BGC urges UK government to speed up modernisation of casinos

Betting and Gaming Council chief executive Michael Dugher gave evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee this week.

UK.- The Betting and Gaming Council has urged MPs to speed up plans for the modernisation of casinos in the UK. Chief executive Michael Dugher and executive director of standards and innovation Wes Himes gave evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in a session also attended by John White, the chief Executive of Bacta, and Miles Baron, the chief executive of the Bingo Association.

At the opening of the morning session Michael Dugher told MPs: “I want to just begin by talking about a group of people whose voice has been occasionally lost in this whole white paper process. And that is the 22.5 million people who enjoy a bet on a regular basis. They’re also people who work hard, pay their taxes, look after their families and it’s what they choose to do with their money.”

He called for the modernisation plans for casinos contained in the White Paper to be sped up, stressing that casinos need to “get access to some of the liberalising and modernisation measures that might help to save some of those businesses and grow some businesses”.

Dugher noted that there had been 2,000 closures of bookmakers, which had seen around 10,000 jobs lost since 2019. He said betting shops currently support around 42,000 jobs, contribute £1bn a year in tax to the Treasury and another £60m in business rates to local councils.

Dugher welcomed the Gambling White Paper published in April saying it largely mirrors the BGC’s own commitments to raise standards. He said the BGC backed calls for enhanced spending checks for online gambling, an industry ombudsman, a new mandatory levy to fund research, education and treatment, stake limits for online slots and modernisation proposals for casinos.

He said the BGC was clear on the need to tackle the harm experienced by problem gamblers in the UK “because that really is the thing that all of us have been trying to address”.

During over two hours of questions, the BGC also argued that there was “no evidence” supporting a link between sports advertising and problem gambling.

Himes added: “We work tirelessly to try to bring in more measures. We’ve developed 11 codes over the last three years, over 80 substantial measures which sit on top of regulation and legislation in order to create that safer gambling culture.”

In White’s contribution to the session, he defended the 50/50 gaming machine ratio proposed by the gambling white paper.