IAGA Summit Berlin: June 10-12, 2025
But aside from the levy as a specific example - and speaking more generally - it’s important when we’re making decisions, within our remit, that we are considering the proportionality of those decisions. Weighing up the potential benefits to consumers and the public on the one hand, and the costs to business on the other. We will always look to strike an appropriate balance.
And obviously, part of that is ensuring we are listening to different parts of the industry, understanding the risks and opportunities within their businesses and ensuring we have a good understanding of the business environment.
What are the key proposals in the Gambling Commission's recent technical standards consultation? What is the anticipated impact on operator costs and the consumer experience?
In short, the proposals are to introduce changes – standards, a licence condition and a social responsibility code – which are designed to support and empower consumers to use gaming machines safely. For example, it includes time and monetary limit setting functionality and information provision such as safer gambling messaging and the display of net position and session time.
Our aim with all this is to arrive at a package of proposals that protect the vulnerable, ensures consumers can make informed decisions about their gambling but also recognises the need to minimise the impact on consumers who are not experiencing difficulty. And this balance is very important to us. If we don’t strike the right balance there is the risk consumers may simply be pushed onto neighbouring machines or into nearby venues, making it difficult to monitor consumer activity across sessions and interact when appropriate.
In addition, we know our proposals could lead to considerable costs for licensees. Tey’ve already told us thousands of machines would be impacted. As part of the consultation, we’ve asked for more data on this. It goes without saying that we will need to consider the appropriateness and proportionality of our proposals through the lens of consumer benefits and costs to industry.
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What's the future direction of gambling regulatory reform in Great Britain?
We still have important parts of the White Paper to implement. Tere’s the transition to the statutory levy framework and determining the best approach to managing financial risk assessments – especially in a way which is as frictionless as possible and help address concerns from industry and consumers with how such checks are currently conducted.
Ten there’s the - for want of a better word - operationalising new powers to tackle illegal gambling, the introduction of a Gambling Ombudsman to address gaps in consumer redress, and there’s reforming the Commission’s funding framework which is, quite frankly, no longer fit for purpose.
I think there does need to be a period of relative stability to allow White Paper reforms to bed in and be evaluated. In 2023, at the CEO Briefing we held in London, I set out how I felt we would likely see far less of the extreme cases that had garnered so much negative publicity, and we would be instead dealing with much more complex and nuanced issues.
I think that is where we are now, as we grapple with how to find ever more precise ways of identifying those at risk and not creating friction for those who are not. At the same time, I think consumer expectations around service, communication, fairness and how they are treated in general have changed and there are now many different expectations facing the industry and its regulator.
Our Corporate strategy ‘regulation in a digital age’ which charts our direction up to 2027 sets out how we want to be a more data driven and effective regulator, identifying issues impacting the public earlier and addressing them decisively. It also shows how we want to modernise core technology and processes in addition to attracting and retaining good colleagues. Tis will give us the capacity and capability to really focus on the issues that matter to consumers.
Again, and I can’t stress this enough, an increasing part of our work will be identifying innovative ways to prevent anyone offering illegal gambling at scale to consumers in GB. Tat includes leading global efforts to have regulators around the world to collaborate to tackle cross-jurisdictional threats. And finally, it’s an absolute must for us to continue to ensure we have a successful National Lottery given its importance to good causes.
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