{"id":42241,"date":"2020-06-29T07:02:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T07:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaming-awards.com\/NEWS\/?p=42241"},"modified":"2020-06-29T07:02:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T07:02:37","slug":"ukgc-should-name-shame-gambling-companies-with-poor-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaming-awards.com\/NEWS\/ukgc-should-name-shame-gambling-companies-with-poor-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"UKGC Should “Name & Shame” Gambling Companies With Poor Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A new report by the Public Accounts Committee published Sunday 28th<\/sup> June said that gambling firms should be \u201cnamed and shamed\u201d for poor behaviour.<\/p>\n

In a damming statement against both the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and also The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) the committee said that both are \u201cslow and weak\u201d have \u201cfailed to adequately protect consumers and needs a radical overhaul.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee said that both the department that oversees the regulator and the regulator itself have an \u201cunacceptably weak understanding\u201d of the impact of gambling harms and lack measurable targets for reducing them. It also said that the UKGC has \u201cno key performance indicators and the departmental leadership lacks urgency to address this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below is the statement in full from the Commons Public Accounts Committee:<\/p>\n

\u201cComplacent\u201d DCMS and \u201cslow, weak\u201d regulator it oversees lagging behind industry moves and public attitudes to gambling harm; both have \u201cfailed to adequately protect consumers\u201d; whole system of regulation needs a \u201cradical overhaul\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the Gambling Commission it oversees have an \u201cunacceptably weak understanding\u201d of the impact of gambling harms and lack measurable targets for reducing them. The Gambling Commission has \u201cno key performance indicators\u201d and the departmental leadership lacks urgency to address this.<\/p>\n

In a report published Sunday 28 June 2020, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee says the Gambling Commission is not proactively influencing gambling operators to improve protections,\u00a0and\u00a0consistently\u00a0lags\u00a0behind moves in the\u00a0gambling industry. Where gambling operators fail to act responsibly, consumers do not have the same rights to redress as in other sectors.<\/p>\n

There are an estimated 395,000 problem gamblers in the UK, with a further 1.8 million people \u2018at risk\u2019. The effects can be devastating, life-changing for people and whole families, including financial and home loss, relationship breakdowns, criminality and suicide.<\/p>\n

The Gambling Commission is a non-departmental public body\u00a0funded by licence fees from gambling operators. In 2018-19 it took \u00a319\u00a0million in these licence fees: less than 0.2% of the\u00a0\u00a311.3 billion gambling yield that year.\u00a0In contrast to the Commission\u2019s\u00a0\u00a319m fees a year, the gambling industry has agreed to spend \u00a360m to treat problem gamblers.<\/p>\n

‘Prevention is better than cure’<\/p>\n

The government has approached\u00a0other\u00a0public health issues on the basis that prevention is better than cure. However, the Department was unwilling to accept\u00a0the premise that increasing the Commission\u2019s budget to prevent harm would be preferable to spending on treating problem gamblers.\u00a0The Commission increased the value of\u00a0the\u00a0financial\u00a0penalties\u00a0it enforced\u00a0from\u00a0\u00a31.4 million in 2014-15 to\u00a0\u00a319.6 million in 2018-19, but it doesn\u2019t know whether this has strengthened\u00a0the deterrent to breaking rules for operators.<\/p>\n

The Gambling Commission also has little understanding of the impact of its other regulatory action, including its ban on the use of credit cards for online gambling.<\/p>\n

The Committee finds the pace of change to ensure effective regulation has been slow and the penalties on companies which don\u2019t effectively tackle problem gambling are weak.<\/p>\n

Failure to protect consumers<\/p>\n

It says the Department and Commission together have \u201cfailed to adequately protect consumers\u201d at a time of considerable change in the sector, as gambling increasingly moves online and new games become popular. The collection of evidence has been patchy and behind the curve as the nature of gambling has changed, and the Commission has failed to develop responses even where it has identified potential problems, such as during the Covid-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n

The temporary ban on gambling ads during lockdown has now been lifted \u2013 in its\u00a0response\u00a0to the report the Commission should\u00a0provide an update on gambling patterns and industry behaviour during Covid-19, and any regulatory action it has taken to tackle the industry.<\/p>\n

The Committee calls for a new, published league table of gambling operators\u2019 behaviour towards their customers, naming and shaming poor performers. It says the Department must urgently begin its long-planned review of the Gambling Act, setting out a timetable within three months of this report.<\/p>\n

The Committee concludes:<\/p>\n