Venom towards Gambling Commission means big changes are surely coming

The last few weeks have been tough for the Gambling Commission, not that there is likely to be a great deal of sympathy for the organisation.

Regulators are not usually popular with the regulated – just ask racecourse bookmakers following last year's under-age testing at Royal Ascot which looked set to deliver hefty fines to the operators involved until the Covid-19 crisis intervened.

However, while the commission has also always been the subject of criticism from politicians and campaigners due to accusations of being too close to the industry and too weak in its punishments for transgressions, levels of disapproval have reached a crescendo recently.