Regulation and the management of risk in commercial gambling in Great Britain

Abstract

The regulation of commercial gambling in Great Britain is the responsibility of the Gambling Commission, the regulatory agency created by the Gambling Act 2005. This article examines the risk model that it has developed in order to assess operator risks to the Act's licensing objectives. These are to prevent gambling from becoming a source of crime, to ensure that gambling is fair and open, and to protect children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling. The article discusses four factors that affect the implementation of this model: operator compliance, the regulatory environment, the regulatory toolkit and the Commission's approach to its regulatory responsibilities. Its regulatory ideology sits squarely within the neo-liberal mode of regulation that has been pursued in Great Britain since the 1980s. By reference to political and public disquiet concerning gaming machines, the article analyses the tensions between the state, the regulator, the gambling industry and its consumers to which this mode of regulation gives rise. The article examines the challenges that the Commission faces in seeking to adopt a regulatory stance that is defensible both in terms of the protection of the public and the demands of a liberal market economy.

Keywords::

• regulation
• United Kingdom
• commissions
• risk assessment
• responsible gambling

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to officials at the Gambling Commission who commented on an earlier draft of this article. They have no responsibility for its content or for any errors. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading and helpful comments.

Conflicts of interest

Funding sources: None.

Competing interests: The author is deputy chair of the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board. He observes on its behalf the meetings of the Responsible Gambling Trust's Research Committee. For performing these functions the Board reimburses his expenses and pays him a fee. In 2013 the Responsible Gambling Trust invited him to chair an expert and independent panel whose purpose was to evaluate a scoping exercise on the use of industry gaming machine data for research purposes. The Trust also invited him to prepare a report on the law governing the regulation of gaming machines in Great Britain. This is referenced in the article as Miers (2013). The Trust reimbursed his expenses and paid him a fee for these two pieces of work.

Constraints on publishing

No constraints on publishing were reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Miers

Dr David Miers is Emeritus Professor of Law at Cardiff University, UK. He has a longstanding research interest in the regulation of commercial and good cause gambling. He has advised government departments and parliamentary select committees in Great Britain on gambling policy. He continues to write and to give conference papers on this subject.