Along with Nick Rust OBE, Entain, Betfred, and Flutter join GC Industry Forum.

Among the nine appointed members of the Gambling Commission's (GC) new Industry Forum, directors of Flutter, Betfred, Entain, and The Rank Group have been announced; Nick Rust, OBE will be chairperson.
The Commission on Gaming Greentube
Previously serving six years as chief executive of British Horseracing Authority, Rust was named Industry Forum chair in November 2023.

Rust will supervise a forum comprising Ashley Padgett, director of compliance and anti-money laundering at Flutter's UK and Ireland (UK&I) division, and Entain's customer operations director for UK&I Leo Walker throughout a two-year tenure.

Apart from Entain and Flutter, other UK gaming industry giants will also be represented. Additionally selected to the forum are David Williams, director of public affairs at Rank Group, and Betfred's head of media Mark Pearson.

Charles Cohen, founder and chief executive of the UK gambling financial technology company Department of Trust and non-executive director at Games Global will also be joined on the forum by Tony Boulton, director of public and political relations Merkur UK, and Betsmart Consulting founder and director Kirsty Caldwell.

Also appointed are g.games founder and chief commercial officer Helen Walton and managing director of Britbet, Nigel Roddis.

Rust said ahead of the inaugural meeting on March 21 that more than forty candidates have expressed interest in joining the forum.

"It was difficult to leave quite a few of those people out, but I'm delighted with the quality and experience of the appointees," Rust said.

Goals of the GC's Industry Forum Gaming Commission
Established in September, the industry roundtable seeks to understand operator perspectives.
September 2023 saw the initial announcement of the Industry Forum. According to the GC, the new project would seek to provide the Commission greater information on operator opinions on several issues.

The three points mentioned were the operators' opinions on the GC's plans, how the Commission is serving customers and businesses, and lastly offering a glimpse on how operators run their companies.

The forum will cooperate with many projects aimed at including stakeholders and advisory groups. These comprise Advisory Board for Safer Gambling and Lived Experience Advisory Panel of the Commission.

The evidence-led approach used by GC

The first wave of the gaming poll revealed that lottery was the most often used product.
Another action the GC has done in line with an evidence-based strategy is the Industry Forum Rust expects it will offer "which the Commission can draw upon to help evolve and improve its performance as the regulator".

Late February saw the GC publish the first wave of data from its Great Britain (GSGB) Gambling Survey. The GSGB will be a 20,000 person annual survey. Since the GC wants to enhance its data procedures, this ranks it among the biggest gambling data research projects worldwide.

The GC published an evidence gaps and priorities paper for the three years 2023–2026 in May 2023. It described the Commission's plan to investigate, using evidence-based methodology, issues including gateway gaming items and the consequences of gambling damage.

From the first wave of the GSGB, the important statistic was 48% of respondents having gambled four weeks ago. But the popularity of lottery meant that, excluding lottery-only participants, the frequency of that number plummeted to 27%. Of the almost 4,800 responders, about a fifth had only participated in lottery drawings.

With more research on gambling involvement and practices, the GSGB data will be released once more on June 27, 2024. Responses from November 6, 2023, until March 7, 2024 will comprise the second wave.