Betting and Gaming Council battles back against “unfounded allegations”
UK trade body hits out at Lord Foster's comments reported by The Guardian suggesting it has not been "fully accurate" in its disclosures
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has slammed “unfounded allegations” put forward by Lord Foster in a report by The Guardian.
The newspaper reported that the trade body had been called into question by Lord Foster, who accused the BGC of providing inaccurate statements on regulation.
The claims arose after Lord Foster sent the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee members a letter, as seen by The Guardian, ahead of BGC CEO Michael Dugher’s appearance before the committee later today (11 July).
In the letter, Foster told MPs that he did not think the BGC had been “fully accurate” it its representation of a report reference that claimed a “major spike” in black market gambling during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
In a press release this January, the BGC referenced a report from Yield Sec, which stated: “Non-GamStop sites have generated 82.68% more visits from 26.88% more unique customers during Nov to Dec 2022 compared to the previous two-month period, spending on average 78% more time on site.”
The report, which has yet to be published in the public domain, also claimed that during that two-month period more than 64,500 vulnerable players searched for black-market sites offering betting without GamStop.
However, The Guardian reported that having seen the Yield Sec report, that the black market was actually described has having “low” penetration and that it accounted for as little as 1% of overall UK gambling spend.
Responding to the allegations on Twitter, the BGC wrote: “The Yield Sec report did uncover evidence of the growing threat of the unsafe, unregulated gambling black market, showing the numbers of UK punters visiting black-market sites had tripled around the World Cup.
“We have repeatedly warned, as have others, that intrusive affordability checks could be a reason behind an apparent growth in the black market.
“The BGC would like to make clear they asked Yield Sec for permission to send the full report to members and the Gambling Commission, and we still await that permission. The BGC is not withholding publication of the report.
“The BGC have always been clear, tough action needs to be taken on the black market, while finding proportionate, balanced regulations in the UK that don’t tempt punters to illicit operators,” the trade body added.
Further details of Lord Foster’s letter, published by The Guardian, went on to suggest that the BGC had not been totally forthcoming in other policy areas, claiming that there are concerns around “other instances when the BGC has not been entirely accurate”.
The Guardian proceeded to note that a Gambling Commission paper published in 2020 said “none” of the online gambling companies had supported such a measure during the consultation stage.
The BGC has also refuted these claims. The trade group added: “Our members have fully implemented a ban on using credit cards to pay for their products and the BGC did consistently and publicly support the ban – however, with non-BGC members it is still possible to gamble with the National Lottery with a credit card.
“The BGC supports a mandatory RET levy. In May 2022 we actually proposed a mandatory levy to DCMS to end the damaging uncertainty to members and the charity sector.”
However, The Guardian reported that in May 2022, Dugher said a mandatory levy on RET funding would be a “big step backwards”.