UK Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross made her first public speech on gambling policy last week with a degree of positivity for the industry, notably on the white paper recommendations.
Twycross said that the current government, when in opposition, had supported the white paper and would continue to do so.
“I want to work closely with parts of the land-based sector, such as bingo clubs and seaside arcades, to understand what we can do to support them. They are a vital and vibrant part of many communities and I want to see thek thrive, not just survive.”
Baroness Twycross covered other areas in her speech which also drew positivity from gambling sectors. The minister’s remarks were described as "balanced" on industry reform, according to one operator, Benno Spencer, CEO of free prize draw operator Raffle House.
“We hope this balanced approach will also be applied to the prize draw sector as the proposal in the white paper to explore the potential to regulate these was completely unnecessary in our view.
“While we appreciate the need for strong player protection, the frequencies of our draws are so low that entries can be sent by post, so the risk of players experiencing harm is extremely small.
"In addition, we have player controls such as limits on the number of tickets that can be purchased and we strictly enforce our minimum playing age of 18.”
Baroness Twycross made her first speech in her new role as Gambling Minister to the GambleAware Annual Conference.
