The team at Birmingham New Street led by Area Manager Ioannis Lazarou, and Venue Manager Gavin Bates joined Head of Compliance Amanda Kiernan, Safer Gambling Compliance Manager, Stacey Irvine and Safer Gambling Support Officer, Dan Hargreaves in hosting a 15-strong team from UK regulator the Gambling Commission.
The Commission, which is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital Culture, Media & Sport, regulates most types of gambling in Great Britain, including The National Lottery. It also licenses the individuals and businesses that offer gambling, providing them with advice and guidance.
Describing the two day visit as “an invaluable opportunity” to have open discussions with staff working in “a licensed gambling business” the Commission used its Linkedin page to state how the visit enabled the contact centre team “to gain a deeper understanding of how the sites are managed, and what the experience is like for consumers.”
Reflecting on the visit Amanda Kiernan noted: “It was a very meaningful initiative with the Commission keen to learn more about the processes that we have in place such as how we monitor consumer spend, our interaction procedures including the markers we use, how staff monitor machines, the recording of self-exclusions and how we deal with in-venue complaints” adding “as a major retailer we are very keen to support the regulator in any way that we can.”