Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the GB Gambling Commission, said affordability checks have dominated responses to the Gambling Act review white paper consultations so far.
Rhodes is the latest figure involved in the UK gambling policy debate to give evidence in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Select Committee hearing on gambling regulation.
“We’ve had around 1,500 responses to the consultations thus far,” said Rhodes. “Most of those, if not nearly all of them, are under the area of financial risk checks, which is the most challenging part of what we’re doing at the moment.”
Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller said the regulator will quickly be moving on to the next set of consultations, which are to be published in the winter.
“The secretary of state gave a fairly clear steer that she wanted the white paper to be implemented at speed and I think it’s fair to say we were quick off the blocks at getting that first set of consultations out there,” he said.
Gambling Commission gives evidence to Select Committee
Since the publication of the Gambling Act review white paper in April, the Commission has been involved with consulting with stakeholders on many of its provisions.
The GC launched the first set of consultations for the white paper in July. These first four proposals comprised age verification requirements on premises, online games design, direct marketing and cross-selling and financial risk as well as vulnerability checks for online operators.
Financial risk checks, often dubbed affordability checks, have proved to be among the most controversial provisions of the white paper.
Rhodes warns against rushing consultations
However, despite this emphasis on speed coming from the ministerial level, Rhodes warned against rushing the process.
“In order for us to do our jobs correctly, the consultations have got be meaningful,” he said. “We can’t simply have the illusion of consultation. If we did, we would leave ourselves open quite rightly to legal challenge.”
