports Minister. He is now Legal Director for a gaming company.
accepted by the bulk of the UK population as part of the legitimate and harmless leisure industry, there you have it! Were those, in fact, the headlines? Of course not! Now, we must be thankful for small mercies – all
the early Middle East trouble (and even the choice of a new rat-catching cat for the Prime Minister in no.10 Downing Street!) were considered bigger stories, than gambling, so instead of the banner headlines of the Daily Mail’s campaign against resort casinos in 2004, the news only made page 17 of the Mail and page 12 of the Telegraph – but the stories were about an apparent rise in the number of “problem gamblers” from 0.6% to 0.9% on one “screen” in the Study. Shock, horror! Only two big problems – this apparent “rise” was within the “statistical margin for error” so there might have actually been no rise at all, in the number of problem gamblers in the general population… and, those of you with a mathematical bent will realise that less than 1% of under 7000 people is fewer than 70… So the “rise” is a tiny handful of people saying “I have a problem”. Such a tiny number, less than 70, is way too small to draw any conclusions, NOT statistically significant, and when you looked at the sampling “screening questions”, actually answering “yes” to
12 APRIL 2011
some, which would put you in the “problem gambler” category, most of my intelligent friends who saw them said “I could answer “yes” to several of those but certainly wouldn’t ever be a “problem gambler”… When you add to this the fact that in the latest
round of cuts the “grant-in-aid” to the Gambling Commission for future studies has gone (no doubt they will come cap in hand to the industry to fund the next one) if they do, we should insist that it is the sort of survey where the only results released are ones of genuine significance so our enemies, and the media, can’t twist them!
If you wanted proof positive that gambling is accepted by the bulk of the UK population as part of the legitimate and harmless leisure industry, there you have it!
Alas the Tory “Central Office machine” (which I
know all too well from the past…!) rushed out a knee- jerk response to the Study in the name of the junior Minister more or less saying: “this is bad and it’s all Labour’s fault and we’ll do something about it” – pure campaigning, the industry mustn’t over-react, as it wasn’t from the Government Department – but its a shame it was released at all… Will the Government be panicked into more
regulation by this Study, especially on online – and by Betfair decamping to be with my friends on the Rock… I hope not! Anyway, happier news is that we might soon get a decision on who gets to buy the Tote – I have no inside track but the easiest bid to sell politically will be the in-house Tote management bid, even if they are not “highest bidder”. We’ll see. As I type this I’m off to the Cheltenham Gold Cup
tomorrow and when you read this you’ll know if my each-way on Denman was correct, or a torn-up betting slip… Happy Gambling!
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