Last Updated: February 5, 2025
Written by Jon Bryan
The end of February 2025 will see the AGM of the Betting and Gaming Council, the organisation that represents the vast majority of the gambling industry. The BGC have once again secured high profile speakers, along with renowned journalist and broadcaster John Pienaar, who will act as host. Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross, Shadow Secretary of State Stuart Andrew MP, and Gambling Commission Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes, will all be speaking. For those who follow debates, policy, and regulation on gambling, it will be interesting to see if they say anything of significance, or something new.
Baroness Twycross, the government minister with responsibility for gambling, will be speaking alongside the man who previously held the job – Stuart Andrew.
When he spoke at the event last year, he knew that the days of the Conservative government were numbered. His tone was one of someone very much resigned to election defeat, and his constituency was also being abolished with electoral boundary changes, so no doubt all of that influenced him. Having managed to secure a new constituency and be re-elected to parliament as an MP, Andrew’s new role for the Conservatives is Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. This is a larger brief than his last role, but it continues to cover gambling. Now he and his party are in opposition, it will be interesting to see what he says about gambling.
With Baroness Twycross, we are beginning to see the priorities and philosophy that she brings to the role, and how she works with Stephanie Peacock MP, who speaks for the government on gambling in the House of Commons. Twycross spoke at a recent GambleAware Annual Conference in December, giving us a better idea about her views on gambling, and the approach that she will bring to the role.
It is tempting to search for meaning in every part of what she said at that conference, but it was a speech you could have predicted that she would make.
She said that the government will continue to support the White Paper, and there was a lot of talk about ‘balance’, working ‘with all key stakeholders’, ‘ensuring a smooth transition’, and ‘increasing customer choice’. The speech gave the sense that the Labour Party in government were going to be similar to the Conservatives. That is, at least, when it comes to gambling policy and regulation.
What can we expect from Andrew Rhodes, the Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission? You can read his speech last year here. It is fair to say that there were no real surprises, but one thing he did comment on was that the Commission had noticed that RTP (Return to Player) figures had ‘dropped’ for some gambling businesses and products.
For gambling companies who are worried about profits, and for gamblers who keep a close eye on how much they get when they win, this was an interesting aside to make. He outlined how it was understandable ‘to keep profits up in challenging times’, while also pointing out, somewhat ominously, that it was something that the Commission was ‘aware of’. He also said:
‘It is not our job as the gambling regulator to necessarily take a view on this at present.’
Whether Rhodes comments on matters like this again, or makes a passing comment about the Commission’s difficulties with the National Lottery, we wait to see.
As the recently appointed CEO of the BGC, it will be interesting to see the message that Grainne Hurst wants to get across to the industry, government and gamblers. Speaking ahead of the event, she highlighted the ‘long period of instability’ in the gambling sector, and the importance of moving forward ‘post the publication of the White Paper’. Hurst also referred to the importance of the gambling industry, reminding us that:
‘BGC members are proud to contribute £6.8bn to the economy, generate £4bn in tax while supporting 109,000 jobs.’
Grainne Hurst is certainly not new to the industry, and it was pleasing to see her recently speak up about the gambling levy:
‘We were slightly surprised and concerned to see there was ratchets up in the percentages of donations on the statutory levy’, she commented. She also stated that, when it comes to the gambling levy and any money spent from that on research:
‘We need independent evidence that we can make policy decisions on.’
‘We need to make sure that the other side of the argument is not influencing that process’, she added.
It will be interesting to see the central messages that come out from the AGM – ‘Making a Difference’ is the theme for the event. With so much media coverage on gambling devoted to organisations and individuals with an anti-gambling message, punters and the gambling industry will want to see challenges to that coming out from the BGC’s AGM.
Jon Bryan is a Gambling Writer and Poker Player. His pamphlet “Risking It All: The freedom to gamble” is available to purchase: https://academyofideas.org.uk/product/letters-on-liberty-risking-it-all-the-freedom-to-gamble/, or free to download https://academyofideas.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Risking-It-All-The-Freedom-To-Gamble.pdf.
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