Last week, some of the most senior figures in the UK gambling industry spoke before the Digital, Media, Culture and Sport Select Committee in the House of Commons on the recent UK gambling whitepaper, and gambling regulations, following the DCMS launching their inquiry into the government’s handling of gambling last year.
UKGC’s CEO, Andrew Rhodes, attempted to clarify some of the points of confusion following the publication of the whitepaper, while Gambling Minister Stuart Andrew admitted the UK has fallen behind on gambling research as he reiterated the need for a ‘balanced and proportionate’ approach to emerge from the White Paper consultations.
Attempting to make sense of the DCMS Select Committee hearings are SBC’s Multimedia Editor James Ross, Managing Director Andrew McCarron, and SBC News’ Senior Journalist Ted Orme-Claye, who has covered every aspect of the whitepaper and select committee inquiry on the media and event organisation’s flagship – SBC News.
McCarron admitted that Rhodes had been left a “tricky legacy” but went on to the make the point that any criticism of the way the whitepaper has been covered in the media is more down to the whitepapers being “confusing and vague”, particularly on affordability checks, rather than the misinformation as claimed by Rhodes.
On Andrew’s claims of being ‘behind the curve’ on gambling research, Orme-Claye questioned how much research has already been done in the two-years since the review began, and mentioned some of the scepticism from bookmakers that the white paper is merely “kicking the can down the road” in terms of any actual progress. McCarron went on to describe the research and consultations performed by the Gambling Commission as “completely haphazard”.
Our panel discussed the gambling advertising, and Andrew’s claims that gambling advertising has very little impact on problem gamblers, yet despite this, the Premier League will be removing betting sponsorships from the front of their shirts after the 2025/26 season.
Orme-Claye pushed back against claims that the Premier League ‘jumped before they were pushed’, while McCarron remarked that the “main reason it’s been banned is because there’s too much of it” – going on to speak about Asian brands using the Premier League shirts to make their brands credible.
You can read more about the select committee hearings on SBC News at the links below, and check out the podcast on YouTube, your podcast player of choice, or simply by clicking the play icon above.
