Implementing a Social Responsibility Agenda in the Regulation of Gambling in Great Britain

Abstract

Chapter 7 set out some central elements concerning the regulation of commercial gambling facilities in Great Britain. In this chapter, the focus turns to a core feature of the Gambling Act 2005 and of the Gambling Commission’s responsibilities: the promotion and implementation of a social responsibility agenda in the provision of those facilities. The narrative also remarks on the National Lottery Commission’s (NLC) particular responsibilities concerning underage participation in the Lottery. The chapter comprises four sections. The first asks what the NLC and the Gambling Commission (which, as was noted in Chapter 7 has assumed overall responsibility for the NLC, which continues to be the Lottery’s regulator) understand by social responsibility and gives some examples of their approach to the provision of the gambling products that they regulate, in particular concerning underage and remote gambling. The second section analyses the institutional arrangements recognised by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to formulate a responsible gambling strategy (the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB)) and to fund its implementation, while the third comprises a resume of the work undertaken by the RGSB and the commissioning bodies over the past three years. The narrative remarks on both the tensions that inevitably arise when gambling operators see regulatory ambitions concerning a social responsibility agenda as commercially onerous and the positive features of the new relationship between the institutions charged with driving that agenda forward.