The UK Gambling Commission’s Ian Angus has stated that “substantive changes” will be coming to the British gambling industry in 2024 as consultations publish responses.
The Director of Policy at the UKGC stated that next year will be a busy and important year, with changes to the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice following the review of submissions, the development of an ombudsman scheme, as well as further consultation progress.
Speaking at the Lotteries Council earlier this week, Angus said: “As we move into the new year, we’ll begin to see some of the more substantive changes start to come into effect as consultations publish responses.
“There will be changes to the LCCP after we review the submissions received, development of an ombudsman scheme, and we will continue to make progress with further consultations. So, it will be an incredibly busy year but one we hope will be an incredibly important year in continuing to make gambling safer, fairer and crime free.”
The first round of UKGC consultations for the gambling white paper are set to close on October 18.
These consultations cover age verification in premises, removing features which increase the intensity of play on non-slots casino games online, improving consumer choice on direct marketing and cross-selling, as well as financial vulnerability checks and financial risk assessments.
Recently, the commission also revealed what will be explored in the next round of consultations, as well as upcoming projects that will help them analyse how to better utilise operating data.
Last month, UKGC Executive Director, Tim Miller, highlighted the topics that will be covered in the next batch of consultations set to begin in early winter, focusing on socially responsible incentives and gambling management tools.
Earlier in October, Director of Research and Statistics Ben Haden outlined two upcoming projects by the commission over the next six months involving regulatory returns and daily aggregated consumer data to make better use of operating data.
The UKGC Director of Policy also noted the Commission’s plans to overhaul data collection and survey practices.
Angus highlighted the usefulness of the quarterly telephone survey and NHS Health Survey Data from 2018, but it has its limitations, so the UKGC is now setting out to create a new “gold standard for collection of data” through the Gambling Survey for Great Britain.
“This will be the largest survey of its type into prevalence and participation of gambling anywhere in the world, with 20,000 responses a year when it is fully up and running,” he stated.
“This will give us more accurate and up to date information, leading to better regulation across the sector. We are currently in fieldwork and will start publishing new data in the spring of next year.”
