UK Gambling Reform: From Prominent Issue to Political Side Note

In the 2019 UK general election, the parties' manifestos featured an unprecedented level of detail on plans to reform the gambling industry, following a period of intense scrutiny. Fast forward to 2024, and the issue of gambling reform has largely vanished from the ruling party’s plans. Does this mean the Gambling Act review has resolved the industry's need for reform?

Gambling has transitioned from a prominent political issue to a mere footnote. During the last general election, the gambling industry received significant attention, with the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Scottish National Party manifestos all outlining plans for reform and, in some cases, curtailing the sector.

Central to these plans was a review of the 2005 Gambling Act. The term “analogue law in a digital age” was often used to dismiss the legislation as outdated in the era of smartphones. According to law firm Wiggin, the broad agreement among politicians, who typically disagreed on many other issues, indicated that change was imminent.

By 2024, however, after Brexit, Covid, and the release of last year’s Gambling Act white paper, the industry barely features in manifestos. When the white paper was released, Betting and Gaming Council CEO (now chair) Michael Dugher described it as a “once in a generation moment for change.” He asserted that its publication should conclude the “lengthy and often polarised debates on gambling.” The apparent lack of new policy plans for the industry suggests that Westminster agrees.

Have politicians settled the gambling reform debate? Dan Waugh of Regulus Partners points out that the 2019 manifestos were unusual in their detailed coverage of gambling. He explains that the inclusion of gambling in those documents “represented the accumulation of issues around gambling.”

This attention followed concerted pressure on the industry, initially leading to the reduction of fixed-odds betting terminal (FOBT) stakes to £2, with campaigners in and around parliament then focusing on online gaming.

“The lack of interest, apart from the Liberal Democrats, really is unexceptional,” Waugh says of 2024. Gambling has not historically been a decisive issue in elections, so it typically gets overlooked in manifestos. He suggests that the review and the implementation of policies parties called for in the last election might explain their current lack of interest.

“The Conservatives may feel that they’ve carried out their review of legislation and therefore the matter is now settled. But Labour really just had a fairly few anodyne statements in there about raising standards.”

Labour and the Liberal Democrats both committed to reducing gambling-related harm. Labour also intended to “reform gambling regulation, strengthening protections,” acknowledging the evolution of the gambling landscape since 2005. Much of that is already happening, thanks to the white paper.

Waugh believes a Labour government might be relatively favorable from a gambling perspective. “I don’t think Labour have at the moment a particularly negative agenda towards the gambling industry,” he says, noting the lack of partisan divides on the issue.

The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on gambling-related harm includes politicians from across the spectrum, such as Labour’s Carolyn Harris, Tory Ian Duncan Smith, and SNP’s Ronnie Cowan.

In 2019, there was significant grassroots support for gambling reform, led by Derek Webb’s Campaign for Fairer Gambling and supported by campaigners like Matt Zarb-Cousin. However, the Campaign for Fairer Gambling has shifted its focus to the US, and while Zarb-Cousin remains a vocal campaigner, his work now includes gambling blocking solutions like GamBan. This leaves groups like Gambling with Lives leading the charge, but without the same level of widespread support.

Where will the pressure for reform come from? Waugh notes that much of the government’s work is carried out by civil servants, not politicians, who often view gambling as a significant public health issue, akin to tobacco. For instance, the office for health improvement and disparities published a paper in the Lancet Journal with 81 recommendations for state intervention in the gambling market.

Some proposals, Waugh says, border on prohibitionist territory, such as a total ban on gambling advertising and marketing, restrictions on alcohol sales at gambling venues, and an industry tax rising annually above inflation. These measures, he argues, could make the market uneconomic.

He points out that the Gambling Commission appears sympathetic to some of these proposals. “I think the election is important to a degree but it may be a bit of a sideshow because so many of the organs of the state seem to have now an anti-gambling agenda.”

Reform has not ground to a halt; ongoing consultations and tweaks to existing legislation continue. The industry faces uncertainty over changes like affordability checks, indicating that the ripples from the 2019 pledges are still being felt.

By fLEXI tEAM