BGC calls on government to put child protection "front and centre" of white paper
Industry mouthpiece highlights the threats posed by unregulated operators with their flimsy age verification checks
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has urged the UK government to put child protection “front and centre” of the forthcoming white paper following the Gambling Act 2005 review.
Michael Dugher, chief executive of the BGC, said: “We strongly support the government’s gambling review, which highlighted the protection of children and vulnerable people in a fair and open gambling economy as one of the government’s main priorities.
“We therefore hope that child protection will be front and centre of the forthcoming white paper.”
While making the plea, the BGC chief highlighted how efforts being made in the regulated industry to protect young people, adding that the online black market has none of the safer gambling measures offered by BGC members, such as strict age verification checks.
Since its establishment in 2019, the BGC has introduced 15 child protection measures, including the £10m Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme, which is delivered to children, teachers and youth workers across the UK by safer gambling charities YGAM and GamCare.
BGC members also introduced several rules to prevent youngsters from gambling advertisements on different platforms.
Results from operators showed a 96% fall in views of social media ads by those aged 18 to 24 in the final three months of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
Meanwhile, the BGC said its members’ self-imposed whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting ads during live sport before the watershed has led to a 97% reduction in the number of young people viewing such ads at that time.
Dugher stated: “It is clear that the steps BGC members have taken over the previous two years are now providing results.
“Nevertheless, we are not complacent, and protecting young people remains our top priority as we continue raising standards across the regulated industry,” he added.
Furthermore, the BGC is also working with social media platforms and search engine companies to explore ways to enable users to unsubscribe from betting and gambling advertising.
As a result of BGC’s efforts to reduce gambling advert exposure among under 18s, a recent report by the UK Gambling Commission showed that the rate of problem gambling for age group between 16 and 24 had fallen from 0.8% to 0.4%.