Self-exclusion problems under investigation from UKGC

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is set to investigate a series of problems regarding self-exclusion after a report from the BBC.

An undercover reporter from BBC Radio 5 Live managed to bet in 19 out of 21 bookmakers he visited Grimsby. He signed up to the government’s self-exclusion scheme. Following up his submission the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) decided to proceed with further investigation of the problem.

Rob Cave, the reporter from the BBC, signed up to the Grimsby scheme, which automatically sends someone’s name and picture to the gambling places located in the territory, and was able to play on FOBTs in 16 shops before he entered another facility and was asked to leave.

“The result of the BBC investigation is concerning and we’ll be making our own inquiries into what happened in this case. We’re determined to drive improvements in behavior across the industry in terms of the effort they put into reducing gambling-related harm, and it really is getting to the stage where there is nowhere to hide for businesses who don’t take this seriously. What we would like to see is much more emphasis from gambling businesses on intervening at an early stage before there is a need to self-exclude.”: UKGC executive director, Sarah Gardner said.

The problems were highlighted months before the likely introduction of the online National Online Self-Exclusion Scheme (NOSES), which will be known as GAMSTOP, in spring 2018.

The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) is leading the implementation of the scheme, with support from business services company KPMG.