The Commission says that the panel will continue the work of the interim Experts by Experience group, which was formed last year, by providing advice, evidence and recommendations to the Commission to inform decision-making and raise standards.

The panel’s first meeting took place last week and consists of people with a wide range of lived experience of gambling harms, including people affected by someone else’s gambling, with the joint aim of collaborating to make gambling safer.

The Lived Experience Advisory Panel will be working with the Commission to advise on a wide range of policy development initiatives, including providing input to work to inform the Gambling Act Review. The Panel will join the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling and the Digital Advisory Panel as a formal group who advise the regulator.

The Commission says that it is committed to ensuring that a wider range of consumer views are taken into account when making decisions. Although the group does not reflect all gamblers, their valuable input will add to other approaches currently used to include the views of consumers in decision making, it says. This includes information and feedback received from the consumer contact centre, online consumer research panels and engagement and consultations on regulatory changes. To read the Commission’s announcement in full, click here.