Gambling Commission challenges accuracy of Commons hearing stats
The regulator said there was no evidence for some claims made during a commitee hearing
UK.- The British Gambling Commission has formally contested the accuracy of statistics that were presented during a controversial hearing of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee on Gambling-Related Harms in April. It’s emerged that the regulator wrote to committee chair Layla Moran MP on April 14 to express concerns about claims made by three expert witnesses.
The witnesses were Lucy Hubber, director of Public Health for Nottingham; Sam Chamberlain, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Southampton; and Heather Wardle, professor of Gambling Research and Policy at the University of Glasgow.
The evidence provided by the panel has already been criticised by various stakeholders. Complaints were raised by GambleAware and a coalition of treatment and advocacy organisations, including Deal Me Out, EPIC Global Solutions, and Gordon Moody.
SBC’s Player Protection Hub has reported a formal complaint was made by the Gambling Commission itself. Obtained through a Freedom of Information request, the letter was signed by Tim Miller, the regulator’s executive director of research and policy. In the letter, he rebukes specific claims made during the session by all three witnesses.
Miller specfically challenge’s Hubber’s assertion that “about a third of children aged 11 to 16 are using some form of land-based gambling” and Chamberlain’s claim that “data from 2020 found that up to 20 per cent of children and young people who gamble already have some degree of problem gambling.” He also questioned Wardle’s suggestino that “skin betting among young adults is as risky as online slots.”
The letter reads: “In relation to the first point raised by Hubber, no source was provided for this information, other than ‘from local estimates’. For the points raised by both Chamberlain and Wardle, there was no source provided.”
Miller referenced the regulator’s own annual Young People and Gambling report as the authoritative source of official statistics. The 2024 edition found that 27 per cent of 11 to 17-year-olds had spent money on some form of gambling in the prior 12 months. The most common activities were legal or informal, such as penny arcade machines and betting with friends or family. Only 1.5 per cent were deemed to show the clinical criteria for ‘problem gambling’.
The letter also defended the regulator’s complaints processes, recalling that under the Gambling Act 2005 legally limits the regulator to imposing financial penalties within two years of discovering a regulatory breach.
“After two years, we may still conduct a licence review under section 116 of the Act. However, certain enforcement options – such as fines – may be unavailable,” he wrote.
New process for defining fines
Earlier this month, the Gambling Commission confirmed plans to update its approach to calculating and imposing financial penalties on gambling companies that breach its rules. It said the changes will increase the transparency of how fines are calculated, basing calculations on gross gaming yield.
Following a consultation earlier in the year, the regulator will update its Statement of principles for determining financial penalties to introduce greater clarity and transparency. All changes will come into effect on October 10.
According to the commission’s consultation response document, the changes include the creation of a clear and distinct seven-step process the regulator will follow when assessing and imposing a financial penalty. They also provide transparency on how it will determine the level of seriousness of the breach, introducing five levels of seriousness.
