The Department for Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) has published the UK Government’s response to its report on gambling regulation. 

The White Paper, titled “High Stakes: gambling reform for the digital age” was published in April last year and the Government has offered its response to the report from the DCMS.

It covers a number of areas, including: implementation of the White Paper, the black market, online gambling protections, children and young adults, gambling advertising, land-based gambling, gambling research, prevention and treatment, and a gambling ombudsman. 

Looking specifically at the White Paper, the Government has said it is working hard with the Gambling Commission to deliver the main proposals by this summer. The document emphasised that the response to the consultation for online slots has been published, and the responses for land-based measures and the statutory levy will be published in the coming weeks. 

The Government has acknowledged the impact of gambling advertisement, stating that the Gambling Commission is taking action to “ban aggressive practices and ensure that advertising remains socially responsible.” 

Referencing the incoming ban on gambling sponsorship on Premier League players’ shirts, the response sets out that the cross-sport gambling sponsorship code announced by Stuart Andrew MP in March “will guarantee a robust minimum standard on gambling sponsorship across all sports, ensuring that when gambling sponsorship does appear, it is done so in a socially responsible way.” 

Payments have been a big topic for discussion when it comes to the White Paper and the Government has also emphasised its commitment to a frictionless system of financial risk checks.  

The UK GOv has said light touch financial vulnerability checks will look at where a customer is subject to a bankruptcy order, or has a history of unpaid debts; the more enhanced financial risk assessments will only be carried out on those customers with the very highest spending online and for the vast majority of those customers will be conducted frictionlessly using data sharing. 

According to the announcement, the Gambling Commission is due to publish its own response in relation to the financial risk checks soon. 

At the 2024 Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) AGM in February, we spoke with the Gambling Commission’s CEO Andrew Rhodes in relation to a number of regulatory topics.