Consumer protection showcase: Brigid Simmonds, Betting and Gaming Council

It’s been a busy year for the Betting and Gaming Council, says chair Brigid Simmonds. She picks out the association’s new code of conduct for social media advertising, and the launch of ‘Take time to think’, a new industry-wide campaign that replaces ‘When the fun stops, stop’ as the sector’s key safer gambling message, as key developments.

These new initiatives are complemented by ongoing efforts, such as 20% of television and radio ads being dedicated to safer gambling messaging, and the whistle-to-whistle ban.

This has contributed to the rate of problem gambling falling to 0.4%, with the rate of people at medium risk falling from 1.4% to 0.7% since the end of 2020. Those statistics show that perhaps some of the work being done is starting to have results, Simmonds says – though it’s not grounds for complacency.