With the recent release of the Gambling Reform White Paper, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is ready to hear (some) stakeholder feedback and begin implementing its own recommendations. It’s a process that the Commission acknowledges will take considerable time and will be the number one policy priority moving forward.
While there are plenty of questions about how the Commission will move forward on the white paper’s recommendations, Tim Miller, UKGC Executive Director cleared up a few of them in a recent blog post. More specifically, Miller focused on how the UK gaming industry’s various stakeholders will be consulted on the paper’s recommendations.
While Miller made it clear that some consultation will take place, he also made it clear that some issues were not up for discussion. “It is our intention that the first set of White Paper-related LCCP consultations will be published this summer and pre-consultation engagement with stakeholders will have begun in a number of other policy areas. Importantly, these consultations will be sharply focussed on how changes are implemented. Whilst not all, many questions of public policy have been settled by the White Paper itself. Where they have, our consultations will not be an opportunity to reopen those debates,” he said.
Miller also cautioned against moving too fast, or implementing too much reform all once adding, “History shows too many examples of well-meaning policy changes having unintended consequences for the public due to the way they were implemented in the real world. We will not want to make that mistake.”