UK thinktank calls for “soft cap” on online gambling losses
The Social Market Foundation (SMF) has proposed a £100 per month cap on online gambling losses prior to affordability checks.
UK.- A cross-party think tank has proposed that online gamblers be prevented from being able to lose more than £100 a month before proving they can afford it.
The proposal comes in a report from the Social Market Foundation (SMF) due to be published today (Wednesday).
It also calls for limits on online stakes, a tougher tax regime against online gambling operators that are based offshore, and the creation of a new independent gambling ombudsman.
The SMF’s proposals add to the recent clamour for a shakeup of gambling regulation in Great Britain, including from the House of Lords.
The report calls for a £100-per-month “soft cap” on online losses. Customers who want to be able to spend would have to go through strict affordability checks that would be undertaken by a new independent gambling ombudsman.
The SMF says such a cap would be within average gambling spend and would help reduce the number of problem gamblers who suffer financial problems or turn to crime as a result of addiction.
It proposes a stake limit of between £1 and £5 on online slot machines, similar to the proposals from the Gambling-Related Harm all-party parliamentary group.
The SMF said in a statement: “Remote gambling is on the rise, yet remains outside the same controls applied to its land-based equivalents.
“It makes no sense that the same ‘obligation’ to reduce harm through limits to stake and speed should not be applied to an online sector which provides the most accessible content of all.”
The report also calls for a kitemark system for operators that maintain good standards and clearer sanctions for operators that fail to comply.
On taxes, the SMF proposes offering tax incentives for companies that maintain a minimum presence in the UK in order to increase revenue from corporation tax and create jobs.
It has in its sights “white label” agreements allowing foreign operators access to the British market through existing licensees.
The Betting and Gaming Council has been quick to react against the call for a £100 loss cap.
It said: “We disagree with the suggestion of an arbitrary and random low cap on spending and can think of no other area of the economy where the government determines how much an individual can spend.
“Measures must be proportionate, evidence-led and fully thought through so as not to jeopardise the 100,000 jobs the industry supports or the over £3billion in tax revenues it generates for the Exchequer.”
