Sarah Harrison, CEO of the UK Gambling Commission, spoke out concerning diversity in the gambling industry at Monday’s World Regulatory Briefing, which took place just before the ICE convention kicked off and which was presented by Totally Gaming at London’s OXO tower.
Harrison’s speech made reference to “the good, the bad and the ugly” in the sector, a cute and cogent reference to the greatest spaghetti western of all time. She suggested that the industry had a long road ahead in order to gain or regain the trust of the public after an, admittedly, fraught year, rife with scandal, in the UK gambling industry. She recognised that she had seen genuine good intentions within the industry to create a safer, fairer arena for gambling in the UK. She drew the audience’s attention to the pitiful fact that, pound for pound, a mere £3.50 per problem gambler is raised in funds to tackle the problem. This is clearly a very poor response from an industry frankly rolling in money, and, as Harrison indicated, the UK is near the bottom of the international index on this measure.
Harrison followed this up with references to failings in the industry regarding customer care and service, offering examples of staff being frequently unaware or unwilling to help with some matters, including a common failing to even respond to customer complaints. Her most damning criticism concerned failings of attitude in the industry; in particular, she referenced “short-termism” and “short-sightedness” in the industry. All of which seems eminently reasonable, looking back on a 2017 rife with due diligence failings, promotions appealing to children, the FOBT review, and more.
Finally, Harrison’s recommendation for one part of the solution was most interesting, consisting as it did of a call for greater diversity in the industry’s leadership and throughout the sector. She specified that this was not wholly pointed at gender diversity, but “in all respects and at all levels”. Any utopian vision of a new modus operandi for the gambling industry is, sadly, likely to be hard-fought, but pressure from regulators and government might at least get a few key players sitting up and rethinking their attitudes.
Furthermore, the future player demographic looks to be scrutinising company ethics far more carefully than older generations. As another speaker, Jan Jones Blackhurst, Executive Vice Principal of Government Relations & Corporate Responsibility at Caesars pointed out, “millennials make decisions based on how they view you ethically as a company.” If that’s true, a large percentage of the industry had better get their collective acts together.
