Gambling Commission Signs Questionable Memorandum Of Understanding With Swedish Counterpart

Gambling Commission Signs Questionable Memorandum Of Understanding With Swedish Counterpart

By Gabriel Princewill-

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has  signed a questionable memorandum of understanding with its Swedish counterpart, Spelinspektionen.

The new agreement is expected to strengthen the collaboration between the two regulators which came into effect on 11 November 2019. Under the terms of the partnership, both regulators commit to the collaboration of sharing best practice on areas such as regulatory policies and procedures.

Brought to our attention by researchers in Gaming Intelligence the collaboration between the two regulators is aimed at making gambling safer and swapping ideas to maintain best practise. What factors precisely they see as constituting best practise is another question, when viewed in the context of the full scope of ‘best practise’.

And how far their joint notion of best practise excludes the transformation of deeply entrenched shortcomings in the gambling industry adds pause to their otherwise inspiring venture.  The alliance  between the UK Gambling Commission and  their Swedish counterpart should be positive in many respects,  but more importantly, it should be devoid of notable and irrefutable flaws.

SYSTEMIC FAILINGS

The Eye Of Media.Com has in the past, pointed out systemic failings in the gambling industry still not addressed by the supposedly reputable Gambling Commission. These failings have been acknowledged by individual managers  based in various betting  branches in the Uk.

For example, the Commission has not displayed transparency in its processes for holding offending managers to account when found in breach of policies. The Commission fines the gambling operator where a breach has been discovered, without always informing the public what actions were taken against the individual managers who were responsible for the breach.

Imposing fines  on gambling operators which usually amount to a fraction of their annual turnover is not sufficient to tackle their alarming indiscretions. Regulators must address the fact that these fines do not necessarily stop pushy managers who fuel dangerous habits from repeating the impropriety in more subtle and less detectable ways if they remain in the job.

Gambling casinos and other operators usually value pushy and persuasive managers skilled at cajoling gambling addicts to remain, when guidelines suggest they take a break when heartbroken by huge loses. Such managers are not easily dispensable, which is why it is crucial to know what happens to them after prohibited actions or omissions are found to have occurred.

Unscrupulous bosses in the gambling industry are hardly accountable for their decisions to dismiss gamblers or customers from participation because they shamefully do not have to  provide reasons for their actions or explain themselves.

NEGATIVE PUBLICITY

The news announcing the memorandum of understanding comes after  a series of negative publicity about gambling outlets in the Uk. Gambling habits have been  actively encouraged through the variety of gambling game machines available to gambling addicts.

Managers of gambling casinos have also been found to have recklessly encouraged individuals with gambling problems who had lost a huge amount of money to continue gambling. In September , Mps  backed a campaign group confronting  gaming add-ons and in app purchases such as ‘loot boxes’ which were  fuelling a growth in gambling addiction among children.

Members of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DDCMS) Committee called on the loot boxes to be brought under gambling legislation and for measures to be put in place to ban their sale to children. As a consequence of this necessary intervention of Mps, gambling among young people may have fallen a bit

GAMBLING DECLINE

The UKGC’s 2019 Young People and Gambling survey commissioned by IPSO MORI found that gambling amongst young people have declined by 3% compared to 2018 11 percent of 11-16-year-olds have gambled in the past seven days with their own money.

No doubt, the memorandum of understanding will go some way to improving regulatory practices, but unless the ideas in place are comprehensively applied to address all important areas, they may be nothing more than camouflage designed to give an impression of improvement when there may also be other mutually benefiting interests from their co-ordination.

UK Gambling Commission chief executive Neil McArthur explained: “We have excellent relations with other gambling regulators from across the world and our new link up with the Swedish Gambling Authority will give more opportunities to share good practice on a whole host of regulatory issues, cooperate closely and take shared action where appropriate.”

As part of the enhanced partnership, the UKGC and Spelinspektionen will work together to promote a common understanding of legitimate interests, engaging on matters of mutual policy and operational interest, as well as the provision of operational assistance.

The Director General of Spelinspektonen, Camilla Rosenberg said: “This is an important agreement for us. We have common interest in many areas. By opening the communication channels between the authorities we become stronger in our supervisory activities.

“This is the beginning of a broad and long-term cooperation. Earlier this year we have entered a MoU with Malta Gaming Authority and Gibraltar Gambling Division.”

The UKGC will work with the Swedish gambling authority to monitor general policy and supervisory issues, matters relevant to remote gambling operators, as well as measures related to anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing. Issues relating to betting, gaming and other transactional data will also be included”.

The issues covered by their memorandum of understanding is positive, but their general policy needs to  be sufficiently broad , and  cover all areas of importance and concern.

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