UK Gambling Commission getting "outgunned' by betting companies

[The Buzz]

The Gambling Commission is "outpaced and outgunned" by betting companies, according to a government report warning that the watchdog, which has been very busy handing out fines and creating bans as of late, is struggling to protect people from gambling-related harm.

From The Guardian:

The National Audit Office, which monitors the effectiveness of public bodies, said the regulator had not adjusted to technological change such as the rise of online and mobile gaming. It said funding constraints had hampered the commission, which has an annual budget of £19m but regulates an industry that took £11.3bn from punters last year.

The commission is “constrained by factors outside its control, including inflexible funding and a lack of evidence on how developments in the industry affect consumers,” the NAO said.

It concluded that the regulator was “unlikely to be fully effective in addressing risks and harms to consumers within the current arrangements”.

Its verdict comes after the government promised to review the 2005 Gambling Act, following successive scandals that have cast doubt on the industry’s commitment to rein in disordered gambling.

Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/...-companies-nao

[tallman]

Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

[mathematician]

Throwing "annual tax revenue from betting" into google throws up statistica quoting £2.99 billion in 2019

If true that annual budget of £19m looks a bit on the tight side. Perhaps funnelling a percentage of future gambling tax revenue straight to the GA would be a means of ensuring they long term keep up with growth of operators?

What happens to the fines they issue I wonder. Who keeps that cash?
If not the GA perhaps they may get at least some of it in future. That may even suit some politicians who may not want to say "We are taking taxes intended for schools and hospitals to pay for gambling authorities" and instead would prefer to say "The GA is a self funding body paid for by fines on the bad bookie operators when these operators do bad"

Or a bit of both of the above in some hybrid mix.

Some pros and cons of course to funding models. Picture for example a model based 100% on collecting fines. The GA may be sweating some future year when they had done such a great job at operator re education that not one single bookie crossed the naughty boy line and no one got fined that year. They would be skint due to their success.

Better hedging in some sort of hybrid approach.