Sustainability in Gambling: Being right vs. being effective

“How to keep track of regulations in 200 countries? Don’t.”

As it stands today, gambling is legal (or quasi-legal) in one form or another in a large majority of countries around the world. Many dozens of jurisdictions also allow gambling via the internet, whether it be lottery products, sports betting, online poker, or casino games. And, of course, horse betting remains one of the most popular forms of gambling from Monaco to Macau.

The laws and regulations that facilitate legal gambling are unique from one country to another – and sometimes even within a single country. The United States, for example, is a patchwork of state and federal gambling laws that work in (relative) harmony to produce a legalized industry. Beneath those laws lies a comprehensive layer of regulations, again individualized to each market, and the whole structure is propped up by a set of operational controls which also vary from one jurisdiction to the next.
 

This tangled web of policy creates some practical challenges for gambling companies that have customers across the globe. How do these big operators manage to keep track of all their responsibilities in all these places?

Well they hire lawyers, for starters. Lots and lots of lawyers.

The largest gambling companies employ teams of attorneys who manage everything from payroll to partnerships. But these roles aren’t limited to the Legal Department. Government Relations and Compliance divisions are typically staffed by lawyers too, a silent indication of the perceived purpose of those positions within the gambling apparatus.

Lawmaking bodies and regulators have their own attorneys too, for that matter, and their part in the proliferation of gambling is largely understated. These lawyers provide the counsel that allows policymakers to create a new gambling industry out of scratch – one that doesn’t run afoul of things like federal laws, a state constitution, or a verdict from the courts.

Lawyers are fundamentally important to the process of drafting, enforcing, and complying with gambling laws and regulations. And, by and large, they’re quite good at what they do. They’re worth their hourly rates. But they’re broadly not equipped to create policies that protect gamblers with the level of sophistication that’s required to make a real impact. They’re not public policy experts, nor are they behavioral scientists or clinicians of any sort.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then, that people continue to suffer tangible harm from the proliferation of gambling. Despite all of the words written to try to hold operators accountable to a set of standards on paper, customers are affected by gambling related harm.

There is, quite obviously, a gap between compliance and consumer protection.

We’ve covered this topic in previous articles, but it fits nicely within this discussion of what it means to offer gambling products in a safe way. Compliance with legal standards – or “following the law” for short – is merely the first piece of the safer-gambling puzzle.

As we’ve mentioned before, these standards are often insufficient on their own. Operators whose only goal is to comply with laws and regulations simply aren’t doing enough to protect their customers. Nor are they doing enough to protect their own enterprise, a recognition that should be enough to persuade them to change course even if nothing else does. There can be long-term detrimental consequences for business practices that skirt the line between fair and foul.

Regulators in Massachusetts, for example, are currently stuck at a crossroads with at least one prospective licensee regarding their too-close-for-comfort alliances with American universities. Marketing to a gameday audience on a college campus might not be

against the rules in one US state, but it may be enough to create legitimate licensing concerns in another. And it could furthermore create a negative brand association among a segment of the public. Gambling addiction is also strongly correlated with the types of

harm that can escalate all the way to crime and suicide – things no brand wants to be connected to.

Fortunately, the solution involves a straightforward, common-sense approach that simply exceeds these pretenses of protection and focuses on real solutions. If operators offer their products in a way that demonstrates that they truly care about their customers,

then they’ll already be in conformity with just about law or regulation a governing body could create.

Compliance isn’t the end goal of the regulatory process but rather a small steppingstone on the path to a safer future for gambling.