Thompson: Transparency and self-regulation are crucial for sustaining our purpose

CEO Dianne Thompson reported on the work done by the EL Responsible Gaming Working Group and the Responsible Gaming Principles. She pointed out that advertising is a critical driver in increasing revenue, but it can also erode trust.  Trust among operators, consumers, opinion formers, and regulatory bodies is paramount to the industry. How can we distinguish ourselves from amongst thousands of marketing messages and keep doing it responsibly?

Ms Thompson underlined that, to sustain its purpose, the lottery sector has to adhere to responsible marketing. Lotteries need to be active in the creation of the rules for advertising. As an example, Ms Thompson took up the tobacco industry, where previous uncontrolled advertising has led to strict regulation, such as warning texts on cigarette boxes and, in the future, boxes without any logos or designs.

Ms Thompson also referred to recent CJEU rulings on advertising in gambling (Markus Stoss, 2006 and Carmen Media, 2006). According to them, a monopoly cannot argue that it should exist for consumer protection reasons, unless certain conditions are met; one of these being that the advertising of monopolies must remain monitored and strictly limited to what is necessary in order to channel consumers to authorised operators. Restrictions should be imposed on advertising that aims to encourage consumers’ natural propensity to gamble by depicting large jackpots or by giving games a positive image due to the fact that revenues are used for good causes.

“This is only a start, more and more courts are going to take a stand to these issues.”
Standards and Frameworks to work with

Ms Thompson reminded the audience about the fact that both the EL Responsible Gaming Standards and the WLA Responsible Gaming Framework provide a good ground for self-regulation in all the member lotteries. The EL is currently preparing European Lotteries Best Practice Guidelines which cover advertisements and commercial communications, offering advice on the style, contents, timing, and location of advertisements, as well as instructions on how to publish news about lottery winners, and carry out other promotional activities.

“We believe passionately in self-regulation rather than regulation. Demonstrating transparency and self-regulation is crucial in order to avoid future penalties across the industry”, said Dianne Thompson, CEO of Camelot and Chair of both the EL and WLA Responsible Gaming Committees.