Gambling Strategy

United Kingdom Gambling Commission Seeks the Right Methodology to Gauge Gambling Impacts

Posted by Craig Gustling on in Blog, Local, News, UK Today / 1 Comment

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC), which oversees gambling, has decided to step in to stem the tide of gambling-related harms.

 

The commission has decided to put in place groundbreaking approach towards comprehending the extent of the impacts to the British society. It has as a matter of fact released the published findings to the public.

 

This study was spearheaded by Dr. Heather Wardle, who heads the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB). This is the body that provides independent advice to the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. The report was generated by a close partnership between The Responsible Gambling Strategy Board and the Gambling Commission. It was funded by the GambleAware.

 

In a nutshell, the report recommends that the manner in which the social costs of gambling-related harms may be gauged and better understood should be suggested.

 

To accomplish the purpose stated above, the report aims at:

  • Settling on a universally accepted standard definition of gambling and attendant harms which may be adopted by public health officials and policymakers.

 

  • Ascertain the manner in which the socioeconomic impacts of gambling and related harms may be better comprehended, monitored, and evaluated.

 

  • Put in place a framework against which subsequent actions which finds out how the harms which may be felt by families, individuals and communities may be dealt with.

 

  • Find out the best ways possible through which to estimate the social costs of gambling and related harms.

 

This is what Neil McArthur, the Gambling Commission Chief Executive, had to say,

‘Whereas most customers may enjoy gambling without any worries, we just cannot overlook the possible adverse effects the practice might inflict on certain communities, families, and individuals. This report demonstrates significant progress towards comprehending those negative side effects as well as gauging their possible impacts on the wider society and  the entire economy.’

 

The lead author of the report, Dr. Heather Wardle, had this to comment:

‘This is a remarkable step towards understanding gambling. It is a far cry from the existing approaches in that it acknowledges gambling as being able to affect communities, families, and society over and above individuals only.’

 

GambleAware chief executive officer, Marc Etches, on the other hand, had this to say:

‘Problem gambling is undoubtedly a health concern. It has the abilities to inflict critical social and economic consequences to the individuals concerned as well as their families, communities, friends, and the society in totality. This is why this project is very significant. We urgently need to comprehend what gambling is, as well as its adverse knock-on effects to us.’

 

Over and above the objectives stated above, the initiative also aims at putting in place an effective framework which considers the possible impacts of gambling and related harms. This framework is to be extended to the families and communities wherein the gamblers reside. It even dares to gauge the overall costs of gambling in the entire society.

 

Neil McArthur, the Gambling Commission Chief Executive, further had this to say:

‘Significant progress towards understanding the possible side effects of gambling as well as measuring its adverse impacts on the entire British Society and the economy has already been reached. There is still a lot more to be done, though.’

 

 

 

An Online Casino 32Red is Facing a £2m Fine after Violating Customer Welfare Procedures

Posted by Craig Gustling on in Blog, Local, News, UK Today / 1 Comment

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) filed a lawsuit against a reputable online gambling firm, 32Red after it has failed to protect its customers in what is termed as to protect a problem gambler, money laundering, and social responsibility checks. 32Red was slapped with a £2m fine penalty.

 

In gambling, customer welfare is a priority factor to consider in their operations. The Gambling Commission presented enough evidence about their case against 32Red. They mainly urged with 22 incidents that clearly could prove that the customer had gambling problems. Their proof was an investigation of the customer dealings as from November 2014 to April 2017 of a customer who had deposited £758,000.

 

Before any customer deposits any amount to a gambling firm, the firm is supposed to do money laundering, and social responsibilities check as required by the law set via the gambling commission. These checks are not only intended to stop any form of money frauds that would want to get clean via gambling channels but also would help those with gambling problems from losing all their money to gambling.

 

32Red not only accepted a deposit of £758,000 without doing the proper checks required but also offered some bonuses to encourage the customer to keep on betting more frequently with them. Despite their client having a net salary of £2,150, the client was still able to raise an average amount of £45,000 monthly. According to the 32Red company, the customer cheated claiming a net salary of £13,000 monthly of which, t was still not credible enough to accept those monthly deposits to a gambling firm by law. The customer won a seven-figure digit, but surprisingly he reinvested back to the same gambling firm of which this is an alarming case of problem gambling. 32Red failed in their obligation to take the rightful procedures by reviewing their customers’ financial status and asses the social responsibility in all of their deposits. The customer took more than a month to validate issues concerning his financial position while on the other hand, 32Red could not clearly explain on how the client had acquired that money he deposited to them since the firm failed to fulfill their money laundering procedures on their customers.

 

The £2m fine accounted for a £1.3m payment that was to go to a Gambling strategy plan that intends to tackle issues on problem gambling, a £709,046 divestment on the financial gain while the rest covered up for the investigation costs, policy improvement and risk management departments.

 

Kindred who owned 32Red accepted the penalty and pledged that all measures supposed to be done will be implemented to ensure that all customers will be enjoying gambling in a safe and secure environment where no law will be violated. Improvements and changes affecting both the processing and procedures were implemented immediately. These changes included; a review on all current customers profiles against the revised policies, a third party group that helps in anti-money laundering detection and companies in the same platform unified so that they work together toward the same goal in an organized manner.

 

Richard Watson who was the commission’s executive director said that instead of gambling firms motivating or even convincing their customers to gamble more like the case of 32Red gambling firms are expected to be limiting the amount their customers are dedicating to gambling guided with the specified checks. Other gambling firms like Sky Bet, Tab-corp and William Hill found themselves in the same trap as 32Red resulting to large sums of fines as penalties for failing to prioritize customer welfare on their procedures and operations.