IAGA SUMMIT FOCUS: GAMBLING PROHIBITIONISTS
At IAGA, you will be speaking on a panel entitled, 'Addressing and Responding to Gambling Prohibitionists.' Do you agree with the notion that there is a gambling prohibitionist movement under the guise of public health? Is the reality more nuanced?
Te use of the word guise would suggest there is some sort of disguise going on and I think it's more nuanced than that. Gambling is quite polarising. Tere are people who participate in and enjoy gambling, or they don't and can be very anti-gambling. Few people seem to have no view on it one way or another. However, when you talk to people who aren't involved in the industry about the way it operates and has evolved from a regulation point of view it raises some very interesting questions with regards to freedoms, protections, and the extent to which the state should intervene in somebody's day to day activities or indeed business generally.
Tere are without doubt a number of practitioners in the public health side of things who have a fairly clear view that gambling is inherently harmful and should be treated as such. When something is inherently harmful (and I don’t accept gambling is) this leads to debate on the extent to which it should be controlled or restricted. Te obvious comparisons are alcohol and tobacco, whilst slightly less obvious comparisons can be drawn with things like food and shopping - where people are spending their money and the extent to which they should do so with autonomy is always going to be debatable.
I would say there's absolutely a connection between certain public health initiatives and heavy restrictions on gambling. Gambling isn't going away and I don't think there are many people within public health who believe you should ban gambling entirely because common sense would see that as entirely self-defeating. But the way in which the industry goes about its business is something a number of people in public health thinks needs significantly more control and restriction than is currently the case.
What were the major factors and pressures that led to the biggest shake-up of the UK's betting industry since the 2005 Act? How long has this can been kicked down the road?
As for why it happened, there were a succession of quite high-profile enforcement actions brought against gambling companies in 2017-18. You had a perfect storm where those cases were borne out of customers who were stealing money to feed a gambling habit and the gambling industry had been too slow to identify that and react. Tis got traction within the media and therefore, as will happen, with politicians, particularly in the run-up to the 2019 general election.
Doing something about the gambling 'problem' as they saw it suddenly popped up in all the party’s election manifestos. Once the Gambling Review began, there was a lot of commentary that suggested the 2005 Gambling Act was not
Steve Ketteley Partner, Wiggin
Steve is a partner and the co-head of the Betting & Gaming Practice. Steve is a commercial, regulatory and technology lawyer. He concentrates on advising clients on all operational and regulatory aspects of their businesses, with a particular expertise in the infrastructure of on-line gambling and gaming industries. Steve acts for operators and suppliers alike by drafting, negotiating and advising on matters such as intellectual property, software licensing and development, white-label supply agreements and affiliate arrangements and advises on the regulatory aspects of corporate transactions and the corresponding issues affecting investors, lenders and intermediaries. Clients include operators, software suppliers, financial services providers, investors and, generally, stakeholders in the online gambling industry.
fit for purpose. We've written that we disagree and that the Gambling Act is an enabling piece of legislation from which there are significant powers bestowed upon the Secretary of State by way of secondary regulation and indeed by the Gambling Commission.
I don't think there was a problem with the primary law, but there was probably a need to have a reflection on whether the regulatory framework in place was adequate or suitable for the way the business had developed. Tere weren't smartphones in 2005 and that made a major impact on the way in which gambling was consumed, particularly when you're moving from a business that pre-2000 was entirely land-based where the customer was in front of you. Te customer not being in front of you has a major impact on how you understand and “know the customer,” which is quite an important part of the regulatory framework. Tere was a drive to reflect on the way gambling is presented, marketed, consumed and the products are designed. Tat's what is now happening.
Te stated aim from the DCMS was to make British gambling laws 'fit for the digital age.' In your view, does the proposed legislative framework achieve this?
Generally, I don't think the primary law itself was unfit for the digital age. But the review of the wider regulatory framework had resulted in a succession of consultations from the Gambling Commission and from DCMS which will broadly look to achieve two things: change the way in which products are designed and consumed and
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