If the Old Man could see what we are led by these days, if he could see an entire industry, which contributes billions to a hard pressed economy (that’s way more than the likes of Apple and Amazon pay btw!) that provides hundreds of thousands of essential jobs for families employed by the industry, that various sports utterly depend on for essential sponsorship and other funding? He would happily have jumped back into the grave
Worse than all of these effects is the mental catastrophe befalling gamblers by the millions. Because that’s exactly what it is.
What the zealots, hopeful for any ‘win’ against the ‘evil gambling empires’ ignore is the hugely damaging effect on people’s psyche of being denied enjoyable pastime folk have enjoyed for decades
Because almost to a man, gambling is hugely enjoyable to millions. This is why it is known to be addictive. This doesn’t mean it as something ‘bad’ for people. This is the misconception preyed upon by the curtain twitching types. Most of those are seeking funding. None of them deserve a penny, because to examine a product, and to determine it has no clear benefit to people’s mental health, is to simply drive an agenda towards more funding. These people create a fictional narrative
So let’s not confuse the word addictive, which applies neatly to all of our leisure activities, that includes the health wrecking alcohol and smoking, with the word PROBLEM
Opposition to gambling is characterised by the endless pushing of falsehoods. Such as the ‘a death a day by suicide from gambling.’ Such claims are a lie, with no foundation whatsoever. This grotesque fiction, which for far too long went unchallenged by the very regulator which represents the industry. Keeping gambling fair and open doesn’t extend to the political entities the Commission favours, if they’re all carried forward to more and more funding
I read recently of Andrew Rhodes, the current CEO of the Gambling Commission, penning on his Linkedin account, that anyone describing the regulator as ‘anti gambling’ would be an ‘outrage to the hundreds who work for the UKGC.’ As yet, measures such as Open Banking remain within the rights of the consumer to deny operators, under the law. Your rights to say no are not available on the UKGC website. They expect the accounts who reasonably refuse to be suspended. But they’re not anti gambling. When did Open Banking pass the test of law before the regulator sanctioned such activity? And who the hell is checking your finances? And does the government expect to have free access top your hitherto private data? Yes. Now you understand why they are paying Rhodes 50% more this year!
Rhodes is incredibly prickly towards those who dare to oppose his plans to reduce gambling. An odd stance for someone embarking on plans to destroy what people have enjoyed for decades. Their evident outrage to his calls for state control escapes his understanding. The miniscule problem gambling issue is bolstered with the nonsensical argument ‘we are all at risk of becoming a problem gambler.’ This is exactly the same as saying anyone who frequents a pub of an evening is at risk of becoming an alcoholic. It is delusional, because it assumes we are ‘all’ at risk. And those who understand the word dopamine know that to be untrue
Rhodes leads a campaign attacking anyone in the industry who wants to bet more than £4 a day. That’s the absurd level to which he has led us. Anyone who bets at higher levels is under unprecedented moral attack. If you choose to bet in £100 units, you will be actively discriminated against by this gambling commission. A man betting at much lower levels will likely not face checks, despite his income perhaps being substantially lower. That is textbook discrimination. Those who took their lives from gambling, the ultimate harm, didn’t holiday on yachts.
Rhodes and Miller, his head of policy, are, quite simply, the biggest threat to a popular industry and free society ever. Both fully prepared to enforce affordability checks on a community of gamblers in the clear absence of essential primary legislation. Did we vote for these people?
Each rejects the scale of the black market, Rhodes denies even being told the name of any of the overseas operators, despite claiming to have blocked various platforms! Of course the scale of the black market, or the number of highly vulnerable gamblers sent there, is a stain on his competence. I don’t blame him this defence.
He dishes out tens of millions of pounds of operators fines, every penny of which is routed towards organisations dedicated to researching the ‘harm’ gambling causes. The clear benefits of gambling escape his myopic gaze. An inconvenience to the narrative
The gambling commission organises lived experience groups, which devise gambling commission policy, and populates them only with ‘victims’ of the industry. They are paid the equivalent of £70,000 a year to offer an unbalanced view of gambling. There are currently no pro gambling experts in UKGC focus groups
Worst of all, these officials are fully aware measures are closing legitimate gamblers accounts, by the thousands, every day. There’s simply no care what happens to these people. Their mental health, wellbeing or rights to say no, nor the impact on operators such as my own when we are forced by regulations so absurd, we are faced with little choice but to close accounts who reasonably refuse to provide data.
What happens to the 4 million Brits with CCJ’s against them? a number bolstered by 600,000 a year? They get closed. What happens to those living in poor areas (postcodes) They get closed. Is it true just ‘3% of accounts face invasive affordability checks? Well 60% of my variant online client base would fall neatly under such measures, and there’s an economy of truth into what an ‘account’ is. There’s no truth. Do you get to say no to checks if you gamble? No. If you’re banned has the UKGC got a plan for you to gamble sensibly within your means if you choose to? No
Rhodes is not anti gambling, he tells us. He just wants everyone to have a £2 bet and like it. Were he pro gambling he might, for example, allow a consumer to say no to checks and make very clear that he can still gamble of his own free will. Doesn’t that sound sensible?
Instead he exerts his presidential control over the lives of millions. They haven’t a choice
There are always solutions to the hyperbole that is problem gambling. Noone denies its importance, but it is a tiny element of those we do business with. Of course I wouldn’t want to put someone out of house and home. I didn’t do that before Rhodes bounced from the mess at DVLA to make a bollocks of the gambling commission
Both Rhodes and Miller have, of course, become emboldened by a thorough lack of pushback from the 4 major gaming companies that control so much of the market. Drunk on data, commercialising the same. Behaving perhaps worse than they did over FOBTs. And if you think their WOKE boardrooms are going to challenge the nonsense about levels of gambling harms being peddled daily by political organisations like Gambling With Lives? Think again.
GWL have enjoyed a free ride on disinformation for some years. It is taking the statistics regulator to challenge their falsehoods. The Gambling Commission, for its part, rewards them with regular handouts. Only recently did they voice any frustration against Gambling With Lives. Suicide is an important issue to raise, but let us keep all debate to the truth, and proportionate to the overall gambling population
The truth about problem gambling is they should not to be banned, by any regulated operator. This policy shape drives them to the unregulated market. To credit cards and all night slots. The answer lies in the regulated industry with carefully managed deposit limits. Not closure. The Gamstop google page is a sad indictment of UKGC policy. Both Sweden and Norway highlight the folly of banning orders, with out of control black market gambling
For consumers? Well I really feel your pain. I suggest you complete the gambling commission consultation and the British Horseracing survey too. It is basically all you can do at this time. I have provided the links.
If you do not bother, at this time, to complete the consultations, you’re telling these zealots it is basically ok to ruin your lives, and bolster big gaming profits, with restrictive practice. I fully appreciate that Covid taught those in positions of influence that we could be controlled. Let us push back
https://t.co/iy57DxeKPh Gambling Commission Survey
Geoff Banks Online Reports 