{"id":2825,"date":"2026-05-19T09:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/?p=2825"},"modified":"2026-05-19T09:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:30:19","slug":"a-shambles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/bettingjobs-complianceandmore-partnerships\/a-shambles\/","title":{"rendered":"A shambles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Ain\u2019t got all the facts, but I got a hunch:<\/strong> The UK Gambling Commission said it was determined to go ahead with the implementation of affordability checks \u2013 or what it insists should be called financial risk checks \u2013 despite the criticism leveled at its planned rollout by an advisory group member.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Noyes abatement: <\/strong>James Noyes was until recently part of the Gambling Act Review Evaluation Advisory Group, set up by the government and the Gambling Commission to provide advice on the proposal as contained in the 2023 white paper on gambling.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But in a resignation letter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racingpost.com\/news\/britain\/astonishing-and-unacceptable-key-dcms-adviser-quits-in-disgust-over-plan-to-roll-out-affordability-checks-artlt4M738Ug\/\">quoted in the <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.racingpost.com\/news\/britain\/astonishing-and-unacceptable-key-dcms-adviser-quits-in-disgust-over-plan-to-roll-out-affordability-checks-artlt4M738Ug\/\">Racing Post<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.racingpost.com\/news\/britain\/astonishing-and-unacceptable-key-dcms-adviser-quits-in-disgust-over-plan-to-roll-out-affordability-checks-artlt4M738Ug\/\"> this week<\/a>, Noyes said there was a \u201cclearly unacceptable\u201d schedule for risk checks rollout.<\/li>\n<li>He added that it was \u201castonishing\u201d that the \u201ccontroversial\u201d checks were to be rolled out \u201cbefore any meaningful \u2013 and independent \u2013 evaluation of this policy can be carried out.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Ball of confusion: <\/strong>Noyes said the plan was for the new checks regime to be rubber-stamped by a Commission board meeting as soon as next week, May 21, adding he was \u201csurprised\u201d by the lack of discussion within the advisory group on their impact.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe government has a duty to ensure that its legislative proposals are evaluated in an adequate manner,\u201d he wrote.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIn the case of the Gambling Act review, and most notably financial risk assessments, this has not happened. Instead we have a situation where there is confusion.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The Commission said the Gambling Act Review Evaluation Advisory Group was run by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), so it was not for the regulator to comment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Miller\u2019s tale:<\/strong> Going in to bat for the Commission at a conference hosted by law firm CMS in London on Tuesday this week was Tim Miller, the body\u2019s executive director of research and policy.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In response to questions on Noyes\u2019 allegations, he was reported to have told the audience that \u201cyou can\u2019t evaluate something until you have implemented it.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThroughout we have had NatCen and others doing work to understand how that pilot has been developing, but you can\u2019t properly evaluate something until it has actually been rolled out,\u201d he added.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIt\u2019s the case with everything else in the white paper, you evaluate it once it\u2019s there in the real world so you can understand it.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Queasy does it:<\/strong> One conference-goer who spoke to <em>C+M<\/em> noted Miller appeared \u201cdistinctly uneasy\u201d when asked whether the Commission, which is currently without a CEO, was even in a position to put forward a recommendation to its board on a go-live process for the checks.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWe are not committed to any timetable for action,\u201d a clearly rattled Miller told the audience.<\/li>\n<li>On the vexed question of demands for customers to produce payslips and bank statements to prove their means, Joanne Whittaker, CEO of Betfred, took issue with Miller\u2019s assertion that there was in practice no such requirement.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThat\u2019s simply not true is it?\u201d she stated pointedly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Give it away now:<\/strong> Not least of the complaints leveled at the Commission by its critics is the money it has lavished on supposedly independent studies that have ended up making the case for the anti-gambling lobby.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The most recent is a highly contentious study undertaken by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and the University of Glasgow.<\/li>\n<li>That report, which claimed that gambling reforms would have a limited negative impact on the wider economy, was funded via the regulatory settlements mechanism employed by the Commission.<\/li>\n<li>In its yearly accounts, the regulator revealed the report cost \u00a3402k.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cAt a time when harm prevention charities are going to the wall, this looks particularly ill-judged,\u201d said one source.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/complianceandmore.substack.com\/p\/a-shambles\">CLICK here to read the FULL article!<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ain\u2019t got all the facts, but I got a hunch: The UK Gambling Commission said it was determined to go ahead with the implementation of affordability checks \u2013 or what it insists should be called financial risk checks \u2013 despite the criticism leveled at its planned rollout by an advisory group member. Noyes abatement: James&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bettingjobs-complianceandmore-partnerships"],"acf":[],"post_author_name":"","post_authors_type":"","post_authors_from_team_members":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/2827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}