Stephen Cohen has been approved to serve another four-year term as the Commissioner of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). That’s great news if you like getting a full response to your crazy-pants complaint about gambling advertisements, but not as great if you’re in charge of running a UK-facing gambling operation.
Cohen’s re-commission to the UKGC was approved by Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Oliver Dowden. Under UK law, Cohen will have the position all to himself until 2024. Now the bigger question is why, exactly, anyone would even want this thankless job. Cohen can be assured of always seeming like he’s meddling in business too much to operators, and not meddling enough to gambling opponents. No matter what he does he’s in a perpetual state of making someone unhappy.
That said, it seems safe to say that reform of one kind or another will definitely be on the UKGC’s docket for the foreseeable future. Over the past few years, Cohen’s early tenure, the Commission has revamped rules regarding video betting terminals (VBTs), as well as UK rules regarding casino advertising. In most cases, the rules have made life much more difficult for operators while placating gambling critics. The changes have also taken a dire toll on casino revenues for UK-facing operators.
The biggest item on Cohen’s docket, and a headache for the gambling industry, is the implementation of the recommendations put forth by a research select committee in the House of Lords. The committee recently put forth a publication titled, Gambling Harm – Time for Action which looks to be a total nightmare for the gaming business.
It will be very interesting to see what the UK gambling business looks like at the end of Cohen’s term.