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SMF Calls for Radical Overhaul of UK’s Gambling Regulations
By Jeff Osienya Aug 06, 2020 IndustryThe SMF, a revered public policy thin-tank has published a new report with a comprehensive outline of how the future of UK gambling oversight should look like ahead of a review of the 2005 Gambling Act.The Social Market Foundation (SMF), a London-based autonomous think-tank of political public policy has called on the UK government to revamp its gambling laws to fit the digital age. According to the SMF, now that UK’s online gambling industry has exponentially grown in both popularity and proceeds, it shouldn’t be subject to the same old regulatory framework that has been used for land-based platforms since 2005.
Like the GRH APPG in June, the SMF also published a report outlining a selection of sweeping recommendations that the British government should use as a blueprint to face-lift the Gambling Act of 2005. One of the main aims of the SMF report is to pave way for the creation of a fair market with better regulation and a safer gambling environment that will reduce the number of people who suffer through the pain of compulsive gambling.
A Quick Highlight of the SMF Report
SMF’s report outlines an exhaustive set of recommendations under five main categories that are to reshape UK’s gambling industry. Here’s an overview of the key points from the 82-page publication;
1. Licensing
Based on the cross-party think tank, the integrity of licenses in the UK gambling sector has been devoured by both industry malpractice and regulatory failures. To regain the credibility and confidence in the licenses issued by British regulators, SMF recommends a new compulsory kitemark for all operators that procure licenses rather than the current white label scheme. This upgraded kitemark will focus on the establishment of a more transparent system of regulatory approvals.
2. Gambling Content
SMF further pushes for the introduction tighter controls of online gambling that limit the speed of play and player expenditure. For online slot machines for instance, the report is calling for a new stake limit of somewhere between £1 and £5. For physical machines on land-based casinos, SMF instead recommends limits to the design of the game because stake limits would end up making slot machines commercially impractical.
3. Affordability of Gambling
Here, the SMF proposed a model of affordability after analyzing the living standards and income of UK residents and thus recommends a £100 limit on monthly net deposits for players. According to the report, this limit is already in line with the average expenditure of gamblers and it simultaneously matches Britain’s ‘socially acceptable’ baseline of leisure expenses. Moreover, such a limit guarantees that gambling expenditure doesn’t surpass the poverty line for UK’s lower income homes.
4. Taxation
When it comes to taxation, the publication urges the British government to evaluate all the tax that has been collected since the Gambling Act of 2014 that deals with licensing and advertising. After that, the SMF recommends that the taxation system should be revamped to vary from one operator to another based on the operator’s presence in the larger UK regulated market.
5. Regulation
For the British regulatory framework, the SMF called upon the government to replace the current regulatory trio of GambleAware, Advisory Board for Safer Gambling and the Gambling Commission. In its place, the report argued in favor of a new four-tier cross-departmental oversight body combination that will encompass formation of a Gambling Licensing Authority to take the place of the UKGC, with the MOJ (Ministry of Justice) as the sponsor.
The second branch of oversight would be a new Gambling Regulator to be sponsored by the BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Body). The third arm of this gambling regulation quartet would be the commissioning and funding of Research, Education and Treatment sponsored by UK’s Department of Health and Social Care. Finally, the fourth member of the quartet would consist of advertising oversight, the British Lottery and gambling related sporting and cultural events, to be sponsored by the DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) From this new regulatory protocol, the DCMS won’t be the only government department in charge for gambling in UK as is the case right now.
According to Dr. James Noyes, the lead author of the report, the recommendations have been tabled to complement the House of Lords’ proposal and that of the GRH APPG championed by 50 cross-party MPs. Together, these reports are there to offer the government a full scope of options as lawmakers gear up of the review of the Gambling Act of 2005. James Noyes is an expert in gambling policy and a former adviser to MP Tom Watson.
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