The U.K continues to experiment with different methods and regulations in order to curb the rise of problem gambling in the country.
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has been under immense pressure the last couple of years to put in place measures that would reduce gambling addiction amongst children and adults.
Every year, the U.K. moves forward with a Responsible Gambling Week campaign which is mostly a refresher course for gambling operators and their employees to remind themselves of the rules and regulations in place and their responsibility to be in full compliance.
For some reason, this time around the Responsible Gambling Week initiative will be renamed to Safer Gambling Week according to insider reports from the British Amusement Catering Trade Association (BACTA), the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) and Bingo Association (BA). There is no clear information as to what is the reason behind the name change nor what it will accomplish.
What Is This All About?
The Safer Gambling Week campaign is expected to run from November 19 to 25 and will see all of the biggest gambling operators in the U.K, key stakeholders and employees pay special attention to safer gambling measures during this week. There will be a lot of artwork that will look to promote and spread the message of safer gambling with family and friends.
The BGC was very impressed with the 2019 Responsible Gambling Week as the social media stats showed over 25 million impressions during this period. The responsible gambling week initiative was started in 2016 and last year saw the biggest response which was a big positive as it showed that Brits were being educated on the tools and resources they have access to help them address their tendencies to gamble compulsively.
BeGambleAware
The 2020 Safer Gambling Week campaign is expected to be even bigger and better as bacta expects all of its members to come together and focus their attention on how they can provide even better education, resources and a commitment to protect Brits from falling into gambling addiction.
The COVID-19 lockdown in the UK forced millions of Brits to stay indoors for weeks. There are some stats which show that online gambling searches and registrations in the UK have increased significantly while some reports deny any significant increase. We will have to wait for a few months to pass and that look at official data to determine if there has been a spike in problem gambling during this lockdown period.
