A.J. Koehn

GamCare has appointed Chris Thornton as its new Director of Operations, strengthening its executive leadership at a time of rising demand for gambling harm support services across the UK.

Thornton will take responsibility for the delivery and performance of GamCare’s national and regional services, including the National Gambling Helpline, and will join the organisation’s Executive Leadership Team.

He brings extensive senior leadership experience across the NHS, the voluntary sector and health commissioning.

Most recently, he served at the British Red Cross, where he was Director for the North of England and the Isle of Man.

In that role, he led large-scale health and care operations spanning NHS and local authority commissioned services, with a focus on reducing pressure on emergency care systems and supporting independent living.

During his time at the British Red Cross, Thornton oversaw around 100 staff and £3m annual income, delivering measurable reductions in emergency depa..

The Gambling Commission has confirmed to SBC News that a decision on whether to press ahead with Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs) has not been made.

A meeting was held today (21 May), during which the regulator considered the next steps on rolling out FRAs – the more extensive of the two levels of affordability solution proposed in the Gambling Act review White Paper.

Ahead of the meeting, a plethora of last minute lobbying took place as some industry stakeholders and policymakers effectively viewed 21 May as something of a ‘deadline day’ – one in which FRAs would be confirmed and a plan for implementation announced.

But punters and operators alike will have to wait to find out what conclusion the Gambling Commission has come to as the board “has not yet fully completed its assessment” of the “extensive evidence” provided.

Gambling Commission considering next steps

“The Gambling Commission Board met to consider next steps on Financial Risk Assessments,” a spokesperson for the reg..

The UK’s Gambling Commission has reiterated that its affordability solutions will have little to no impact on the vast majority of British bettors amid a wave of criticism.

Affordability checks, as they colloquially are known though the Commission prefers to avoid this term, have stoked a lot of controversy lately, with the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) even going as far as to say legal action may be necessary to prevent full implementation.

In a speech this week at the Clarion Payments Providers event, Ian Angus, the Commission’s Director of Policy, reasserted that the planned Finance Risk Assessments (FRAs) are “are not affordability checks by another name”.

“Nor do the proposed thresholds for an assessment limit or cap customer spend,” he said.

Commission stands by affordability numbers

The need for some kind of affordable solution for UK gambling was promoted heavily by those calling for legal reform during the 2020-2023 review of the 2005 Gambling Act.

When the review Whi..

The British government is swinging back the hammer to drive the final nail into the coffin of NHS England, one of three administrative bodies tasked with overseeing funds generated from the statutory levy on gambling harms.

Yesterday, King Charles III delivered his annual speech, outlining the Labour government’s legislative plans for the rest of the year. Of the various bills announced by the King yesterday, the NHS Modernisation Bill was addressed for a forthcoming application.

If approved, the bill will abolish NHS England, a body of the Department of Health and Social Care established by the previous Conservative government to oversee the planning, budgeting and delivery of NHS services across English constituencies and councils.

The abolition of NHS England is nothing new, with Keir Starmer’s government having set out plans to do so over a year ago, the return of the UK’s health service under a streamlined framework to address the nation’s most urgent health needs and region..

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has released new details on the remit of the UK’s Illegal Gambling Taskforce, five months after its creation.

Back in January, Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross made a landmark announcement that the government has set up a specialised unit to wage war on the black market in the UK. Not much else was known about the operations of this taskforce, until now.

Three key objectives

Those assigned to the taskforce will work towards lessening the influence of illegal gambling by tackling three distinctive objectives – preventing payments from and to black market operators, taking down offshore online marketing, and enhancing cross-agency enforcement to crack down on illegal remote and land-based gambling.

All three objectives will be handled by a separate Taskforce sub-group, which will assess the progress made and propose follow-up amendments.

Enforcement powers still on the cards

The DCMS added that from the outset, the Taskforce and..