UK Gaming Industry Responds To Labour Party Victory

The United Kingdom has a robust gambling market and that includes plenty of live and online poker opportunities for card players. With the Labour party now in charge of government for the first time since 2010, gaming insiders have weighed in on how the election will affect the industry.

The party won a landslide election last week and some in the industry are now wondering how this affects gambling in the country. Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Lisa Nandy will become the new secretary of state for culture, media, and sport, which includes overseeing Great Britain’s gaming industry.

Gaming regulation expert Dan Waugh, with the Regulus Partners business legal firm, recently appeared on the World Series of Politics podcast and offered some of his thoughts on the issue. For the most part, Waugh sees the change in government as neutral for the industry.

“I’m not sure it’s that straightforward, and the reason I say that is that while I don’t think Labour have at the moment a particularly negative agenda towards the gambling industry, a lot of the work of government is not carried out by politicians, it’s carried out by civil servants.”

However, Waugh does see regulators and industry insiders tightening up some regulations, with responsible gaming becoming an even larger effort overall.

“There’s fairly strong evidence to suggest the major organs of state have been captured, at least to the extent they touch on gambling, on a very strong public health movement which really sees gambling as the new tobacco,” he said.

A previous Labour manifesto made note of at least a commitment to working with the industry to raise responsible gambling standards. The UK’s Betting and Gaming Council (BCC) also recently welcomed a collaboration with the new government.

According to Gambling Insider, both the BCC and Labour have expressed support for a statutory levy to address problem gambling, an ombudsman for improved consumer relations, online financial risk checks, new stake limits for online slots, regulations on sports sponsorship, and more.

“On behalf of our members, the 110,000 people whose jobs rely on the regulated betting and gaming industry, and the 22.5 million people who enjoy a bet each month, we welcome Labour’s victory and its commitment to continue working with the industry,” BCC chairman Michael Dugher said.

“On hard-pressed high streets through bookmakers, in the leisure and tourism sector through casinos and bingo halls and in tech, where our members are genuine world beaters, this is a sector ready to contribute to growth, jobs and investment in the economy. We are investing in virtually every constituency in the land and we look forward to working with all the newly elected members of parliament.”

Photo – Wikipedia / Colin

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