The UK Gambling Commission has launched its Gambling Harms Action Lab (GHAL).
Executive Director at the UKGC Tim Miller said that the GHAL shall help collaborative efforts "to develop and improve existing practices and identify new ways to reduce gambling harms".
An initiative by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, the Gambling Harms Action Lab is a 3-year program that will have the institute work with current banks and financial services to create innovative tools and strategies for identifying and supporting customers experiencing gambling-related issues. The initiative was launched on November 5th at an event hosted by the institute.
CEO of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, Helen Undy, emphasized the importance of association within the sector.
"We want to work with banks and other financial services to share ideas, overcome challenges, and improve support for customers. The Gambling Harms Action Lab is an important opportunity for firms to drive progress, no matter where they are in their journey with this issue.
We're delighted that Nationwide has come on board with the program, and we're urging more firms to get involved so that we can continue the momentum in tackling gambling harms that we've seen in recent years."
Tim Miller delivered a speech at the launch event:
"I am delighted to be here for the launch of the Gambling Harms Action Lab. A few years ago Helen and I met in a coffee shop to talk about the potential positive role that the financial services industry could play in helping to identify and address the harms that some can experience as a result of gambling. The Gambling Harms Action Lab is a huge step forward in realizing that potential, and one that builds on several years of innovative and impactful action in this space by individual financial services companies.
In 2019, the Gambling Commission published a National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms. Whilst much of the detailed delivery of that strategy was subsequently overtaken by the program of reform in the Gambling Act Review White Paper, much of its focus remains just as important today. In particular, the strategy's approach of collaboration to develop and improve existing practice and identify new ways to reduce gambling harms can really be seen in today's announcement.
A huge amount of work has been done through our regulation, through gambling industry action and by gambling-harm charities to better identify consumers at risk of harm, and to address potentially harmful gambling mechanics. However, if you seek to tackle such harms through one lens then you risk not seeing the full picture or risk missing opportunities to protect consumers.
The growing involvement of financial services firms has helped strengthen our collective efforts to address gambling harms. For example, the self-exclusion schemes that gambling companies are required to provide can absolutely help protect consumers. But if on top of that tool you layer the gambling blocks than some banks have introduced the consumers have access to a much stronger toolkit of protective measures.
Similarly, as a regulator we invest a lot of time and resource in collecting data and producing research to help us better understand the drivers and markers of gambling harm. We recently launched the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, to help build that knowledge base. However, no one set of data will give you a definitive view or a complete understanding. You need a range of perspectives to truly understand the complexities of gambling harms. Financial services providing access to their anonymised consumer data has allowed us to work with Warwick Business School to start building that much richer understanding of how harms develop and how they can be addressed.
Money and Mental Health have already played a vital role in helping to encourage the involvement of the financial services industry in this vital area of consumer protection work.
The Gambling Harms Action Lab will help to bring some structure and focus to those collaborative efforts. And that focus will be important.
The debate around gambling can be notoriously febrile at times with opinion and hyperbole often distracting from facts and evidence. Too often it leaves people arguing over word choice or tone rather than staying on task and working to make things better for consumers. As a regulator, and an official statistics body, we are doing all we can to raise the standard of the debate by remaining focused on the evidence base. That is very much what I hope the Action Lab will be able to deliver - using the extensive understanding of consumer behaviours and experiences that financial services have to build an ever-stronger evidence base to identify consumer protections and interventions that actually work.
So to those in the room today that are from the financial sector my message to you is "you may not be the cause of gambling harms but you have an amazing opportunity to be part of the solution. To work collaboratively to find creative ways of better protecting gambling consumers, consumers who are also your customers." So please do not miss your chance to help make gambling safer."
The GHAL program aims to create a collaborative environment where financial companies can explore and test solutions to better serve vulnerable customers. This includes features such as gambling-blocking tools already available across several UK current accounts.
Source:
https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news/article/gambling-harms-action-lab-launch-tim-miller-speech
https://sigma.world/news/gambling-harms-action-lab-launched/
