BGC have responded to the Public Accounts Committee report
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Responding to the Public Accounts Committee report ‘Gambling regulation: problem gambling and protecting vulnerable people’, a spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council said:
“The Betting and Gaming Council was established last year to drive up standards across our industry, and we are determined that this is a race to the top.
“We have voluntarily introduced a range of measures from advertising restrictions including a whistle to whistle ban, a requirement for 20 per cent of all advertising to be safer gambling messaging, cooling off periods on gaming machines, encouraging deposit limits, monitoring play and spend, restricting and closing hundreds of thousands of accounts with new ID and age verification checks and massively increasing funding for research, education and treatment.
“Nearly 30 million people enjoy gambling occasionally, whether that’s on the National Lottery, bingo, sports or gaming, and the overwhelming majority of them do so safely, and our industry supports over 100,000 jobs and pays over £3 billion in tax each year.
“The industry is working hard to raise standards to help problem gamblers and those at risk, though we note that both the Regulator and the Government have made it clear that there is no evidence that problem gambling has increased.
“Our industry is already heavily regulated. We mustn’t drive customers to offshore, black market, illegal operators that don’t have any of our safeguards, and we do want to see more action taken against the unregulated industry.
“We are committed to making more voluntary changes and driving up safer gambling standards. We will work with the Gambling Commission and the Government to achieve this, particularly on the forthcoming Review of the Gambling Act.”
