UK parliamentary group calls for ban on all gambling advertising

A group of more than 50 UK MPs has called for a ban on all gambling advertising and a cut to £2 in the maximum stake allowed online after a year-long inquiry into gambling-related addiction in the UK.

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Related Harm (APPG) said in a report published on Tuesday with more than 30 recommendations that gambling regulation in the UK needed a full review and that Covid-19 had only exacerbated the need for better protection of those vulnerable to problem gambling behaviour. See full APPG report here.

Other proposed measures would include an end to VIP schemes and inducements to bet, and banning in-play betting. For sports betting, the APPG believes in-play should be restricted to venues, or via telephone, saying this would bring UK in line with Australia. 

“We cannot continue with the current lack of regulation for the online industry. We have an industry that is profiteering from vulnerable people gambling more than they can afford,” said Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader and vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Related Harm, as reported by the Financial Times.

Labour MP Carolyn Harris, who leads the APPG alongside Smith and the Scottish National party’s Ronnie Cowan, said: “They [gambling firms] have shown time and again that they will not effectively self-regulate. Urgent change is needed to stop this industry riding roughshod over people’s lives,” The Guardian reports.

“These recommendations are in line with the public sentiment at the moment and any policy debate should be contextualised by where the public centre of gravity is. There is a strong feeling that the Gambling Act needs to be reviewed in its entirety,” said Matt Zarb-Cousin, who runs the campaign group Clean Up Gambling, referring to the 2005 legislation that regulates the industry.

The UKGC recently released data showing that overall participation in gambling has decreased but some engaged players are spending more time and money gambling on certain products.

“A significant anti-gambling lobby believes punitive and mandatory restrictions — notably clamping down on online stake thresholds — will help problem gamblers. I don’t doubt for one minute their genuine desire to help solve the problem, but such measures would actually only serve to exacerbate the issue,” wrote Kenny Alexander, chief executive of Ladbrokes Coral owner GVC, in a blog post published on Monday. He said a clampdown in online stakes would force players to bet on unregulated offshore websites.

Brigid Simmonds, who chairs the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), which represents 90 percent of the industry, said that during the lockdown the industry had increased the number of interventions it made to stop problematic gambling and that it was working on issues such as sports sponsorship and game design to decrease gambling harm.