The Gambling White Paper has been a long time coming from the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and it could be further delayed since Primer Minister Boris Johnson has now resigned.
Chris Philp, the MP in charge of the Gambling Act Review was one of more than 50 MPs that resigned from the Prime Minister’s cabinet this week. He stated in his resignation letter that the White Paper is currently sitting with No 10 waiting for its review and approval.
“The Gambling review is with No 10 at the moment for final approval, containing strong measures to protect people from gambling addiction,” Philp said in his resignation letter.
With the uncertainty of the current government, it looks as if there will be further delays even if Boris Johnson doesn’t leave his post until a new Conservative leader is appointed which could take until October.
Gambling businesses have been waiting for the publication and will be annoyed if it is delayed further as it’s disrupting their plans in the UK market. 888 Group even managed to knock down the price of the non-US William Hill acquisition from Caesars by £250m due to the reliance on revenue from the United Kingdom and the uncertainty of the white
Rumoured Changes in the White Paper
In the past couple of months, there have been many rumours of what will and what won’t be included in the Gambling White Paper. Below you can find some of these key points discussed and what the likelihood of each one being introduced is.
As the Gambling Act was introduced in 2005 and hasn’t been reviewed or amended since there is a heavy focus on online gambling. This is evident upon reading the below.
Online Slot Stakes
The government ministers that have been involved in this review have stressed that online casino betting stakes will be reduced like what happened in bookmaker shops with the reduction of FOBT (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals) stakes.
The FOBT stakes were reduced to a maximum bet of £2 and this same limit will likely be applied to online slots. Although the rumours coming out of the media have mentioned a limit of £2 or £5 and online casinos will be hoping for the latter, even though they would’ve forecasted losses for both outcomes.
Online slots make up 72.5% of the total casino games’ Gross Gaming Yield (GGY) as reported by the UK Gambling Commission. Meaning that the rest would be made up of live casino games as well as random number generator (RNG) versions of games such as blackjack, roulette, and baccarat.
In the broader online gambling Gross Gaming Yield which includes sports betting and bingo, slot games revenue contributes 42% of the total. This stake limit change could lead to UK slot sites leaving the market as the margins will be reduced heavily or fewer promotions will be offered to new and existing players.
Speed of Online Slots
Continuing the look at slot games, another detail that will definitely be amended is how fast customers can play these online casino games. Currently, casino players can use the autoplay feature which allows them to set a number of spins and the game will automatically play at the set stake value.
It’s not clear if autoplay will be removed completely or if the number of seconds in between each spin will be set so that people can’t lose money at a fast pace. This along with the maximum stake limit will help to protect vulnerable players.
Front of Shirt Football Sponsors
British football clubs have come under scrutiny in recent years as they’ve had sponsorship deals with gambling companies. As football is the most popular sport in the UK and across the world, gambling companies have paid large amounts to secure these partnerships due to the massive reach of the Premier League.
Football fans and the majority of government ministers have been calling for gambling sponsors to be banned in the review. However, it’s been reported that whilst this was in the initial draft, it might have been removed after lobbying efforts by the industry.
The Premier League has spoken with clubs to slowly cut back the betting sponsorships, however, this hasn’t happened as Everton agreed to a £10m deal with crypto gambling website Stake.com and Manchester City have just agreed to a deal with 8Xbet to be the club’s Asian betting partner.
Last season 8/20 teams held a sponsorship deal with a gambling company and this number doesn’t seem to be reducing. Crystal Palace are the only Premier League club to move away from betting sponsors as they agreed to a new deal with cinch which has now replaced Asian betting firm W88.
Single Customer View
Before Chris Philp began the consultation with the industry and with gamblers in the UK, he was an advocate for the introduction of a Single Customer View (SCV). But, as was stated by industry representatives it would be extremely difficult to implement from a data protection point of view as well as gambling operators don’t want to be sharing this data.
The aim was to protect players as bookmakers and casinos could see how much a player has spent across all UK-licensed gambling sites and a block could’ve been put on if a player’s set limit had been exceeded.
The complexity of this task has meant that it probably won’t be involved in the White Paper, but mandatory affordability checks will be.
What are the Next Steps?
Even though the Gambling White Paper is now finalised and ready to be reviewed, the current situation of the government means that it will likely be some time before it’s released.
Boris Johnson is said to remain in his position until October once the new Conservative leader has been appointed. So, the Gambling Act Review isn’t a priority at the moment.
