Gambling regulator failing to protect, MPs warn
THE “TOOTHLESS” gambling regulator and the government department in charge of overseeing the industry are failing to protect consumers, including children and vulnerable adults, a scathing report has warned.
Penalties for companies which are not tackling problem gambling are weak and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has been complacent when it comes to ensuring effective regulation in an industry which is expanding and moving online, the Public Accounts Committee said.
Both the department and the Gambling Commission have an “unacceptably weak understanding of the impact gambling harms has on people” the committee said, adding that the bodies’ efforts have “lagged behind developments in the industry, public attitudes and even parliamentary efforts”.
While there are an estimated 395,000 problem gamblers in the UK, according to the committee, there are a further 1.8 million people considered “at risk”.
The fallout from gambling addiction can range from relationship breakdowns to criminality or suicide, it said.
Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Meg Hillier said: “What has emerged in evidence is a picture of a torpid, toothless regulator that doesn’t seem terribly interested in either the harms it exists to reduce or the means it might use to achieve that.” The Commission must be “far quicker” in responding to problems and more proactive in demanding the industry treat consumers better, the report said.
It called on the regulator to work quickly to improve the data it collects “to know what is going wrong for consumers and develop better information on its own
performance”. It added: “The Commission’s ability to protect consumers, particularly children and vulnerable adults, is also fundamentally constrained by inflexible funding and an outdated legal and regulatory framework that can reduce regulatory funding the larger the major gambling firms get.”
The Gambling Commission said it was “committed to making even further and faster progress”.
A spokesman said: “Over the past two years we have strengthened player protection measures, tightened the regulation of the online sector, introduced strict age and ID verification checks, brought in a ban on gambling with credit cards, and been tougher through our enforcement activity. In recent weeks we have also established an Experts by Experience advisory group who will help us to strengthen our efforts and help ensure we make an impact where it matters.”