UK: Sunak vows “to fix the catastrophe of online gambling”

The UK Prime Minister has given signs that he will back measures to “curb online gambling”.

UK.- The British government’s overhaul of gambling legislation has been held up for months due to the internal squabbling in the ruling Conservative Party. During her brief tenure as prime minister, Liz Truss seemed inclined to drop or at least water down proposals for new restrictions, but the opinion of her replacement, Rishi Sunak, has been something of an unknown quantity.

While he was chancellor of the exchequer, Sunak weighed in little on the debate. He did intervene to defend the interest of horse racing amid concerns that affordability checks could harm the industry’s funding, but that’s about it.

However, The Times has reported that Sunak is now concerned about gambling addiction and favours stricter controls. According to political editor Steven Swinford, he intends to “fix the catastrophe of online gambling”. 

That will see him “resurrect plans to curb online gambling” and thereby deliver on a Conservative pledge from its 2019 manifesto. The gesture would appear to suggest that the gambling review is back on after the endless delays. It seems unlikely that a white paper will appear before 2023, but The Times says that some are pushing for it to be published before Christmas.

According to the Times, Sunak will back customer affordability checks and default stake limits of between £2 and £5 for online slots, with customers having to prove income to wager more. This is no real surprise since this is what was leaked from a claimed draft of the gambling white paper in July when Boris Johnson was still PM, however it appears to confirm that those measures remain likely to see the light of day.

As for proposed “non-intrusive affordability checks”, The Times reports that the government will consult on what mechanism to use. Other measures are set to include “more robust age verification”. The government will also create a new Gambling Ombudsman to handle consumer rights and disputes. Proposals for restrictions on free bets and VIP packages have been dropped in recognition of improved industry safeguards.

The government will also reportedly accept the Premier League‘s proposal for a voluntary restriction on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship. Meanwhile, land-based casinos will be allowed to install more machines and offer credit to overseas customers.

It’s expected that the measures decided will be made using secondary legislation, which does not require a parliamentary vote.