Gambling white paper: campaigners welcome review of laws, but say there’s ‘still so much to do’ to reduce harm

Anti-gambling harm campaigners say they won’t stop pushing for reforms ‘until the deaths do’

A long-awaited review of gambling laws which will see betting companies forced to carry out affordability checks and could introduce a limit of as little as £2 per spin for online slot machines has been broadly welcomed by campaigners and experts.

The government’s white paper on gambling represents the biggest shake-up of gambling legislation in more than a decade, amid calls to tackle gambling addiction and other harms which stem from the multi-billion pound industry.

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While many of the measures put forward have the support of campaigners, there are calls to speed up the process, as the white paper still leaves many of the changes open to further consultation before being enacted.

There are also a number of areas where gambling harm activists say the government has not done enough, including on marketing, despite a voluntary ban on gambling advertising on shirts announced by the Premier League last month.

‘It’s been a real fight’ for gambling reform

Plans laid out in the white paper include a levy on gambling firms which will generate around £150 million per year toward treatment and research for gambling addiction, affordability checks and stake limits, as well as a new gambling ombudsman.

Introducing the review in the Commons, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: “We need a new approach that reflects that a flutter is one thing, unchecked addiction is another. So today we are bringing our pre-smartphone regulations into the present day with a gambling White Paper for the digital age.”

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Frazer also announced that the Gambling Commission would consult on bonus offers to ensure they were not being used to “exacerbate harm”.

She said: “We know many addicts find each time they break free from the temptation to gamble, they are drawn back into the orbit of online companies with the offer of a free bet or some free spins.

The gambling industry has had one of the most proactive lobbying operations of any sector in the last few years, during the long period while the review has been carried out. Industry representatives have secured meetings with ministers almost every month for the last three years, and spent almost £200,000 on hospitality and tickets for MPs.

After years of calls from campaigners to reform the industry, the government launched a call for evidence to inform the review in December 2020. Since then, the much-postponed review has been supervised by four culture secretaries, six gambling ministers, and three prime ministers, and its official release stalled four times throughout government turmoil and the pandemic.

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Lucy Powell, Labour’s Shadow Culture Secretary, said: “We’ve long called for outdated gambling laws - introduced when smart phones weren’t part of our lives - to be updated so that they can tackle the challenges with gambling today.

“While Labour has called for change, ministers have dragged their feet with the chaos we’ve seen in government meaning many false starts. We’ve had ten different ministers in charge of gambling policy since a White Paper was first promised in December 2020.

“Analogue gambling regulation must be updated for the digital age. We will work cross-party to make this happen. There’s no reason we can’t get all this done by the Summer recess and after years of delay, that’s what we should do.”

Support for reform does not track along party political lines, with many senior Conservatives pushing hard in recent years for a tightening of regulation on the industry. Former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith has been among the most outspoken in support for clamping down on the industry.

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Responding to the publication of the white paper today, he tweeted: “I’m pleased to see the promise of reform to our outdated gambling laws to end the worst abuses of the gambling industry. The statutory levy will ensure that adequate funding will go towards research, education and treatment for those who have been impacted by gambling related harm.”

Many of the campaigners who’ve been pushing for reform have either direct experience of gambling addiction and harm or have lost family members to it. Liz and Charles Ritchie, who lost their 24-year old son Jack to gambling addiction in 2017, set up the Gambling With Lives campaign to call for change in the industry.

Responding to the review, Liz Ritchie said that concessions have been won in some key areas, “but so much more needs to happen to reduce the horrendous harm caused by one of the most loosely regulated gambling industries in the world”.

She said: “We’ve won the argument against a powerful gambling lobby but this is just the beginning.  There’s another family devastated by gambling suicide every day, and we won’t stop until the deaths do.”

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Will Prochaska, Strategy Director at Gambling with Lives said: “We welcome the government finally acting, but nothing has changed yet. We desperately need the Gambling Commission to enact these reforms and not drag their feet.

“Government must now go much further, remove the influence of the gambling industry, and give a greater role to the Department of Health in regulation.”

Matt Zarb-Cousin, director of Clean Up Gambling, told Sky News: “It’s been a real fight to get to this point, but there’s some good things in there.

“The commitment to restricting the stakes on online slots - the biggest revenue driver for online gambling - that’s very very welcome, we hope that lands more towards £5 than £15 post-consultation.

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“This whole process has taken far too long… £13 billion has been lost online in that time since that call for evidence, and now they’re committing to further consultation on certain areas. But it is positive, it’s a big step forward.

“There are some omissions in there which are pretty glaring, such as around marketing. The Premier League has done the voluntary ban on the front of shirt sponsors, but really they could have gone much further with marketing.”

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