NEWS ROUND-UP
Gambling oversight ‘complacent’ and
‘weak’, says Commons committee
The bodies overseeing
gambling are failing
to protect people
who are vulnerable to
gambling harms, says a
report from the House of Commons
Public Accounts Committee. The
Department for Digital, Culture,
Media & Sport (DCMS) and the
Gambling Commission – which it
oversees – have an ‘unacceptably
weak understanding’ of the impact of
gambling harms and lack measurable
targets to reduce them, says the
document, which was published less
than two weeks after a report from
the All Party Parliamentary Group
(APPG) for Gambling Related Harm
called for a complete overhaul of the
UK’s system of gambling regulation
alongside a ban on all gambling
advertising.
The public accounts committee
found the pace of change to
ensure effective regulation to be
‘slow’ and the penalties imposed
on companies that do too little to
address problem gambling ‘weak’.
‘Where gambling operators fail to
act responsibly, consumers do not
have the same rights to redress as in
other sectors,’ it says. As gambling
increasingly moves online, DCMS
and the Gambling Commission
have failed to adequately protect
consumers, even when problems
such as increased risk of gambling
harm during the COVID-19 lockdown
have been identified. The committee
is calling for a published league table
of gambling operators’ behaviour
towards customers, with ‘naming
and shaming’ of poor performers.
It also wants to see DCMS embark
on an immediate review of the
Gambling Act.
‘What has emerged in evidence
is a picture of a torpid, toothless
regulator that doesn’t seem terribly
interested in either the harms it
exists to reduce or the means it
might use to achieve that,’ said
committee chair Meg Hillier. ‘The
commission needs a radical overhaul
– it must be quicker at responding
to problems, update company
licence conditions to protect
vulnerable consumers and beef up
those consumers’ rights to redress
when it fails. The issue of gambling
harm is not high enough up the
government’s agenda.’ The review of
the Gambling Act was ‘long overdue’,
she added, and an opportunity to see
a ‘step change’ in the treatment of
problem gambling. ‘The department
must not keep dragging its feet – we
need to see urgent moves on the
badly needed overhaul of the system.’
Gambling regulation: problem
gambling and protecting vulnerable
people at www.parliament.uk
'What has emerged
in evidence is a
picture of a torpid,
toothless regulator
that doesn’t seem
terribly interested.'
Meg Hillier MP
More than 120 children slain in
Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’
MORE THAN 120 KILLINGS OF
CHILDREN and young people were
carried out in the Philippines
between 2016 and 2019,
according to Geneva-based World
Organisation Against Torture
(OMCT) and the Philippine
Children’s Legal Rights and
Development Center. Just under
40 per cent of the killings were
carried out by the police, with
the remainder by ‘unknown
individuals, often masked or
hooded assailants, some of them
with direct links to the police’.
The report – which is based
on interviews with families,
witnesses and local authorities, as
well as official documents – states
that the children’s ages ranged
from just 20 months up to 17.
The deaths documented
were either the result of direct
targeting, mistaken identity,
‘collateral damage’ or ‘as proxies
when the real targets could not
be found’. Almost all of those
interviewed asked not to be
named, and
most did not
even file a
case for the
murder of
their children
through fear
of reprisals.
‘Over the
past four
years we
have hardly
seen any
meaningful
reaction to
the wanton killing of thousands
of people under the pretext
of the “war on drugs”,’ said
OMCT secretary general Gerald
Staberock. ‘It is the total lack of
accountability that feeds the cycle
of violence, including the war on
children we are witnessing.’ How
could they do this to my child? at
www.omct.org
Philippines. 12th Apr 2019.
Protestors against drug-related
killings rallied on the streets of
Manila carrying a cross and ‘stop
the killings' placards. Credit:
Sherbien Dacalanio/Alamy
Postal NSP
launches
AN ONLINE POSTAL NEEDLE EXCHANGE
SERVICE has been launched by harm
reduction specialists Exchange
Supplies to make sure people can
access the equipment they need
during the COVID-19 pandemic, which
has seen reduced staffing levels at
many pharmacies. NSPdirect allows
drug services to provide a full online
and postal needle exchange service
during the pandemic and beyond.
Services or partnerships joining the
scheme are supplied with a set of
secure activation codes, which can
then be distributed to service users to
set up their own online accounts to
order equipment.
As with any NSP, clients have the
option to use the service anonymously
– all data transfer to and from the
site is encrypted, and personal
information is securely stored. Clients
can log in to review their order history,
select favourites and repeat previous
orders. More information at www.
exchangesupplies.org
4 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JULY/AUGUST 2020
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM