Review of UK gambling starts this week

A review of the UK’s gambling laws is to be announced this week, according to national newspaper The Guardian.

The review of the £14.5bn industry will examine a number of reforms, including a ban on sponsorship in sport and limiting stakes in online casinos.

The current Gambling Act has been in force since 2005 and the review will call for evidence from concerned parties inside and outside the industry. It is being led by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the government ministry responsible for the gambling industry.

Other issues highlighted by the newspaper are affordability checks on players, a testing regime for new products, powers to tackle the parallel market, legal channels for players to contest unfair treatment and a compulsory levy to fund the treatment of addiction.

More than 50 Members of Parliament have backed a movement for tighter controls on the industry. The organisation that represents the gambling industry, the Betting and Gaming Council, has complained that if regulations are tightened too much it would fuel the parallel market – those elements in the digital industry that are uncontrolled.

A spokesman for the council said: “It is important that the review is evidence-led and strikes the right balance between protecting the vulnerable while not spoiling the enjoyment of the estimated 30 million people who enjoy a bet at least once a month – the vast majority of whom do so perfectly safely – and driving them into the arms of the unregulated online black market.”