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Collaboration was a key focus of the inaugural Africa Safer Gambling Week, which the AiA hosted last week.
Kesitilwe told iGB an important theme of the event was fostering year-round collaboration and turning conversations on safer gambling into practical measures.
“The initiative demonstrates that cooperation does not have to remain at the level of conference and policy discussion,” he said.
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“What I do think is that deciding together, not only as operators, but together with politicians and stakeholders, that a legal market is very important to get that done. We’re not there yet, and that’s what we’re saying.
“An unregulated market doesn’t become a safe market. People will always gamble, so we have to make sure that we have a strong legal market. And so you also need to give us some room to exist. And of course, we need to be regulated. A regulated market is always better than an illegal market.”
She mentions an ongoing lawsuit against Meta, which will be expected to be very challenging. The VNLOK-filed litigation is seeking to take action against the illegal gambling ads allowed to filter through to consumers across Meta’s various platforms.
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“I believe that by 2030 we will have no betting shops. The high street will be dead. We’ve already worked it out that with the increases in taxes and salaries and other wages it won’t be worth operating,” he said.
Betfred currently sponsors Britain’s five classic horse races, including the Epsom Derby. Done said the company had yet to agree on extending those sponsorships amid the tax uncertainty, warning that reduced regulated gambling provision could push problem gamblers towards the black market.
He also pushed back against claims by Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury Select Committee, who has characterised some industry warnings as “scaremongering”.
