Operators have already seen regulators react swiftly to the COVID-19 crisis, cutting down on advertising to protect the people from the harms of problem gambling. But for an industry that already polices itself pretty well, there’s a fear those regulations could go too far and create their own harms. To discuss this matter, our Becky Liggero Fontana met up with Martin Lycka, Director of Regulatory Affairs at GVC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_VfoXuapho&feature=youtu.beVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Martin Lycka sees no worrying change in player behavior during COVID-19 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_VfoXuapho&feature=youtu.be)

Luckily, Lycka noted that fears of changing player behaviors have been overblown. “I would like to think we haven’t seen a drastic change in customer behavior, so some of those press and media reports and articles may not necessarily jive with what is actually happening in the industry,” he said. “Of course the near absence of sports, if we were to discount the weird and wonderful world of Belarusian and Burundian football and table tennis, means that there is customer segment or a group of customers that would be looking for other opportunities where to gamble, so these customers would definitely try out the industry’s poker and casino products. However as I started saying, we have not led to any drastic increases of spikes in irresponsible gambling behavior and I truly believe that the industry has had and go have had a very crucial role to play in this regard.”

One of the changes anti-gambling advocates have pointed to is the U.K’s Betting and Gaming Council’s announcement of a reduction in advertising. “You might have seen that the BGC issued its 10 points plan in terms of how to tackle, in particular advertising but also the gambling offer itself, during these truly extraordinary COVID times,” Lycka said. “On top of that, members announced that they would stop doing all TV advertising in the U.K. during the lockdown.”