For David Clifton, Director of Clifton Davies Consultancy, a potential outcome of the review of the 2005 Gambling Act could be a requirement for UK betting operators to leverage all available technology solutions.
Speaking to CoinGeek’s Becky Liggero at the Know Now’s Social Responsibility for Gambling Operators Conference, Clifton shared his views on the leveraging of technology for safer gambling purposes, including blockchain solutions.
“What has been happening, and that’s been evidenced certainly by a number of sessions today, is that the technology is becoming more complex, but also becoming more available,” Clifton remarked.
“Personally, I will not be in the slightest bit surprised if we see from this government review, a more formal requirement for UK licenced operators to use the technology that is available. In all possibility, that might prove to be tricky for the smaller operators, so that’s going to need to be addressed.
“I think the expectation on the part of the Commission is that different technology is there to assist as far as safer government processes are concerned, operators should using it.”
Liggero also spoke to Peter Higgins, a commercial mediator for the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS), who identified what the majority of disputes between customers and operators in the gaming industry have revolved around in recent years.
He explained: “There are many examples where it could be a grey area, but the growing area has been around the licence code on social responsibility e.g. self-exclusions that may have been complicated – you could have a retail based operator, and an online-based operator, different companies, and the client has signed up with one and not the other.”
Additionally, he also highlighted the issue of affordability as a ‘big growth area’, adding: “Because the ADR is not in place to cover those today, that’s where a lot of referrals are coming from. I think the Gambling Act review should be looking at closing down some of the areas, but it’s a growing area that we’re seeing today.”
Probing Higgins’ views on the use of blockchain technology, Liggero quizzed the consultant on how solutions such as an immutable ledger, in which conversations between bettors and operators are recorded, could be effectively leveraged.
“What it will do is settle some of the disputes so they don’t get to this stage, which is a good thing. I’m basically dealing with stages that we’re trying to avoid going to – litigation.
“If you can have these ledgers in place which can prove when something was placed with some different examples, in crude terms it’s basically more evidence for the operator or for the client.”
Source – CoinGeek YouTube Channel
