Gambling Related Harm APPG calls to end in-play online sports betting

In-play online sports betting should be banned, according to the Gambling Related Harm All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), which has demanded a complete overhaul of the UK’s gambling sector in a dramatic new report.

The APPG has published a 30-point report that would totally revamp the 2005 UK Gambling Act if its recommendations are used to form new legislation.

The group has called on the government to slow down the speed of online slots games, requesting an end to all free spins, turbo spins and real slots play, as well as the well-publicised £2 maximum stake limit for online casino.

Other restrictions proposed by the cross-party group include a blanket ban on all gambling advertising across TV and online media, as well as an end to all VIP schemes and operator inducements.

Our core recommendations include a £2 online stake limit on slot content, a ban on VIP inducement schemes, a ban on all forms of gambling advertising and an overhaul of gambling regulation.

— Gambling Related Harm APPG (@GRHAPPG) June 16, 2020

Perhaps the most surprising demand in the report relates to sports betting, where the APPG has recommended online operators be prohibited from offering in-play wagering as we know it, instead limiting the practice to venues or via telephone.

In-play betting is currently the biggest driver of online revenue for operators including bet365.

Legislation to ban in-play sports betting passing into law appears unlikely, as alluded to in the Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) response to the report, which reiterated an online regulatory focus in several specific areas, excluding sports betting.

“We are constantly looking at ways to make gambling online safer,” said the UKGC. “Stake limits is just one element and is in addition to our focus on VIP customers, strengthened customer interaction rules, advertising technology and safer game design.

“Another priority area for us is affordability checks, which we will be addressing working in conjunction with a panel of Experts by Experience.”

The APPG report focuses heavily on the exposure of gambling to children, a prevalent topic this month after parliament pledged to investigate whether video game loot boxes constitute gambling.

“The government has a duty to protect vulnerable people and also children and is out of step with the stringent restrictions and interventions in other jurisdictions,” the APPG report explains.

“In addition to ending all gambling advertising, it is imperative that gambling advertising is also banned in online games such as FIFA which young children are playing often for many hours daily,” the APPG wrote.

The APPG has demanded an urgent review of stakes, deposits and prize limits online, as well as a complete independent review of the classification of online products.

In addition to sweeping regulatory changes, the APPG has reiterated prior National Audit Office (NAO) claims that the Gambling Commission “is not fit for purpose”.

“The government must commit further and more flexible funding for the Gambling Commission to enable it to cope with the growth in its responsibilities and there must be rigorous oversight as to how this is money is spent,” the APPG states.

The group also took aim at measures implemented during Covid-19 by UK trade body the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) as being “very weak”, insisting member firms had “not been true to their word” by halting gambling advertising for three weeks.

Qualifying this, the APPG highlighted a Coral advert which it claimed did not include required safer gambling messaging.

Finally, the APPG has said UKGC measures to ban reverse withdrawals from operator sites should be extended beyond the Covid-19 lockdown.

On the @GRHAPPG's report on online gambling, BGC chair @BrigidSimmonds says: "We take very seriously what the all-party group says. We are going to have a review of the Gambling Act with the Govt later this year and we'll be working with them. We're about raising standards."

— Betting and Gaming Council (@BetGameCouncil) June 16, 2020

A BGC spokesperson said in response to the report: “Of course there will always be people who are anti-gambling and prohibitionists who are not interested in the fact the regulated industry supports over 100,000 jobs and pays over £3bn in tax.

“But we have to avoid measures that could drive people away from gambling safely with online companies who operate in what is rightly already a heavily regulated market, to instead gambling online with unregulated, offshore, black market, illegal operators that don’t conform to any standards or safeguards to protect problem gamblers and the most vulnerable.”