British regulator creates permanent panel on gambling harm
The Gambling Commission has created a permanent panel of people with experience of gambling harms.
UK.- The British regulator, the Gambling Commission, has announced the creation of a permanent lived experience panel consisting of people that have direct and secondary experience of gambling harm.
The regulator said that the Lived Experience Advisory Panel includes people “with a wide-range of lived experience of gambling harms, including people affected by someone else’s gambling”.
The panel, which meets for the first time this week, is expected to make an input on the UK government’s current review of gambling legislation.
A spokesperson for the panel said: “We are pleased that the Gambling Commission has recognised the importance of listening to people who have been harmed by gambling and welcome their real commitment to ensuring that this can happen.
“The creation of this group creates a real opportunity for the voice of those with lived experience to support and influence the work of the Gambling Commission.
“We are a diverse group of people and bring a wide range skills and personal experience of gambling harm. We take this role seriously and look forward to working together as a group to make progress in tackling gambling harm.”
Influence on the Gambling Commission’s work
The permanent panel will take over the work of the Commission’s temporary Experts by Experience group, which was set up in June.
That group’s input had an influence on the new controls for online slots announced by the Gambling Commission this week.
Gambling Commission chair, William Moyes, said: “I welcome today’s announcement of the permanent Lived Experience Advisory Panel, which is a positive step towards better understanding harms caused by gambling.
“By collaborating with those with lived experience, friends, families and communities we can make faster progress to reduce gambling harms.”
Gambling Commission chief executive, Neil McArthur, said: “As already proven by the input of the interim group, the views and perspectives of lived experience in our decision making is invaluable and is already having a positive impact in our work in addressing gambling-related harm.
“Lived experience feedback in our policy work has already led to progress through input to consultations on game design and customer interaction and affordability and strengthened online advertising rules.”
Update on gambling harm strategy
The Gambling Commission has also published a new update on its strategy to reduce gambling harms.
The update includes an interactive “actions map” that shows updates in specific areas. These include the publication of GambleAware’s recent study on player-set deposit limits.
