It goes without saying that gambling regulators in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe have been introducing tougher regulations to the industry. While most of these rules and regulations have been geared towards ensuring fairness and safety, they have gambling operators all riled up about their futures. To counter this, gambling companies in the region are reportedly planning to set up a new trade body that will be tasked with lobbying lawmakers, authorities and regulators as the prospects of these tougher regulations clearer.
These claims are backed by recent job adverts posted by Ellwood Atfield, a renowned recruitment firm. Based on that adverts, the rumors suggest that there is going to be a merger between the Remote Gambling Association which is known to represent online betting firms, and the Association of British Bookmakers, a trade body that was recently on the spotlight over the controversial fixed-odds betting terminals.
The Ellwood Atfield advert is for a chairman and chief executive who will be responsible for shaping the new body, that is being referred to as Newco for now. According to the advert, Newco is going to be “the largest and most prominent organization representing the gambling industry”. The preferred candidates for the positions are required to have “track record of successfully influencing the political and lobbying process within Westminster, Whitehall and ideally Brussels”. In addition to that, to qualify for the positions, they will also be required to prove that they have “an established network within the national and international political and media arena, with experience of dealing with the media on politically sensitive topics”.
About Time to Get Lined Up?
According to a senior official close to the matter, all the issues pertaining to responsible gambling and tax cuts apply to every stakeholder in the industry and therefore it is about time to “get lined up a bit better”. The planned merger comes in the wake of recent regulatory changes that were influenced by a string of scandals which have attracted heavy criticism and anger since they mostly relate to the influence that gaming companies have on policy as well as their operational policies.
Even though the fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) battle can be considered to be over with the newly significantly reduced stakes expected to be implemented in April, the gaming industry still has quite a lot to deal with. A lot of attention is now being directed towards responsible gambling and advertising with the UK Gambling Commission having introduced a number of significant changes that are to go live sometime this year – these are perhaps the most worrying ones for gaming operators.
