INSIGHT IAGA SUMMIT WASHINGTON DC - MAY 28-30
Gambling Prohibition
Regulus Partners At the IAGA Summit in
Washington DC, May 28-30, Dan Waugh is moderating a panel session focused on: "Addressing and Responding to Gambling
Prohibitionists. His panel includes Paul Burns, President & CEO, Canadian Gaming
Association; Michael Dugher, Chairman of United Kingdom
Betting & Gaming Council; Alfredo Lazcano, Partner, Lazcano Samano; Steve Ketteley, Partner, Wiggin and David Whyte, partner, Harris Hagan.
Te topic for the debate is centred upon the emergence in the UK of a strong prohibitionist movement under the guise of public health (with gambling positioned as the 'new tobacco'). Tis has involved a UK government department calling for - amongst other things - bans on all advertising and marketing, bans on the sale of beer and wine in casinos, bingo clubs and at racecourses, annual tax increases above the rate of inflation (i.e. to extinction) and even 'plain packaging' for all gambling products.
As similar stories unfold from other international markets, the panel will consider whether the emerging threat to gambling as a legal pastime in the UK and other international markets should be examined closely and consider what the industry should be doing proactively to prevent these and similar movements from taking hold.
Dan, as moderator of the IAGA panel session on P60 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
Gambling Prohibitionists, how do you frame the discussions to get the most from your panel? What's your starting point, particularly on a big subject like this?
In these sorts of panel discussions there can be a tendency to both talk around a subject, and for violent agreement. So I try to frame the discussion in terms of a question that we're going to answer and a particular problem we’re here to solve. Te challenge will be, how do we emerge from this panel discussion feeling that we've made progress on the subject? In the absence of that, we tend to emerge better informed but none the wiser, which is something we should avoid.
How do you steer away from the ideological and philosophical side of discussing gambling harms - as that’s a black or white subject - creating a nuanced debate about the issue?
A lot of people in this space do treat gambling prohibition in fairly black and white terms. What I find interesting, and the reason why I'm involved in all of this in the first place, is I find the territory incredibly complex and fascinating. And so I think if we can embrace the complexity, and our own ignorance on these matters, accepting that we don't have all the answers to all the questions, then I think we can get into some really interesting discussions about how we solve specific problems. And I think specificity is absolutely key.
Gambling harms is an incredibly broadly topic. I was reading an article in which gambling harm was described as: “the momentary regret after losing a bet.” So I think there are things where we can be very clear are unambiguous harms; self harm, serious financial harm, things like that. But I think when we get into regret or, as the UK Gambling Commission has indicated: “that reduced cinema going is related to
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