Neil Goulden says that industry participation in scientific studies are fundamental to the understanding of problem gambling and to the work of the RGT.
Neil Goulden, head of the Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT) into the UK, has been called away by Britain’s Guardian newsprint for an apparent conflict of interests.
As chair regarding the RGT, Goulden presides over the country’s leading charity specialized in problem that is minimizing, and yet he’s also a previous seat of this Association of British Bookmakers ABB), an industry lobby group.
The positions were held simultaneously between 2012 and mid-2014.
Goulden’s affiliations to both groups are no secret, of course; as being a previous board member of Ladbrokes and previous president of the Gala Coral Group, he is very much indeed a public face of the gambling industry.
But, due to the fact Guardian opined this week, the reality that RGT is chaired by way of a doyen of the industry and funded by donations from gambling organizations raises questions about its integrity and the balanced nature of its research.
As well as funding education, prevention, and treatment services for issue gamblers, RGT commissions research devoted to broadening the understanding of problem gambling issues.
But because of its affiliations, does it avoid asking the questions that are really tough the industry, and it is its research program totally independent of industry interests?
Goulden Responds
When contacted by the Guardian, Goulden insisted that his position as an industry insider, and the participation of the industry as whole, is, in reality, integral to researching and problem gambling that is ultimately understanding.
‘[The gaming industry] would not have released data or have taken the actions it continues to take in prevention of damage without my influence that is personal and,’ he said. ‘i have continually urged the industry to do more to protect at-risk customers and also to share practice that is best and to better communicate what they actually do and its impact.
‘True damage minimization can only be completely effective he continued if it engages with the industry and that the 100,000 people employed in the industry take their social responsibilities seriously.
‘The present RGT research has offered clear pointers to anyone committed to harm that is reducing the subsequent actions taken by the us government, the regulator and the industry have significantly reduced volumes through the group of at-risk customers.’
FOBT Criticism
Nonetheless, the RGT has been criticized by anti-gambling groups for the failure to condemn the united kingdom’s notorious fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), prevalent in high-street bookmaking shops across the united states.
These devices have actually been dubbed ‘the crack cocaine of this high road’ because they enable clients to bet up to £100 ($146) every 20 seconds on digital casino games like roulette.
‘RGT refused to address the key concern of whether FOBTs cause gambling related harm because of their addictive characteristics,’ reported a spokesperson for the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, of an RGT study regarding the subject, posted in 2013 when Goulden had been chair of both the RGT and ABB.
‘We are worried that the seat of the trust had been busy devising lobbying techniques for the bookmakers to enhance their image when this research was first established. This has to be looked at.’
Goulden responded that the research questions of the 2013 study had been devised by the UK Gambling Commission plus the Minister for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and included he previously no impact on the commissioning, presentation, or interpretation of the findings.
New Lithuanian Gambling Regime Promises ‘Severe’ Crackdown on Unlicensed Market
Lithuanian President Dalia GrybauskaitÄ—, who signed the online gambling reforms into legislation summer that is last. (Image: grybauskaite1.lrp.lt)
Lithuania is getting tough on unlicensed on the web gambling operators. New powers engendered by the nation’s recent gambling reforms allow the ministry of finance to simply take strict measures against overseas companies offering gambling that is illegal Lithuanian residents.
The gambling regulator (GCA) has warned it shall simply take ‘severe action’ against unlicensed websites.
From January first, all banking institutions, from banks to payment providers, are actually lawfully bound to refuse transactions pertaining to online that is illegal gambling.
Meanwhile, GCA has brand new powers to issue lawfully binding orders to network service providers to block usage of offshore gambling internet sites.
GCA has drafted a blacklist of websites non grata, a list that is likely to expand because it seeks to widen the net over ‘gambling operators whom organize remote gambling illegally and target the Republic of Lithuania.’
Network companies that fail to play by the brand new guidelines face hefty fines.
Pressure from EU
‘These modifications to regulation have been widely publicized and will be strictly lawfully enforced,’ Virginijus Dauksys, director regarding the GCA, said. ‘Gaming operators need to be licensed to run in the Republic of Lithuania,’ he included.
Lithuania ended up being one of six EU member states chastised by the European Commission in 2013 for its failure to regulate online gambling, and the united states’s reforms are particularly much an effect of EU pressure.
The brand new regime, which exposed its doors to certification on January 1st, is similar to that of Belgium for the reason that it takes that an operator must be included as a company in Lithuania and have issued share capital of at the least €1.1 million ($1.18 million). Remote gaming licensees should also partner with a current casino that is land-based the united states.
Expansion To Be Tightly Controlled
Lithuania formerly had no measures in place to legislate for remote gambling, and thus the reforms that are new be observed as progress, but the EU, with its insistence on free movement of services across borders, is still prone to disapprove of this restrictiveness of its licensing requirements.
On signing the reforms into legislation summer that is last Lithuanian President Dalia GrybauskaitÄ— warned that gambling tasks would not be promoted and gambling expansion would be tightly managed.
Thus, without much scope for marketing or advertising, it will be difficult for operators to determine on their own in the market and for gamblers to distinguish between the certified and markets that are unlicensed.
It also remains to be seen how many international operators will seek to base their businesses within the country, as required by the new legislation.
A GCA spokesperson told TotallyGaming.com on Wednesday that it had so far received only one application for licensing while the licensing window has admittedly been open for just one week.
Steve Wynn Reportedly Interested in Building North New Jersey Casino
Steve Wynn is allegedly interested in returning to New that is northern Jersey building the first non-Atlantic City gambling resort, some 30 years after he left the Garden State, vowing to never get back. (Image: bloomberg.com)
Steve Wynn folded on his Golden Nugget Atlantic City property in 1987 and vowed to never return to the ‘corrupt and stupid’ East Coast mecca that is gambling. Nevertheless now one state legislator says the casino billionaire is interested in returning to nj.
Wynn isn’t taking a look at the resort that is struggling he departed from nearly three decades ago.
Instead, he’s eyeing North Jersey across the Hudson River from Manhattan.
Wynn would like to be the company that is first construct a gambling facility in the area.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-District 32) told NJ.com, ‘I have talked to individuals that are many have expressed interest in arriving at New Jersey. Mr. Wynn is one of those individuals.’
Politics as typical
Prieto isn’t alone in wishing to bring gambling north and out of this isolated coastline town. His counterpart that is legislative Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-District 3), agrees that allowing resort casinos to operate closer to New York City would create thousands of jobs and generate millions in new revenue for Trenton.
But the two Garden State legislators disagree on who should really be permitted your can purchase and manage the North Jersey properties.
Sweeney would like to mandate that in order for a company to be granted one for the northern New Jersey gambling licenses, the organization must currently operate in Atlantic City. Prieto is ready to adhere to that demand for one casino, yet not both.
‘We have people that invested hundreds of dollars in Atlantic City,’ Sweeney said. ‘Steve Wynn left New Jersey.’
Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-District 28) says Sweeney’s decree is flawed in reasoning. ‘Why would we exclude a person like Steve Wynn? I’d be disappointed whenever we … excluded folks of his caliber.’
Steve Wynn is one of the most notable names in the gambling industry, also though their company presently only maintains four properties, two in nevada and two in Macau.
Ending Monopoly
If you’ve ever participated in a game title of Monopoly, you know how excruciatingly difficult it could be for the game to arrive at a detailed. That is also the situation for monopolies in real life.
The properties on the original Monopoly board game are predicated on roads in Atlantic City, the town that has held an actual monopoly on casino gambling within the state since 1976.
It had been 40 years ago that New Jersey legalized gambling, but voters chose to limit gaming to just Atlantic City at that time. Since then, the presssing problem of expanding gambling has repeatedly been presented in the state legislature and on ballots.
The Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford is the most location that is likely a northern Jersey gambling facility. Accompanied by way of a horse racetrack, MetLife Stadium and baseball arena, the $3.5 billion Xanadu Meadowlands retail and entertainment destination ground that is broke the early 2000s.
The mammoth project, which included an inside ski slope, spurred one controversy after another. The investment company that was bankrolling the project, Xanadu remains under construction and under a new name, now dubbed the American Dream Meadowlands from its aesthetically unpleasing exterior colors to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.
Gambling into the north counties of the latest Jersey no longer seems to be a dream, but the method of awakening the market is yet to be decided by the state Legislature.