EPIC Risk Management has outlined two key points that it would like to see addressed throughout consultations for the UK gambling white paper.
Speaking during an appearance at the Westminster Media Forum on ‘Next steps for gambling policy and regulation in the UK’, the gambling harm minimisation consultancy’s Director of Safer Gambling, Dan Spencer, shared the company’s thoughts on the recent white paper.
Spencer stated: “As thought leaders in how gambling harm can be prevented at EPIC Risk Management, we are aware of the responsibility placed upon us when we have the chance to speak on forums such as this, and as such, our suggestions for how we can achieve the safest possible gambling industry for the UK population stem from years of lived experience of gambling harm and what we have learned from putting this into practice in environments where the potential for future harm exists.”
The two points highlighted by EPIC were a call for a prevention-based strategy to minimise gambling-related harm, as well as to take into account those that have been affected by gambling harm during the consultation period on how the white paper’s recommendations will be implemented.
Regarding prevention-based strategy to minimise gambling-related harm, Spencer brought attention to work being supported by RET funding. He also stated that the incoming mandatory levy should be independently commissioned to allow for potential prevention-based projects.
As for listening to those affected by gambling-related harm within the white paper’s consultations, the EPIC Director explained that lived experiences need to be taken into account to make sure policies can help reduce gambling harm.
Spencer added: “Our points around a prevention-based strategy and listening to the lived experience of those who have experienced problem gambling are a viewpoint that we have firmly established through a decade of delivering successful programmes that utilise both of these strategies and have a positive impact in preventing future gambling-related harm.
“It is a blueprint that we believe can be followed by others to ensure that together we minimise the potential for future problem gambling and hold trust in the fact that the ongoing consultation period on the implementation of the white paper is the optimum time to ensure that this happens wherever possible.”
At the Westminster Media Forum, Spencer spoke alongside Lord Foster of Bath, Chair of the Peers for Gambling Reform Group, the Rt Hon Lord Butler of Brockwell and several figures from gambling and gambling harm prevention including Entain, Kindred and Betknowmore.
