Jim Mullen: “We cannot be the bad bookies”

Ladbrokes Coral CEO Jim Mullen has called on operators to not allow campaign groups to paint them as “the bad bookies” and fight back by putting facts about gambling in the public domain.

Amid a flurry of UK regulatory reviews, including one on stakes and prizes which could see FOBT maximum stakes slashed, Mullen told EGR Intel the industry must do more to make its voice heard to avoid restrictive measures being placed upon them.

“We cannot be the bad bookies,” Mullen said. “We are essentially [painted as] the reason for problem gambling and we need to make it clear that the Campaign for Fairer Gambling is putting data out there that’s based on no evidence.

“We have to make it clear that we responded after only six weeks to the Triennial Review and we responded on time. And we have to make it clear that the evidence in that review absolutely stated that there is no link between problem behaviour and stakes.

“I accept that we do have to increase our PR,” he added. “But we also have to accept that we can’t have things thrust upon us which essentially are not based on any evidential data whatsoever.”

Campaign groups, which argue current staking limits encourage problem gambling behaviour, have been lobbying hard for max stakes to be reduced to as low as £2, despite no study having yet found any causation between stake size and harm in any form of gambling.

Furthermore, the rate of problem gambling in the UK has remained stable with no material increase since the introduction of the B2 category machines to betting shops in 2001.

Mullen also insisted industry must form a closer working relationship with racing, which could be set to lose out through the likely closure of betting shops pending a significant reduction in stakes.

And with the largest retail estate in the UK – approximate 3,650 shops – the Ladbrokes Coral chief said it was his duty to make his firm’s voice heard.

“We have about 42% of the UK retail estate and around 19,000 of the 55,000 retail employees, so we have a responsibility to get on the front foot and that’s what we are doing,” he said.

Mullen added he was “sympathetic” to the conversation around a potential daytime ban on gambling advertising, although believed racing should be “excluded” from any ban as it was a “separate thing”.