UK Aggregator Brands Gambling White Paper "Fair"
Thursday 27th April saw the UK Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Frazer, announce details of the Gambling White Paper at the House of Commons. The White Paper, which is the result of a long drawn-out Gambling Review that began in 2020, is said to be the biggest shake-up in gambling law to date.
While much talk has surrounded the impact of proposals on operators and players, little has been said about the effect impending legislature changes will have on UK aggregators. With aggregators generating billions of pounds for the UK economy and creating thousands of jobs, their response to these changes is of the utmost importance.
Responding to Frazer's announcements, UK aggregator freebets.ltd.uk, has branded the much-anticipated White Paper as "fair" and "in line with the thinking of both industry and consumers".
What did the White Paper entail?
As expected, the Gambling Commission focused on affordability checks, a mandatory levy for operators and the protection of young people. There was no focus on the scrapping of gambling promotions, which has been hinted at in draft proposals. Instead, authorities look to focus on how such offers are promoted, wanting to ensure betting offers are fair and not being marketed to the vulnerable.
The White Paper states:
"The Gambling Commission has recently strengthened restrictions on online VIP schemes to make sure they are not used to exploit gamblers, and has introduced rules to stop bonus offers and other marketing being targeted at people showing significant indicators of harm. It will now take forward work to review the design and targeting of incentives such as free bets and bonuses to ensure there are clear rules and fair limits on re-wagering requirements and time limits so they do not encourage excessive or harmful gambling."
Abbey Moses, Head of Marketing at Freebets.ltd.uk commented:
"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."
