RESPONSIBLE GAMING
Betting on balance: how to protect players & encourage innovation
CHERYL JONES HOLDS OUT THE PROSPECT THAT APPARENTLY MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE OBJECTIVES CAN COEXIST
Introduction Legislating to solve a perceived problem is a vastly complex task. Each regulator or legislator has their own constituents, with their own cultural values, their own unique individual problems, and their own relationship to gambling. There are many stakeholders involved, some wanting to make their fortune, some just trying to bring in some extra cash. Some like to gamble from time to time, some are addicted to gambling and some see themselves as the person trying to protect people they see as having a gambling problem. With the enormous changes in gambling over the past decade – consumers having the ability to access online gaming at the click of an app whenever and wherever in the world they may be, fast paced innovation in game design and harnessing new technologies to protect players – how will the industry find a balance between increasing legislative action and allowing technology to continue to meet consumers’ demands and expectations for change? Whilst some may argue that expanded legislative action is not always the best course of action, elected officials of a jurisdiction
are best placed to judge what proper measures are imposed or, as the case may be, not imposed on its population due to their fundamental responsibility to their constituents.
Why impose Player Protection measures? The situation over the last decade in the United Kingdom is a prime example of the challenges of gambling related harm. On one hand, the United Kingdom has a strong gambling industry, growing in an historic culture not adverse to placing the odd bet and a liberal approach to regulation. On the other, the United Kingdom enjoys a free but often sensationalist press, eager to jump on to the next public health ‘scandal’ and a vocal lobby of gambling skeptics moved to action by what they see as a perceived threat to the common good. This setup leaves the waters muddied by claims and counter claims about just how dangerous the liberalization and regulation of gambling really is. For example, a June 2020 United Kingdom Parliamentary Group Online Gambling Harm Inquiry makes assertions which, when investigated more
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IMGL MAGAZINE | APRIL 2023
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