Experts by Experience Group initiated by Gambling Commission
The Gambling Commission in Britain has now announced the launch of its much-anticipated Experts by Experience Group.
The interim group’s purpose is to provide advice, recommendations and real evidence to the Commission to help it with ongoing decision making in order to raise standards. Together, the Commission and the Group will eventually co-create a permanent Experts by Experience Advisory Group which will then advise on a long-term basis.
Workshop Tackled Making Gambling Safer
The interim group came about after a workshop was conducted back in March in which people with real experiences within the gambling sector were tasked with offering their own perspective on crucial topics.
Those topics included High Value Customers, Safe Game Design and Advertising Technology. It was felt that the Commission had to make progress on these areas quickly.
The workshop group also talked about how they felt the Commission could work better with those who have experienced real issues as well as the need for greater engagement to benefit all customers, working with each other in order to help prevent gambling harm and making the industry safer.
The Commission has stated that their main goal is to make gambling safer for all customers and that the creation of the interim Experts by Experience Group is a major step in helping it bring a wider ranger of perspectives into its work.
Advisory Board to be Created on the Back of Interim Group
The Commission will now work with the interim group to eventually form an established Advisory Board. This will then allow the regulator to involve the Experts by Experience collective more closely in the development of its regulatory framework.
So far, the Interim Group has been made up of people who have suffered a host of different gambling related harms, such as those recovering from gambling addiction, partners and family members of addicts and those who have even lost children to due gambling-related suicides.
It is felt that the creation of this group is long overdue, and there is a clear determination the Experts by Experience should be much more active in future decision making across the entire remit of the Gambling Commission as part of the National Strategy to reduce harm.
EbE Already Working Effectively with Commission
Those from the interim group report that they are already learning how they can best work together with the Commission, with a genuine commitment all round to make the new group work for the greater good.
The Gambling Commission for its part has clearly already recognised the value of the group’s input, but it is still felt that they have differed on certain important issues which is bound to happen going forward too. The main stumbling block appears to be how quickly improvements can be made.
The new interim group will now be in place for the next six months as a minimum, at which time the Commission is planning to move to the permanent Advisory Group. The new group will then add extra advice the regulator receives through various groups to what is known as the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling and the Digital Advisory Panel.
The invaluable input it is thought will add to the regulator’s other approaches which are already in use, including information and feedback received from customer service centres etc. The fact that the EbE is already beginning to work in tandem with the Commission is a very positive early step indeed.
