Gambling White Paper: Industry Affiliates React
Last Thursday saw the much-anticipated Gambling White Paper announced in Parliament, which consolidated the findings of a lengthy gambling law review.
What was covered?
The Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) intends to implement a maximum bet per spin for slot machines and will consult on a range between £2 and £15 per spin.
Players who lose £1,000 within 24 hours or £2,000 within 90 days will be subject to extensive affordability tests. Meanwhile, operators will be required to conduct "passive" inspections on players whose monthly net losses exceed £125, or £500 annually.
In response to the white paper, many industry affiliates have passed comments, airing their thoughts on the government's findings. Here are just some thoughts from the industry's leading aggregators.
EasyOdds
David da Silva, the CEO of EasyOdds, thinks that the existing player protections in force are more than suitable for the industry.
"When correctly applied, we feel that the player protections currently in force with regulated operators in the UK are more than adequate," said da Silva.
"Adding further controls and restrictions designed to protect a small minority is likely to frustrate the majority of responsible gamblers, some of whom might be tempted to switch to unregulated offshore operators."
Better Collective
Better Collective believes that the initiatives from the white paper review will have limited to no economic effect on its business.
"Better Collective welcomes the review and believes it provides an opportunity to drive further changes on safer gambling," the company said in its statement.
Free Bets
Freebets.ltd.uk, which lists online free bets from UK bookies, shared its views on the suggested alterations to bonuses and the advertisement of promotions.
"The promotion of offers and incentives is integral to any industry. There was a great deal of concern surrounding what the government's white paper would propose on the matter of promotions, with the suggestion of free bets being removed entirely creating a considerable backlash. We were pleased to see that no suggestion of this was proposed by the Secretary for Culture. We believe the document to be incredibly fair and look forward to working with both government and private organisations to ensure the promotion of free bets via freebets.ltd.uk remains responsible."
CasinoReviews
Garvie, of CasinoReviews, commented that the suggested changes "appear positive in terms of protecting vulnerable players, but they'd need to be introduced carefully to prevent unintended and undesirable outcomes."
"Where consumers feel that they are being forced to go through intrusive verification procedures, or that the products are watered down to such an extent that they no longer offer the options they want, we risk driving those people to the black market," added Garvie.
"This is especially dangerous when we consider that the people who are most vulnerable to gambling addictions or harmful practices will receive no protection if they engage with illegal operators."
