The Gambling Act treadmill

Related tags Tessa jowell

I hope the civil servants at the Department for Culture Media & Sport (DCMS) are keeping fit - they need to be if they are involved with the...

I hope the civil servants at the Department for Culture Media & Sport (DCMS) are keeping fit - they need to be if they are involved with the implementation of the Gambling Act.

The picture that occurs to me is of those running machines in fitness clubs and sports centres. You start off going nowhere at a leisurely pace and then Tessa Jowell, under pressure from Parliament and her cabinet colleagues, turns the dial up, not once, but several times, so that you end up sprinting on the spot, panting for breath, but still getting nowhere.

The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) is not the only trade body that thinks that exactly the same mistakes are being made this time round as were made with licensing - trying to do too much, too soon. As the 1 September start date looms closer, the DCMS is still rushing out consultations, draft orders and regulations at an alarming rate, all because the minister presumably refuses to delay the implementation of the Act.

Because they have promised local authorities that they will have at least three months to prepare, there is now less than four weeks until the time when the crunch truly arrives. If everything is not more or less in place by the beginning of June, councils will be under extreme pressure to deliver the changes at the promised time.

This is not fair on them or on the stakeholders, including pubs and operating companies. Currently, concern about the draft regulations for the use of gaming machines has led a wide variety of trade bodies to ask for a general meeting to discuss the issues with the DCMS.

This demonstrates the extent of the industry's anxiety that the rush to prepare secondary legislation may present a very flawed system, as happened with licensing.

Will they ever learn? Tessa Jowell promised faithfully that the gambling progression would be less frenetic and more measured than the licensing process (remember, they revised the application forms the night before transition began). Yet only 16 weeks before the system goes live, there is still a need to discuss technical proposals on machines in detail. It beggars belief.

Jowell has still not sorted out the mess about regional casino selection, although an announcement is expected shortly. The main problem is that the DCMS is a small department short on foot-soldiers. Jowell should swallow hard and delay the start to give everyone a breathing space.

Related topics Legislation

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