November 21, 2017

The gambling industry, represented by senior executives and an array of lawyers, compliance and responsible gambling personnel, decamped to Birmingham today for the second (and what will surely become the annual) Raising Standards conference.

Coming hot on the heels of the Gambling Commission’s publication of their 3 year strategy last week, not much of the content of the Chief Executive, Sarah Harrison’s speech will have come as a surprise to any of the delegates or any of the absentees who will subsequently read the Chief Executive’s speech, which can be found here.

Much of the Chief Executive’s address speaks for itself, but there follows some initial thoughts, particularly given that the tone of the delivery of any speech by a regulator can be telling in itself, over and above what is actually said.

On a number of occasions, the Chief Executive intimated that the industry had reached a “tipping-point”. This was a phrase that was also used in subsequent speeches on the day. There was a clear indication that operators have, hitherto, generally taken significant steps to improve their policies and procedures. However, the practical implementation and the actual outcomes of such initiatives do not necessarily indicate a significant shift in the compliance position of the industry. The Chief Executive did go to some lengths to single out five or six operators, and specific initiatives that they had been involved in, where responsible gambling-led technical developments had demonstrated a desire, in some parts of the industry, to really grab the bull by the horns.

However, there was a very clear message that the industry needed to turn apparent commitments into real actions and that the initiatives cited needed to become the norm, rather than the exception.

Further interesting/notable comments included:

• A clear indication that “stability” in problem gambling numbers was not to be celebrated and that the industry needed to make real efforts to reduce the risk to the public of participation in gambling products;
• A suggestion that mandatory deposit limits could be introduced in the future;
• The need for a reassessment of the way in which the industry contributes to research, education and treatment with the Chief Executive imploring the industry to make “a proportionate” financial contribution and it was made very clear that the industry’s tardiness in doing this would lead to regulatory intervention and the imposition of a statutory – enshrined levy. (It was also notable on the day that an excellent speech from the Ladbrokes Coral Chief Executive, Jim Mullen, indicated that it should not be left to the industry alone to address these issues and that, with a very significant tax contribution being made by the industry into the Treasury, the Government itself should be utilising at least part of that to improve the contribution to the NHS and associated bodies for the prevention and treatment of gambling addiction).

Of course, much of the focus will be on the clear indication given in both the Commission’s recently published strategy and the Chief Executive’s speech that regulatory interventions would continue and would increase. It was very clear that “targeted interventions” will become more common and it was notable that the Chief Executive cited online casinos as being “the worst”, intimating that if they did not get their houses in order then the Commission would increase its level of intervention. The Chief Executive made it very clear that this was a warning.

The final stages of the speech were a robust indication to the industry of what it faces should it fail to meet the compliance standards as set by the Gambling Commission and other agencies. The Chief Executive was alive to the fact that the industry sometimes feels the regulators’ approach can be “unfair”. However, the Commission’s clear view is that the industry needs to set its expectations higher than current levels and that consistent and repeat failures would lead to significant sanctions. She also mentioned that sanctions will become tougher and broader so that there could never be any competitive advantage for an industry or a participant that does not seek to raise the standards as being implored by the regulators.

Notably, the Chief Executive wrapped up her speech by asserting that part of the Commission’s enforcement strategy would involve taking action against individuals who run gambling operations where they are responsible for any shortcomings. The closing remark that people’s “future in the industry would be increasingly in peril” was a stark reminder that the Commission has not yet fully exercised its powers by sanctioning a personal management licence holder for compliance failures. This is a power we should expect to see being used in the future.