GC: financial Sector Partnership to Minimize Gambling Damage
Neil McArthur, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Gambling Commission, urged the finance industry to do more to help the Commission's efforts for a more stable gambling climate. The Commission's chief executive explained the role the industry plays in developing a "unique consumer experience" to allow problem gambling identification.
Gambling First Stage Block Program
Speaking at a virtual conference for financial services experts, organized as part of a two-year initiative by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, Neil McArthur referred to the launch of gambling blocking tools as an indication of how the industry might affect the problem of gamblers at issue.
Initially launched by Starling in 2018, several high-street banks such as Barclays, Halifax, Lloyds bank and HSBC soon implemented the software which blocks deposits for gambling purposes. According to GC's CEO, the app, combined with the development of a "unique customer experience" where a customer operation is tracked across all operators, will make gambling safer.
Customer Transactions Aggregated View
Neil McArthur acknowledged that the financial services industry now has such a detailed understanding of consumer activities and, as indicated during the Experts by Experience working group meetings, "opportunities to protect customers are overlooked" because financial operators should not challenge their interaction with gambling companies.
The experts by experience network, formed on an interim basis in June, aims to offer input into the Commission's attempts to minimize gambling damage, and involves people who have suffered directly from it. The organization has already made something of a impact, Neil McArthur summarized, highlighting its members' zeal for making a transition.
The Financial Sector Main Partnership
Collaboration with the finance industry is part of an underlying mechanism that forms part of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harm, outlined by the Commission's CEO. In addition, the topic is complicated and requires intervention from others, such as study to expand awareness of the situation, creation of effective ways of addressing and managing it, and education required to deter the problem from repeating.
Neil McArthur took the opportunity to criticize Commission opponents who oversimplified the matter and put all oversight within the regulator. The Gambling Commission has come under fire from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling-Related Harm, describing it as "not fit for purpose," and findings from the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee showed the Commission was seriously underfunded to oversee the industry.
The simulated conference's two-year training experience took place as part of, and financed by a legal arrangement, a levy on an operator for violating its operating requirements and codes of conduct.
