BB116-p01-news_09/10 01/05/2014 15:57 Page 1
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IGAMING NEWS 6
ESSENTIAL GUIDE 16
COMMENT 32
£5.20 (€8.30) • ISSUE:116 • MAY 2014 • www.betting-business.co.uk
One million signatures fail to stop more LBO restrictions While the government has introduced new restrictions for the UK’s bookmakers, and betting shops in particular, the final announcement was less harsh than feared.
INFRASTRUCTURE
fire at a Gibraltar power station, caused by the explosion of a generator, saw a number of major operators go offline as it led to a blackout across much of the online gaming jurisdiction. William Hill, Ladbrokes and Betfred all had periods of downtime as the island tackled the incident. Whilst no one was injured, evacuations were made to surrounding buildings including the William Hill offices, with residents located nearby advised to keep windows and doors shut to prevent smoke inhalation. Emergency services on Gibraltar moved quickly to control the blaze and the operators had all resumed normal services by Monday afternoon. William Hill’s Graeme Sharpe was pragmatic about the disruption to service: “It’s just one of those freak events nobody could have predicted. There will be those who will claim they would have backed a winner but there will be others who have been saved from backing a loser.” In a statement Ladbrokes apologised to customers affected by the loss of services and went on to include: “None of our staff were affected by the incident, and no customer data was compromised during that period.” The head of Gibraltar’s government, chief minister Fabian Picardo, accepted that the power outage was too long and that the island’s new plans must reflect the lessons of such incidents so they are not repeated. Given that 26 operators are based on Gibraltar, and the government is currently concerned at retaining them given the point of consumption licensing laws due to be implemented in the UK later this year, the blackout was the last thing the government needed. Aside from there being no loss of life, it was fortunate that the downtime happened during a Sunday evening and not one of the busier times of the week.
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PLANNING
he government has announced new restrictions on planning permission for betting shops and the operation of B2 gaming machines, although a late rally from the betting industry appears to have staved off more punitive measures. A petition from the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) entitled ‘Enough’s Enough’ generated one million signatures over the course of a weekend and was delivered to 10 Downing Street the week of the announcement. Coupled with the launch of a report showing that the most deprived areas have the lowest share of betting shops, it seems the petition was enough to downgrade the government’s bullishness over the changes. What was once feared to be a Prime Ministerial decree to cut B2 stakes down instead became a written statement from gambling minister Helen Grant slipped out during a session of PMQs. The new changes will see betting shops placed in a planning class of their own, rather than the A2 Retail classification, meaning that any new betting shop will have to go through the local planning process. Meanwhile, the recent FOBT code introduced by the ABB will be mandatory and customers who want to bet over £50 in one play will have to open an account or pay over the counter before they can begin to play, meaning that they have to interact with staff.
Gibraltar vows to learn from blackout
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BETTING SHOP STAFF DELIVER 1M SIGNATURES TO DOWNING STREET
Even so, the new restrictions have been met with annoyance by the industry. The ABB said that discussions need to be based on facts, not scaremongering. Chief executive Dirk Vennix commented: “The proposed changes to the way customers are able to stake more than £50 will impose extra costs on the industry whilst there is no evidence to show that restricting B2 stakes will do anything to minimise problem gambling. Limiting access to one product just means the vast majority of responsible gamblers will be inconvenienced and problem gamblers will gamble on other products. “The industry’s new Code of Conduct for Player Protection has already had a significant impact with breaks in play, increased customer interaction and more self-exclusions. We look forward to seeing the results of the independent research into problem gambling which are being carried out by Nat Cen, because regula-
tory decisions have to be based on empirical evidence.” Despite this, William Hill and Ladbrokes both saw a 10 per cent jump in share price after the announcement, with Hills chief executive Ralph Topping describing the changes as a ‘balanced response to concerns about clustering and fixed-odds games’. Paddy Power, one of the few big bookmakers still opening scores of betting shops, was less pleased. Andy McCue, head of retail at Paddy Power, commented: “In a market where the Big 4 incumbents control 90pc of the market and openly welcome planning restrictions, challenger brands like Paddy Power will be prevented from offering choice and value to consumers. The proposed planning changes are a fudge not a fix and pre-empt an evidence based approach to addressing concerns about fixed odds betting terminals.”