As U.S. stakeholders at the federal and state levels consider tightening rules around advertising and putting more controls around responsible gambling messaging, the United Kingdom on Thursday released is highly anticipated gambling white paper, which calls for similar moves in a far more mature gaming environment.
The comprehensive study, which was presented at the House of Commons, offers guidance on brick-and-mortar casinos, online casino, and sports betting. The most relevant sections deal with advertising reform and “risk checks.” They suggest putting much of the responsibility on operators to curb “aggressive advertising practices” and do background or periodic checks to ensure that consumers aren’t betting above their means. Authors of the paper also suggest that operators should take a role in funding responsible and problem gambling initiatives.
In her introduction, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer acknowledged that most UK gamblers bet responsibly and that it is a big part of the culture. She went on to note that the intention of the white-paper recommendations is not to “inhibit the development of a sustainable and properly regulated industry, which pays taxes and provides employment to service that demand.”
Unlike in the U.S., gambling parlors are ubiquitous in the United Kingdom, particularly in major cities like London, where William Hill and Ladbrokes are often as available as convenience stores are in America. Legal gambling has a long history in Europe and the UK, where guidance around gambling was last updated in 2005, before the introduction of the iPhone (2007), which changed the global technology equation for everything from shopping to banking to gambling.