GC CEO once again warns of “misunderstandings” as white paper responses hit 2,300

Gambling Commission (GC) CEO Andrew Rhodes has said the regulator has received more than 2,300 responses to its initial tranche of white paper consultations.

The first window closes on 18 October, and includes the controversial affordability checks, as well as cross-selling, reducing play intensity and age verification in retail premises.

Rhodes confirmed the figure as he was speaking at the International Association of Gambling Regulators in Gaborone, Botswana, where he was delivering a keynote speech.

Although Rhodes described the number of responses received by the regulator so far as “good news”, he once again hit out at “misunderstanding” in the industry, namely around affordability checks.

The checks, which have caused a significant amount of friction between the regulator, customers and the horseracing industry, were one of the headline proposals to come out of April’s white paper.

Hinting at the content of the responses received already, Rhodes told the gathered delegates: “There has unfortunately been some misunderstandings around some of what we’re setting out to do. In particular about financial risk checks and what they really mean.

“Some of this is down to the complexity of the issues we are facing, some of it has been resolved through more engagement; but some of it has been as a result of deliberate misinformation designed to muddy the waters of debate and to torpedo the implementation of government policy.”

Rhodes had moved to warn over previous misunderstandings relating to affordability checks with an open letter that was published in the Racing Post.

Rhodes and the paper were then involved in a back-and-forth regarding the topic, which saw editor Tom Kerr respond with his own open letter on the matter.

In Botswana, Rhodes said the measures were not designed to hamper the horseracing industry, but to protect those most at risk from gambling-related harm, under direction from the government.

He continued: “We are always striving to get the balance right between protecting those who need it and not infringing those who do not. But the issue that we are consulting on that has upset some supporters of horseracing – financial risk checks – is not about attacking horseracing.

“It’s about making sure gambling companies make sensible checks that their customers are not putting themselves at risk through the sums they are gambling online. We are looking to do this as frictionlessly as possible, but ultimately the government wants us to manage the risks from excessive gambling,” he added.

Rhodes also took the opportunity to suggest the regulator found itself in between heated discussions on opposite ends of the spectrum, with a need to act as a centrist totem.

He explained: “What we do in gambling regulation is hard. For us in Britain, gambling is not a topic that falls along party political lines. We have some exceptionally polarised lobby groups on either side of the debate, as well as professional gamblers, people who make a living as a result of the industry. 

“Regulators have the unfortunate role to sit between all the competing voices. Operators, lobby groups, charities, academics, politicians, the media and a host of others who often have totally different opinions and very often have views that vehemently disagree with others.

“But we regulators aren’t in this line of work to make friends every day,” he cautioned.