Calls for greater international cooperation from Gambling Commission chief Andrew Rhodes
Chief executive of the Gambling Commission, Andrew Rhodes, has called for more cross-border collaboration amongst regulators in the global gaming market.
Speaking at the ICE World Regulatory Briefing, Rhodes highlighted the need for regulators to share targets when it comes to problem gambling. With greater powers and joint investigations, operators fail to supply adequate support across multiple jurisdictions.
He said: “Many of the operators we deal with in Great Britain will be the same as those dealt with in other jurisdictions. Things that are not being done well here are likely to be issued in other countries too when you consider these are multinationals.
“The gambling industry has been consolidating for some time. In Great Britain, we are seeing an increasing number of mergers and acquisitions and ever more complex ownership structures. We are not only regulating global tech companies but often multinationals with huge resources and complex interests and drivers.
“Across markets, across jurisdictions, across cultures, the collaboration will need to be a key tool in our work to make gambling fairer and safer for consumers worldwide.”
He also spoke on the need to adapt to the changing marketplaces that we currently see. With new products that are firmly becoming part of the gambling sector, such as NFTs, regulations must change to adapt to them. Such changes could make changes to how affiliates might act too.