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This is inside the Commission, a Gambling Commission podcast.
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Welcome to Inside the Commission, a podcast all about gambling in Great Britain. Here we'll cover all the latest topics and trends from across the gambling sector, and discuss the big issues that matter to you, from consumer queries to industry insights. We'll bring you the facts from the front line of regulation and share the stats and stories from those in the know.
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For all the latest discussions and updates, you can subscribe to our Gambling Commission YouTube channel, or you can find us on your preferred platform. Wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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Unknown
I this is a sort of two part sort of question. You've obviously got an industry for a made up of people from, from the industry, and I'm pretty sure they're not shy in coming forward and speaking their minds. So, you know, that that question in terms of how you make sure everyone's voice gets heard is, is important.
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Unknown
But also then when you, you know, when you go on to topics that are controversial or a little bit sort of, more challenging, how do you manage that? So making sure everyone's voices are heard, but you're also talking about the stuff that matters and can be a bit sensitive because obviously you have to you do have a role outside the forum as well.
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Unknown
So you've always got that kind of in the back of your mind. How do you manage that sort of
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Unknown
yeah, I think, yes.
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Unknown
Certainly. No one is afraid to, say what they think. You know, which is great. And, you know, it's why those people were appointed in those roles. I do think that everybody appreciates the work that the Commission do and understands that, you know, it's not necessarily easy for someone to come in and kind of present to nine, ten people, that they've never met before who don't they don't work with.
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Unknown
And so, you know, I think, I think everybody's quite good at managing that generally, as you say, some discussions can get quite heated, like everyone's really passionate about what they do. And I think that it's the job of the chair basically to, kind of manage that and, you know, make sure everybody's getting their say, but also make sure that any feedback that we're giving is really constructive and positive.
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Unknown
And does it make anybody feel uncomfortable or demoralized? I mean, to be honest, I've not really since I've been the interim chair, I've not really had to navigate that yet. But, I'm sure I'm sure I will figure it out when I have things
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Unknown
Yeah. So yeah. So for us it starts well before the meeting to prepare for this because we know that, the commission and, and operators and industry aren't going to agree on everything all the time. So we know that, and it's our job to put the work plan in place and then set up, a series of calls to, to prepare for the, the agenda items so that, first of all, that will be between May and test and the workstream needs to talk about what they bring in, why they're bringing it to the forum, what exactly do they want to get out of it, and what are they worried about?
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Unknown
And then we set up a call with the chair. So previously it was Nick Ross. Now of course it's Kirsty. We talk about that, about how how we want something to land where we think there might be some points of challenge. It gives the chair an opportunity to have started it first and and think about how they want to lead.
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Unknown
Yeah. Need that. We don't, you know, we don't want to go instead of saying, right, no one can disagree on anything because they can. But we need to make sure that things are kept on track and that ultimately the goal, the goal is to bring the work along and get to the right, gets the right icon, which everyone wants to do on both sides.
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Unknown
Yeah, but it's yeah, we put that in those steps in place first before we even get into the into the meeting. I
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Unknown
And you've had some successes having to do with the AML stuff, and bits and pieces like that are the other bits that stand out to you in terms of the last couple of years. First, the first
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Unknown
thing with email and just getting ups in there, I think was a success for us because when I saw this role, I was told that, you know, you won't get ups and sit in front of advisory groups.
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Unknown
It's that that it's really, really difficult. And yet John Pearce has been to the industry forum three times, I think now, we've had other colleagues from his team come along. And work's developing really, really well, I think there's just been a series of, Examples where we've had that richness of perspective to alter our work and to take that into consideration, our work that we wouldn't otherwise have had had we not have had Industry Forum.
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Unknown
And if you take legal gambling, I, we touched on it, but you know, that's that's huge and it's come along very, very quickly. And I can't imagine how we would begin to tackle that work without working with industry. And I think the forum is the best place to help us with that. We've done a we've done a lot with, on the black market stuff, haven't we?
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Unknown
And obviously we've got this new project coming up. But I mean, prior to that, as you said, we've had a young person, more than once and, you know, we've talked to him about, the things that that we're seeing, things like, you know, increased use of, black market sites on Christmas bank statements, for example.
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Unknown
You know, the use of influencers and streamers, causing, you know, kind of heightened prevalence of the black market. And I think, you know, those conversations have been really useful. I think another key area that we've done quite a bit of work on with, with different colleagues, actually, it's been around, the increased focus on the fair and open objective.
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Unknown
So, I mean, we, we actually talk directly to Andrew Wrightson way, about this initially. And that's a couple of times around, like blocked withdrawals and, account restrictions and kind of trying to give some color and context about a whole host of different reasons that an operator might restrict an account, might need to hold up a withdrawal.
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Unknown
And I think, you know, this, that there's been a bit of a change from the commission on that front or a bit more focus. And I think it was really important to kind of make sure that the context of all of the different reasons that that activity could be happening were understood. Okay. That's
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Unknown
really helpful. I suppose I want to sort of turn towards looking a little bit forward now and because, you know, in the interim role, you've come across piece of work that you're going to be looking at over the next 12 months.
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Unknown
Tim Miller mentioned it at the at the BGC conference. Not too long then. Do you want to touch on sort of what your forward look is and what the plans are and what you sort of got? In your, in your back pocket basically. Yeah,
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Unknown
definitely. So, this is around, the use of cryptocurrency and, the, the hopes to kind of bring and the ability for regulated sector to stop using cryptocurrency.
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Unknown
With an aim to kind of tackle some of the area of demand in terms of, people using that market operators. So, yeah, it's a super exciting project for the whole industry, but for the industry forum, it's certainly our biggest opportunity, that we've had up to this point. Tim spoke to me about it a couple of weeks ago.
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Unknown
I couldn't believe it, really. I thought it was just a kind of meet and greet Karl. And then he told me that that was the plan and asked if he if I thought we'd be interested. And I said, yeah, absolutely. So we've had a kick off call with the rest of the group just last week. Where Tim kind of gave a much more detailed overview that than I'd given them previously about, what he expected from us.
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Unknown
And now the next steps will be for us to kind of meet together as a group, which we're hoping to do in April. I think ash, from flutter is offered to host one of their, host. What I'm waiting for is so that we don't have to put any extra pressure on Andrew and his team.
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Unknown
And then, yeah, hopefully we'll be. Well, we will need to be bringing in expertise from outside of the industry forum. Because no one is an expert in cryptocurrency. So, you know, the there was discussion around us working potentially with the FCA, which, you know, would be really useful. But also people within the industry who have these, this skill set and experience.
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Unknown
And then the tentative plan is that we will present our first thoughts to Tim, in a formal forum meeting, which is I think is mid-May. So is it
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Unknown
exciting piece of progress, isn't it, from, from an industry forum perspective in terms of the trust and the value that we should get back.
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Unknown
Yeah. Trust. Trust important, but it's it's a sign that.
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Unknown
Yeah, two years into the the life of the forum, I mean, Russ used the term is, you know, the former on the inside, not on the inside of the commission.
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Unknown
You're literally inside the commission on this podcast.
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Unknown
But, you know, the trust goes both ways because, you know, we've asked people from the forum for some of their data to share some of their data with us, which they're doing with some of our colleagues. So there's a good there's a good relationship there. And I think, I think it's that the fact that it's embedded now, it's really good timing for, for this work to, to be given to them.
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Unknown
And it's, it is, it is it couldn't have been any earlier. It's a blank piece of paper. How do we how do we look at this. And the point of having, groups is, is we also look at their network beyond the people that are on the panel. And I think that's really something we're going to have to tackle after use here.
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Unknown
There's there's nothing it's not a secret squirrel operation. You know, we've said if you know people that can help us with this, then that's what can't get in touch. Yeah, yeah. I suppose it would be a
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Unknown
good opportunity for you guys to come back in six months time, 12 months time, and see where we've got to with something like that, because then know Will be of massive interest to a lot of people, I suppose we're coming towards the the back end of, of our chat.
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Unknown
I just wanted to sort of think about as the forum grows and continues and, you know, the next steps that you take, you know, what else do you need to start thinking about in terms of, you know, how the forum operates or other areas that need to be looked at differently in the future and sort of, what the next steps might be as you, as you sort of continue the development space.
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Unknown
So nothing's ever perfect. And we have learned along the way that, you know, we worked really hard with colleagues to pitch each agenda item, which piece of work at the right level, in the right way. And sometimes we've done a really good job of that.
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Unknown
And then other times afterwards, reflecting on thought, we probably didn't get that quite right. So that's something that we're always going to work on. The commission's corporate strategy, current corporate strategy will finish next year, and we'll have a new one for the next three year period. So the work on that will begin, and I will be looking at what is potentially going to be in that work and where industry four and it's an advisory panel and lived experience advisory panel can can help develop that work.
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Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. I think for me, I think we need to be more open about the work that we're doing. Which is why this is this is great because obviously you had an opportunity to really talk about a lot of the detail. You know, the last two years we've done like, a lot of good work and we haven't necessarily shouted about that.
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Unknown
And, you know, sometimes when you're at competition, you get people asking you, you know, what exactly? What do you do. Industry for them. Yeah. And I'm like, how do you not know? But then I suppose people wouldn't. So yeah, I think for me in my role as interim chair, that's one of the things that I want to, to really focus on.
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Unknown
And yeah, yeah, I think it was it was interesting. I did a review in January, I think, of what we'd been worked on the previous year, and when I read it all out and listed it, it kind of forget how many different things the forum, it worked on it even we do. Yeah,
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Unknown
yeah. And that's the, cyclical nature of the work we do, isn't it?
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Unknown
You move on to the next thing and you crack on. Yeah, you got to. The next thing is always around the gold. Okay. That's brilliant.
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Unknown
Thank you very
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Unknown
Thank you very much for having me. Yep,
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Unknown
This is inside the Commission, a Gambling Commission podcast to stay up to date with the latest content. You can subscribe to our Gambling Commission YouTube channel, or you can find us on your preferred platform wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks for listening.