The UK Gambling Commission has opened a public input phase for its 2019 National Responsible Gambling Strategy.
Industry stakeholders are encouraged to consult on developing safer gambling protocols, structures, best practices and strategies. The input phase will run until March 2019. The commission said in various press statements that it wants to increase the amount of industry stakeholders participating in the process to help establish new policies and initiatives protecting vulnerable consumers and under-age audiences.
“We committed in our business plan to develop the new strategy and continue to be committed to driving and encouraging progress within our remit,” a release from the commission said. “However, we are only one of the bodies with a role to play, and will work together with government, public health, the charitable sector and gambling businesses in order to make real progress to reduce gambling harms. We want as many people and organizations as possible to have a voice in shaping the strategy and the arrangements needed to deliver it.”
In another story, the UK Advertising Standards Authority has upheld the legality of three advertisements for the National Lottery.
The ads had been challenged on the grounds that they implied financial problems could be solved by playing the lottery.
Though the ads depicted working families forced to spend significant time apart as they worked various jobs, the authority concluded that while the ads portrayed family stress, they did not specifically portray financial problems solved by the lottery.
Finally, a UK House of Commons committee has announced plans to investigate the growth of “immersive and addictive technologies” such as loot boxes in video games to advise the government on how to create policy and regulation that can protect the public. The digital, culture, media and sport committee will conduct the study.
The move comes after a new UK study found children who play computers games that offer randomized rewards could be more likely to become problem gamblers as adults.
A study by the universities of York and York St John found adult gamers with a history of problem gambling spent more on paid-for features in video games such as loot boxes. Researchers said the findings, which came from surveys of more than 7,400 gamers, established a “significant relationship” between problem gambling and loot boxes.
