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Panel minutes for 10 April 2025

Minutes of the Digital Advisory Panel (DAP) Meeting

10 April 2025, 10:00 to 12:00
Virtual meeting via Microsoft Teams

Panel Members:

  • Andy Payne (Chair)
  • Christian McMahon
  • Alison Pritchard
  • Paul Smith
  • Darren Williams.

In attendance:

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  • Helen Child (Head of Governance, items 6 to 8)
  • Charles Counsell (Gambling Commission Interim Chair, observing)
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Apologies:

  • Francine Bennett
  • Simo Dragicevic.

1. Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

Attendees were welcomed to the meeting and apologies noted.

There were no new declarations of interest.

2. Minutes of previous meetings

The minutes of the last meeting (28 February) were approved.

DAP members queried the publication timeline for the most recently approved minutes. Commission officials reported that the minutes from January 2024 and January 2025 are currently undergoing redaction and will be published soon. It was noted that members can generally expect a 1 to 2 month turnaround for the latest minutes. Older minutes are being addressed retrospectively and may take 3 to 4 months or longer to publish due to the existing backlog across all Expert Groups.

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4. Gaming machine consultation: stakeholder engagement update

DAP members were provided with an update on the industry engagement session on the gaming machine consultation that the DAP Chair had been invited to attend by the Senior Manager – Policy that took place on 27 March.

The Senior Manager – Policy was complemented on his diplomatic and constructive approach to handling the meeting with the operators. The role of the DAP Chair was to be on hand for technical questions as gaming machines are all software driven.

Commission officials reported that the 16-week consultation was launched in late January and runs until 20 May. It is focused on gaming machines which are currently worth £2.5 billion per annum to the industry. The proposals focus on Category B machines which have the highest stakes and prizes. They are situated in adult gaming centres (AGCs), casinos, betting and bingo premises. The proposals encompass both new machines and existing Category B machines (some of which can be more than 20 years old), which makes it a complicated piece of work.

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5. Data projects update

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Commission officials highlighted how the Spring Conference showed the links between qualitative research, data work and enforcement around unlicensed gambling.

The compliance dashboard is currently on a slower track due to resources within the team being moved to Siebel decommissioning.

The team delivered a briefing for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the Society Lotteries data sprint which was well received, and they are undertaking work based on the sprint to create a dashboard for Licensing, Policy and Finance. Additionally, as part of the Gambling Act Review (GAR) evaluation, the team is supporting Policy with data collection on bonus offers and inducements to help understand the impact of proposed changes to marketing and advertising requirements.

DAP members asked how the work was being resourced. Commission officials reported that this includes staff in the research and stats team (the Data Analytics Manager and a team of 3 analysts). It was noted that a future DAP session could involve sharing the data being received to get feedback and input on how this could be improved.

A DAP member reported that Latent Gold, a modelling program which enables clustering techniques useful for data combinations is now free to academics (opens in new tab). This is something that they had previously shared with the Postdoctoral Data Scientist working within the Research and Statistics team, so they asked for this information to be passed on to them.

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6. Data Maturity Assessment

DAP members were asked to provide their feedback on the data maturity assessment (DMA) roadmap and gap analysis document. This compares the recommendations in the DMA report against planned activity within the existing business plan 2025 to 2026 and is broken down into 3 areas:

Data and Use

Leadership, Skills and Culture

Data Architecture and Tools

Commission officials noted that there is a high level of consistency between what the Commission is planning to do and what PwC have recommended.

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DAP members were asked whether anything stood out that should be further prioritised or if anything that should be prioritised is missing from the roadmap. The team are particularly keen to hear suggestions and/or insights on anything additional that could be done to enhance existing activities that will move up the Commissions data maturity whilst keeping costs down and not displace Business Plan priorities.

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7. Future gaze

The Chair provided DAP members and Commission officials with some parting thoughts during his last DAP meeting, giving his perspective on future issues likely to impact the Commission and DAP.

Key points included:

Technology is driving the evolution of gambling which will lead to very different experiences for consumers. This will lead to the Commission facing a dual challenge: fostering an innovative fair market alongside consumer protection.

The implementation and enforcement of white paper reforms will provide a real challenge for execution. FRC, affordability frameworks and balancing the frictionless consumer journeys that operators are getting better at delivering means the Commission will need to tread a regulatory tightrope.

The black market is evolving all the time, but stricter regulations could drive consumers to unlicensed operators. To help combat this, regulators will need much stronger cross-border relationships. The internet is global, but there are no global laws. However, the Commission is viewed as world-leading, and this should continue.

Changes in other jurisdictions could have significant implications. North America is becoming more open to regulation, but it is entirely possible that this could go the other way, and gambling could get completely de-regulated there. That would present difficulties for other nations and jurisdictions, including the UK.

The need for effective oversight of potential gambling harms and smarter risk-based methodology will increase. It will be important to be able to monitor data flows in real time, gathering more granular data to enable the Commission to proactively identify risk. For operators, enhanced compliance technology could help automate early warning flags and improve customer safeguarding.

There will be a need for continued focus on underage gambling if the Government does not ban smartphones for the under 16s. Loot boxes in gaming are getting more sophisticated and continue to be a gateway for children and young adults.

Edtech has the potential to open doors to complex and potentially concerning areas. Operators are already leveraging AI to nudge consumer behaviour. This could result in moves to restrict AI targeting where there are known vulnerabilities. However, it is important to note that Governments always move slower than technology and industry.

Industry collaboration will (and needs to) improve. Projects like GamProtect and ROCD are good examples of this.

The exiting of the EU means that the Commission can craft gambling regulations more easily. The Commission has the opportunity to path-find for other jurisdictions.

Important for the Commission to incorporate esports betting into their portfolio.

In the future, consumers can expect:

  • better protection, including session reminders, spending caps and far more curated and gated gambling experiences
  • changes to gambling advertising, especially targeted to young and vulnerable people
  • reduced VIP schemes (smarter operators will see that it will be better to get more people gambling with smaller amounts, more regularly)
  • to provide more personal data in order to continue to gamble
  • increased transparency on how they gamble. Consumers are likely to be able to see more clearly the time they are spending on gambling and net losses for example
  • more cryptocurrency gambling.

Flash points are likely to be:

  • affordability checks versus freedom of choice
  • privacy versus protection
  • innovation versus integrity.

8. AOB

The Director of Research and Statistics provided a farewell tribute to the DAP Chair, celebrating all the Chair has done for the Commission. DAP members and other individuals who have worked with the Chair throughout his term, also shared their memories and sincere thanks for all the work the Chair has done for DAP.

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