After penning an open letter posted on the UK Gambling Commission website saying he is “very concerned” at the significant increase in the misuse of gambling statistics, Gambling Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes is receiving some backlash, and not just from our own J. Todd.
Jason Chess, a leading adviser to the remote gambling industry worldwide for nearly 20 years, wrote a scathing column titled, "Statistics and the Eye of the Beholder," taking Rhodes to task.
Referring to a “withering” report from the National Audit Office from 2020, Chess said the NAO "seemed to think that the Commission itself was seriously data – and statistics – deficient."
Other highlights:
The ‘open letter’ might have come across as a little better-balanced had the Commission also taken the chance to cite some of the statistics from commentators such as the Bishop of St Albans or, indeed, Public Health England itself, which are in a different league altogether to the examples cited in the ‘open letter’. In the case of Public Health England, FOI responses from the Commission indicated that even the Commission’s own officials didn’t understand PHE’s conclusions, speculating in an internal memo that they were simply designed ‘to ensure gambling is considered as a public health issue’. [6] The entire industry will look forward to the blood-sport that will ensue as the Commission throws itself into the task of imposing statistical objectivity over my Lord Bishop, his parliamentary colleagues and indeed the Commission’s fellow Agencies of State, whose agendas often very clearly require the picking and choosing of statistics to fit.Read the entire column here: https://wiggin.co.uk/insight/statist...-the-beholder/Mr Rhodes has generally seemed more prepared than his immediate predecessors to seek to strike a balance between creating a sustainable gambling market in Great Britain which gives freedom to the many and protects the vulnerable few with a commitment to base regulatory change on evidence and for that we must be thankful. However, having set out that stall, the Commission must be objective in its own use of statistics (including in current and forthcoming consultations) and look to hold outliers on both side of the fence to account.