Richard: Noble The Gambling Review is the perfect opportunity to promote safer gambling while allowing the casino sector to thrive
I have to admit that my first thought when the Government launched the Gambling Review was ‘Well, it’s about time.”
For casinos, it’s a great opportunity to finally modernise the whole sector, something that was fudged at the time of the 2005 Gambling Act and is now long-overdue.
And at the same time, the Review will rightly focus on how to tackle problem gambling, something which our entire industry wants to see. While the rate of problem gambling is, according to the Government’s own figures, around 0.5 per cent at the moment and has remained steady for the last 20 years, one problem gambler is one too many.
It is an issue that needs resolved, and casinos are ready and willing to continue playing our part in addressing it. But in order to do so, we need to firstly survive the Covid-19 pandemic, and then have the regulatory conditions which allow us to thrive. Quite simply, too many of our customers currently have their experience constrained by legislation which is now obsolete.
As things stand at the moment, casinos which opened before 2005 are regulated differently than those which came afterwards. As far back as 2012, the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee said there was “no logical reason for maintaining different regulatory regimes and believe that 1968 Act Casinos should be given the same freedoms as new ones”.
I have to admit that my f[...]