Read: Gambling white paper - balancing the stakes
The recent publication of the long-awaited white paper on gambling is an opportunity to ensure that its regulation is fit for the digital age. It’s also an opportunity to highlight the economic and social benefits that the betting and gaming industry can bring to communities across the UK.
The government is right to stress how much the world has changed since 2005 when the previous Gambling Act was passed. You would not guess this from the rhetoric of the many prominent abolitionists in public life, but the UK is a world leader in the oversight of betting and gaming, with a comparatively low problem gambling rate and an internationally successful gambling sector. The explosion of digital technology does greatly increase the capacity for people to gamble - hence the need for the overhaul. But it is also crucial that we fully understand the economic and social impact that betting and gaming makes both nationally and regionally to many of our communities that are most in need of levelling up.
The Purpose Business Coalition has been working with a number of betting and gaming companies to explore and evaluate their social impact. The Levelling Up Impact Report it published last year assessing the work of the industry body, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), and its members concluded that ‘the countrywide geographic spread of its members, their presence on most of our local high streets and the integral links the sector has with the sporting events that are so ingrained in our national life, means that it has the capacity to make a real difference in delivery of opportunity.’ It highlighted some notable statistics - in 2019 BGC members contributed £3.2bn in tax, 0.4% of all Treasury revenue, and provided 22,000 jobs in the north, 15,000 in the south and 58,000 in their supply chains - and highlighted ‘the unsung but often profound role the sector plays in levelling up’.
It’s clear that the industry’s contribution to the economy is hugely important, contributing significant GVA to the areas where it operates. It also attracts successful companies to the UK who are then encouraged to remain and expand here, providing valuable tax revenues to fund national priorities. In areas such as Leeds, where Flutter has its UK headquarters, the industry is at the heart of the national drive to create high-tech clusters outside London and the south east. The highly skilled digital jobs they offer are key to driving up productivity in northern cities.
At a time when so many town centres are struggling, we should recognise that betting shops are a stalwart of our high streets, attracting vital footfall that also benefits other businesses. Local staff support and volunteer in a wide range of initiatives, from health and education to sports and community. Betting and gaming businesses also collaborate with national and local charities, sporting groups and grass roots organisations. They are fundamental to many sporting events that are part of our national way of life, as well as to a variety of sports that would disappear without their support. In that respect, the industry has a role in helping to engender a sense of place and local pride.
There are so many tricky issues set out in the white paper and complex new regulatory mechanisms that you can (almost) see why it took such a long time to produce. The detailed consultations and implementation must go ahead at pace or lingering uncertainty may see the UK losing much of the economic benefits of the sector to other countries or the black market, with gambling harm increasing rather than being driven down.
But above all, it is essential to get this right - well intentioned but misjudged interventions could be both economically devastating and ineffective in reducing harm. And getting it right means engaging constructively with betting and gaming companies who are supporting their communities and working hard to create the right framework that delivers jobs while protecting the vulnerable.
