Senet Group and GambleAware call for greater collaboration with operators

The Senet Group and GambleAware have called for greater collaboration between industry stakeholders to address problem gambling in the UK.

The pair were responding to the Gambling Commission consultation on the forthcoming National Responsible Gambling Strategy (NRGS), which comes into force in April.

Senet Group said the new strategy will require “the collective effort of a wide range of stakeholders, in particular gambling operators and those at the forefront of customer engagement”.

Highlighting the “vital” need for collective engagement across the strategy, the Group suggested that the Gambling Commissions strategic pillar named ‘Gambling Businesses’ should instead be renamed ‘Collaboration’.

Gillian Wilmot, Senet Group chair, said operators were now making “unprecedented efforts to reduce harms” and it was critical that operator experience was “put to good use” in ensuring that harm reduction solutions were implemented speedily and effectively.

In its response to the Commission, the Senet Group welcomed the reduction of strategic priorities contained in the NRGS from 12 to five, saying this would provide “greater clarity and focus” on the shared objectives across the industry.

However, the Senet Group called for an additional stage to be added clarify the desired outcomes associated with the key strategic themes. Expanding on this, the group said the absence of clearly articulated goals would make it difficult to assess progress on objectives and highlight focus areas.

These sentiments were echoed by GambleAware, who said there needed to be more action “led by operators” and expressed the hope that “the vacuum for delivering cross-industry collaboration” can be filled by an industry organisation other than GambleAware.

The charity also reiterated its calls for a mandatory levy on operators, which would be used to address problem gambling in the UK. Highlighting its belief such a levy would “significantly improve transparency and public confidence in the commissioning process overall” GambleAware said it would also be fairer since all operators would be required to pay.

However, Marc Etches, chair of GambleAware, said the charity must “deliver our goals under the funding system as it is, not as we might hope it to be”, stating the hope that the new strategy would lead to an “increased and more reliable source of funding” for its commissioning of the core elements of the proposed national strategy.