Proportionality and collaboration in policy evaluation – reflections from the Commission's Spring evidence conference

Our Director of Policy Bryony Sheldon shares feedback from our Spring Conference and outlines some of the next steps regarding the evaluation of the Gambling Act Review.

Posted 28 May 2025 by Bryony Sheldon

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We were delighted our Spring Conference brought together stakeholders from government, industry, and the third sector earlier this year. One of the day’s breakout sessions discussed evaluation of policy changes, including how principles such as proportionality apply, and the important role of our stakeholders in enabling effective evaluation.

The session kicked off with an overview of the Commission’s assessment of the impact of online game changes for slots products, to give an illustration of a past evaluation. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) then outlined plans for the evaluation of the Gambling Act Review (GAR) (opens in new tab) (being delivered by NatCen for the Commission and DCMS) before breaking into table discussions. Attendees engaged in insightful discussions, sharing their experiences and perspectives on gambling-related evaluations.

We want to thank stakeholders for their contributions. In this blog we provide some feedback of the discussions held on the day and outline some next steps regarding the evaluation of the Gambling Act Review.

Key themes emerging from the discussions were:

• appetite for more evaluation: hearing from stakeholders on the day suggested there is appetite for the Commission and policy makers to conduct more evaluation. This includes further use of piloting policy changes
• desire for greater (and clear) communication on evaluation, including priorities and scope: another key theme was that stakeholders are keen to hear more detail about our plans for evaluation of policy changes, including the purpose, what is being measured, how and when the evaluation is taking place
• opportunities for engagement and collaboration: value was placed on better engagement, input and collaboration with industry, forums/groups and with academia. Feedback included that this may optimise the quality and availability of data, and help evaluators to better understand and take account of industry context, including wider changes that are taking place in the sector
• harnessing data: making use of existing data in generating robust findings, and opportunities for more data-driven approaches in the future
• clear reporting: there was a call for clear reporting, with this preferably tailored to different audiences. Evaluation reporting should be seen as an ongoing conversation – and the implications of an evaluation should be felt long after a report is published.

Next steps

We've been pleased to hear stakeholder appetite for evaluation at the Spring Conference and in response to our policy consultations. We continue to strengthen our capacity to evaluate new policies, to set clear, evidence-based requirements for licensees. This is in line with the Gambling Commission’s Corporate Strategy 2024 to 2027 and strategic focus 3 of our Business plan for 2025 to 2026. This is both through periodic commissioning of external evaluation support, for example the current partnership with DCMS to evaluate key GAR measures, and in building internal resources for monitoring and evaluating change more broadly. That said, our approach will continue to need to be proportionate, focusing resources at key policy measures and the greatest opportunities for learning. This will include considering where piloting changes could be appropriate. In the meantime, we have published updates on our pilot of financial risk assessments.

Details of the plan for the evaluation of GAR (opens in new tab), including the underlying principles and approach were published in December 2024 and an update was published in the Autumn 2023 consultation – Proposed changes to LCCP and RTS: Consultation Response. Work is underway and there is an important opportunity for stakeholders, including operators, to get involved in the research. Participation is voluntary in nature, but we very much hope to see a positive response.

We are clear that evaluation needs the involvement and cooperation of a wide variety of stakeholders.

Here is an overview of some of the activities in progress and opportunities to get involved:

• consumer survey – working with YouGov, NatCen have surveyed over 5,000 people who gamble to explore changes made as a result of GAR. The survey will be repeated over the course of the evaluation
• operator survey – a survey covering several of the measures from a process and impact perspective, will be issued to operators to share their views on a number of key GAR policies (for example Online Slots Stake Limits). In some cases, where measures are not yet implemented or in force, this will be limited to baselining (such as understanding the position before changes are implemented). A second wave of the survey will be delivered later in the evaluation
• operator interviews – the survey will also provide an opportunity for operators to opt in to additional qualitative research around the in-scope GAR measures that form part of the evaluation. This research will provide additional insight and nuance over and above the operator survey
• focus groups – NatCen are conducting focus groups with a range of stakeholders from the research community, and prevention and treatment stakeholders, to baseline the position ahead of changes on the statutory levy for operators.

The GAR evaluation has established a Lived Experience Panel and Advisory Group. We also plan to engage with our Industry Forum on evaluation topics over the coming months.

We will publish further updates as the work being taken forward by NatCen progresses over the next 12 to 18 months.