The primary lobby group for the UK gambling industry has been accused of making inaccurate statements about the regulation of the £10bn-a-year sector.
The primary lobby group for the UK gambling industry has been accused of making inaccurate statements about the regulation of the £10bn-a-year sector the day before its boss appears before a parliamentary committee.
Michael Dugher, the chief executive of the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC), will be questioned by MPs on the Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport on Tuesday as part of a review of government proposals to improve gambling regulation.
On Monday afternoon, the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Foster wrote to committee members to raise concerns about the BGC’s reliability.
In the letter shared with the Guardian, Foster referred to a BGC press release about a report it had commissioned that pointed to a spike in the use of illegal betting sites between November and December 2022 during the World Cup in Qatar.
What was said in the press release
In the press release, the lobby group said the report showed that punters could be driven into the arms of illegitimate gambling operators if government regulation of the sector went too far.
However, the full report, written by the gambling analysis firm Yield Sec, was never published.
A copy obtained by the Guardian showed the report described the overall penetration of the parallel market as “low,” despite the rise and that it accounted for as little as 1% of overall UK gambling spend.
After the press release was issued in January, Dugher said the report showed the government should beware of imposing “blanket intrusive affordability checks,” referring to proposed mandatory tests to check gamblers can cope with their losses.
The report did not mention affordability checks as a cause of parallel market gambling. Most respondents to a survey commissioned by the Racing Post said people would turn to illicit sites if affordability checks were introduced.
Foster told MPs on the committee he did not think the BGC had been “fully accurate” in its representation of the report or the scale of the parallel market.
He said: “The solution to addressing the black market is to introduce proper enforcement to disrupt the operations of these sites […] rather than abandoning much needed additional regulation of the gambling industry.”
Foster also raised concerns about “other instances when the BGC has not been entirely accurate” about its position on regulations.
In December 2022, Dugher tweeted that the lobby group had “fully and publicly supported” a ban on gambling with credit cards.
Contradiction with the gambling commission paper published
The Gambling Commission paper published in 2020 said “none” of the online gambling companies had supported such a measure during the consultation stage.
The BGC has also repeatedly said a voluntary industry ban on advertising during sports shown on television and TV reduced the volume of gambling adverts seen by children by 97%.
The figure was in fact 70%.
The higher number referred only to the limited period covered by the voluntary ban and only to television, caveats the BGC failed to make clear on several occasions.
In April this year, after the government said it was considering a mandatory levy on gambling firms to fund addiction research, education and treatment, the BGC said its members would “welcome” such a move.
However, Dugher had written in May 2022 it would be a “big step backwards” for tackling gambling-related harm.
In a statement, the BGC said it had “introduced scores of new safer betting and gaming measures, including ensuring our members devote 20% of all TV and radio advertising to safer gambling messaging – backed by our groundbreaking Take Time to Think campaign.
“The Yield Sec study was commissioned to analyse the scale of the growing, unsafe, unregulated gambling black market online, and its findings were accurately reported.
“The importance of fact-based and transparent discussions around iGaming regulation cannot be overstated”, said a spokesperson of BritishGambler, an affiliate iGaming website writing about top legal gambling sites in the United Kingdom and added: “As a key representative, the BGC carries a responsibility to provide clear, accurate, and truthful communications regarding their positions and activities within the sector.
“At the same time, it’s crucial that measures aimed at combating problem gambling are carefully considered and designed before implementation.
“This will ensure that casual bettors are not unduly inconvenienced while still addressing the core issue of problem gambling,” the spokesperson added.