Lottery commissioners appointed to UK Gambling Commission
Mary Chapman and Robert Foster will retain existing roles until National Lottery Commission and Gambling Commission merge responsibilities.
Mary Chapman and Robert Foster, commissioners with the UK’s National Lottery Commission, have been appointed to the country’s Gambling Commission by Government Minister for Sport and Tourism Hugh Robertson.
The move is seen as a precursor for the merger of the Lottery Commission’s functions with those of the Gambling Commission, and the pair will continue to devote three days a month to their lottery responsibilities until such a merger is formally completed.
A consultation over this proposed merger was opened last July before being brought to a close in October, and was part of a wider government strategy of “increasing the accountability and reducing the number and cost of public bodies”.
The consultation posed questions regarding the protection provided by a combined regulatory body and concerns over the presence of a single regulator. William Hill chief executive Ralph Topping had earlier explained in an exclusive interview with eGaming Review that the London-listed operator was “…firmly in the camp that the UK needs an independent regulator, which makes gambling policy free from political interference and on the basis of empirical evidence.”
Former Competition Commission chief executive Foster had been a National Lottery Commissioner since 2005, while Chapman – whose previous roles include chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute – has held her post with the commission since 2008.