Rhodes Not Visiting the Families of the Addicts Who Committed Suicide

By John Isaac,
Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac is an editor with many years of experience in the gambling industry. He writes expert articles on card games like blackjack and poker. In addition, he is also well aware of the US gambling laws and the Indian and Dutch gambling markets. You can rely on verified information and insightful details.

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Last updated: June 20, 2022

Since taking his role as the chairman of the gambling control commission in June 2021, Andrew Rhodes has only visited just one casino, but not even a single betting shop. Because of this many campaigners have expressed their dissatisfaction with the UKGC and its nonchalant attitude towards the negative impact gambling can have on some people.

Bereaved Families Attempting to Meet With Rhodes

On June 18, 2022, there was a statement by Will Prochaska, the CEO of Gambling with Lives – a non-governmental charity organization looking to support bereaved families who lost their loved ones to suicide related to gambling.

In that statement, Will said that he is not happy with the work of the chairman of UGKC. He further explained that while Rhodes has time for prominent people in the gambling industry, he doesn’t seem to have time to visit betting shops.

“On top of that, he has not made any attempt to meet with the bereaved families who have been submitting requests to have a meeting with him for more than six months now,” – said Prochaska.

Moreover, the Gambling with Lives’ CEO stated that every single day in England someone is taking their own life because of gambling which is why people should worry that the chairman of the UKGC is not dedicating more attention to this issue.

The Commission’s Responsibilities

The UKGC has the responsibility of regulating the operations of the betting shops and companies and also advising the UK government on issues related to gambling. The aim of this is to protect vulnerable citizens from gambling-related dangers.

After serving as an interim chairman for a year, Andrew Rhodes officially became the chairman of the UKGC last month. During that year he visited just two betting shops and a casino. In response to the rebuke, the commission said that the global pandemic has affected their regular visits to the betting shops, arcades, slot machines, bingo, lotteries, and casinos, which are under their regulations.

It is also added that the chairman and other officers in the commission do meet with operators regularly as well as with bettors and others affected by gambling-related issues. The commission further added that the development of the commission’s engagement for the next 12 months is currently underway.

Despite the response, the director of the campaign group named Clean up Gambling, Matt Zarb-Cousin called for Rhodes to pay more visits to the places where gambling takes place. He said that every stakeholder in the industry, including the chairman of the UK Gambling Commission, should pay a visit to the places where people gamble so he can have first-hand information for themselves instead of depending on sanitized information from representatives.

Up to date, it was reported that Rhodes has met with the trade body representatives about nine times and with the online gambling operators about 13 times. The information from those visits that Rhodes made was sent to the Government as a reply to a question from Tory MP Philip Davies. Andrew Rhodes is having a bit of a rough time this year as he will also need to face the parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee on several topics, including allegations of the unfair awarding of a lottery license in the UK.