Dear Members,

 

I hope everyone had a good Summer.  I have had reports that for most of the UK it has not been a bad season at the coast.

 

The bacta team are raring to go.  It is going to be an extraordinary and very busy Autumn.  We are expecting Government to publish its proposals on FOBTs and other machine stakes and prizes in October, but we also have a packed bacta agenda which includes attending both Tory and Labour Party Conferences, ACOS, our own Parliamentary Reception at the House of Commons, the bacta Convention, Responsible Gambling Week and, in the New Year, EAG which will see bacta hold for the first time in a long while a dinner on the Tuesday evening of the Show.  Details of these are below and I would ask members to put relevant dates in the diary.

 

Our first event is the Labour Party Conference.  Given this crucial political period, bacta will be there in numbers, with President, Gabi Stergides, Vice-President, James Miller and Past-President, Jason Frost, joining me in getting the message across about our sector.  The need for action on FOBTs and the need for the amusement machine sector to be given the boost it needs to support jobs up and down the country is paramount.  We have organised a fringe event with the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) where I will be sharing a platform with Gambling Commission Chief Executive, Sarah Harrison, amongst others, to talk about Social Responsibility. 

 

We have also organised an event called Fish ‘n’ Chips and Beer on the Pier.  As the Labour Party Conference is in Brighton we could not miss the opportunity to showcase all that is fantastic about our industry.   We have invited Labour MPs and Councillors to join us on the Palace Pier to celebrate the British Seaside and the contribution we make to seaside communities.  Bacta members are invited to come along and we would encourage you to contact your (Labour) MP to see if they would be free.  It’s from 5-7 pm on Tuesday 26th September.

 

The Tory Conference is a week later in Manchester and we will be re-running the IPPR event as well as meeting as many MPs and Ministers as we can to bang the drum for our sector.

 

We will follow up this political work with an all-party Parliamentary Reception in the House of Commons on 22^nd November, the eve of the bacta Convention.  We will invite all MPs to pop in and see us and we will be writing to members shortly to ask you to invite your MP to join you at the event.

 

The Convention itself on the 23^rd will again be at the QEII Conference Centre with the theme of ‘the future’.  The same evening we will be saying goodbye to Phil Silver, our Head of Compliance, who retires that day.  He will have served bacta and its members for nearly 30 years when he finally hangs up his bacta toolkit and training packages.  Every member has already been invited to join us but further details will be sent with the Convention and AGM pack.

 

Talking of people leaving bacta our accounts team said goodbye to Marie Garrard this week after nine years with us.   I would like to take this opportunity of thanking her for everything she has done for bacta and its members and wish her well for the future.

 

All this political work is a continuation of the dominant public policy issue for our sector:  FOBT stakes.  Members will have seen just how febrile the atmosphere around this issue has become as we get ever closer to the Government publicly nailing its colours to the mast.  We have really put our foot on the gas since Christmas and, on top of the evidence base we augmented last year with our own work with NERA and Professor Peter Collins, we have engaged heavily with the media to make it clear that the case for change is overwhelming.  Further Gambling Commission Reports have also added to the evidence base and coupled with near universal political support I am not sure much more can be done to persuade any minds that are not yet made up.

 

One of the things we asked DCMS to look at in our Review submission was payment systems.  As cash disappears from society it is imperative we find a way to allow customers to pay for games in a way which is convenient for them.  Bacta has established a Payments Systems committee to look at what can be done within the current law and we will be saying more about this at the Convention.  Some operators have come up with what looks likes very workable schemes.

 

Putting the customer first is very much the mantra of the Gambling Commission at the moment.  Their emphasis is on social responsibility concerns.  They fined 888 recently nearly £8 million for not fully excluding customers who had asked to be excluded from all their websites.  They also made much of recent statistics that showed the levels of problem and at risk gamblers associated with various sectors of the business.  Putting the customer first is what business does best.  I am confident that bacta and its members will continue to develop SR initiatives that result in a drop in the numbers of problem and at risk gamblers associated with our products (which by the way were at the lower end of the scale compared to other activities).

 

Our own self-exclusion scheme is a case in point.  We have had this fully up and running now for over a year.  We will shortly begin evaluating the effectiveness of the scheme.  At the forthcoming round of Regional Meetings which commence next week we will be asking members to feedback their experience of the service and where we can make improvements.  We will at some stage in the future potentially need to speak to users of the scheme, i.e. self-excluders, to see how they experienced the process.  However, in order to do that we would have to contact them, something the LCCP forbids us from doing during their self-exclusion for good reason.  The Gambling Commission had advised us that we can make an exception if a person agrees to be contacted for research purposes.  This cannot be retrospective.  Bacta will in due course provide you with an update to the terms and conditions you give to self-excluders which asks for their consent to be contacted by researchers.  After a suitable period of time to allow you to retrain staff we can begin to build up a database of individuals we can contact.

 

I have also been told that there are still AGCs or those with AGC permits, that have not signed up to a self-exclusion scheme.  Remember this is an LCCP requirement.  Please contact bacta if you need further advice.  Can I also ask Scheme users to ensure they supply good photographs of the people that have self-excluded.  Those taken on a digital camera or iPad are best – but remember to delete them afterwards to minimise any potential data protection breach.  A device upon which a photograph is taken should ideally not leave the premises.

 

Another major focus during the Autumn will be Responsible Gambling Week from 12^th – 18^th October.  This covers the whole gambling industry and for us that involves our AGC operators whom we have said will as a minimum give over their windows to RGW branding.  A separate briefing document has been circulated.  All queries should go to LindaM@bacta.org.uk

 

Finally, can I make a plug for you all to support our very own Parveen Sharma who will be taking part in the Rays of Sunshine Mountain Marathon on 16^th October.  She has said she will do it in her heels (well the first 100 metres anyway).  This is going to be an arduous 26 mile trek and I know the financial sponsorship she is seeking for Rays will go a long way to keeping her going.  Visit her JustGiving page to donate:   https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/parveenbacta

 

Kind regards

John

 

DATES FOR THE DIARY

 

SEPTEMBER

 

11^th  West of England Region Meeting

12^th  South Wales Region Meeting

13^th  Midlands Region Meeting

14^th  Southern Region Golf Day – contact Jeremy Godden for details

15 – 17^th Rays of Sunshine Mountain Marathon

20^th  Divisional Committees

21^st  Royal Mint meeting

26^th Fish ‘n Chips and Beer on the Pier

 

OCTOBER

 

5^th London, Eastern and Southern Region Meetings

11^th – 12^th ACOS

12^th – 18^th Responsible Gambling Week

17^th RGW Parliamentary Reception

18^th – 19^th Euromat

24^th Southern Region Parliamentary Lunch

 

NOVEMBER

 

2^nd Scottish Region Meeting

6^th CBI Annual Conference

7^th North West Region Meeting

8^th Northern Region Meeting

9^th Yorks, Lincs, Humberside Region Meeting

21^st Gambling Commission Raising Standards Conference

22^nd Bacta Parliamentary Reception

23^rd Bacta Convention

23^rd Farewell drinks for Phil Silver

 

DECEMBER

 

1^st Bacta North West Ball

5^th Southern Region Meeting and Xmas lunch

6^th – 7^th Gamble Aware Harm Minimisation Conference

 

JANUARY

 

16^th – 18^th EAG

16^th Bacta Annual Dinner

17^th Bacta VIP lunch

17^th Fox Party

18^th Veterans lunch