'We are listening' - Gambling Commission chief promises that consultations do lead to change

Consultations do lead to changes in policy implementation, Gambling Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes has said, as British racing waits to hear the industry regulator's response to its consultation on affordability checks.

The controversial subject featured in the first Gambling Commission consultation sparked by the government's gambling white paper, closing in October.

A further wave of consultations on other measures proposed by ministers was launched at the end of November.

Affordability checks, or financial risk checks as they are termed by the government, are already thought to have cost British racing tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue, while the proposals in the white paper are estimated to risk the loss of a further £250 million over the next five years.

Concerns have also been raised the Gambling Commission might not listen to the sport's misgivings about the proposals given accusations they have been based on misinformation.

Rhodes said last month the commission had been working through around 2,400 completed consultation responses and hoped to be ready to report back early next year.

Giving a keynote speech at the annual conference of the charity GambleAware in London on Wednesday, he said: "As we know some policies that the government has published and that we and DCMS [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] are working to consult on can be contentious.

"I am not going to pretend that these things are easy. The vast majority of our consultation responses in the summer were in relation to financial risk checks and that came mainly around interest in horseracing.

"But I do genuinely encourage anyone and everyone who has got an interest in these areas to respond to our consultations. They can and they do lead to changes in how we consider and implement policy. We are listening and, as with so much of what we want to achieve, we want to work together with people, particularly with those who share our aims to get this right."

The Gambling Commission has also recently released the latest experimental data for the new Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), which Rhodes said would be the "largest survey of its kind anywhere in the world" when it is officially launched next year.

That data found a problem gambling rate of 2.5 per cent, much higher than the current official figure of 0.3 per cent, although concerns have been raised about the new survey's methodology.

Gambling minister Stuart Andrew also spoke at the conference and said the GSGB data "makes clear that while the majority of people gamble safely, there is still more to do to tackle gambling-related harm".

He added: "Our white paper outlines a host of new measures we and the Gambling Commission are implementing to protect those most at risk."

Read these next

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'The government has been left in no doubt' - racing leaders call for opposition to affordability checks to be heeded 

Affordability checks have wreaked havoc - the government must now show it is listening to your concerns 

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