Training means “the action of teaching a person or animal a particular skill or type of behaviour”.  It has specific goals of improving a person’s competence, capacity, productivity and performance.  As the title suggests (the words of Benjamin Franklin), any training programme must be coupled with learning and development initiatives. 

On the one hand, employees need to replenish their knowledge and improve their skillset to do their jobs better.  They need to feel confident about improving efficiency and productivity, and raising standards, as well as finding new ways towards their personal development and success.  On the other hand, and most crucially, employers need to:

1. Develop and maintain an effective training and development programme.  We recommend this include:

• the assessment of training needs across the business;
• the review of all communication channels with employees to ensure consistency of messaging;
• reviewing existing internal training materials;
• reviewing the competency of internal trainers;
• the assessment of internal and external training;
• considering ways to embed training and development across the business to create/strengthen a culture of compliance and learning; and
• an evaluation methodology to measure success or failure.

2. Provide robust, comprehensive, relevant and up-to-date training.

Why is this important?

There is an abundance of reasons.  Here are our top 10 reasons:

1. improved employee motivation and morale;
2. the workplace is likely to be a happier place;
3. internal mobility can be an important means of attracting and retaining employees;
4. maintained and improved employee performance;
5. identifying and addressing weaknesses;
6. consistency across the workforce;
7. increased productivity and internal collaboration;
8. improved compliance;
9. increased innovation; and
10. enhanced reputation and profile.

Training plays an instrumental role in maintaining and raising standards of compliance in respect of a gambling business’ legal, regulatory and licensing requirements, including promotion of the licensing objectives.  Creating and cultivating a culture of compliance and learning are vital ingredients for a sustainable gambling business.  Before COVID-19, we were facing the most challenging regulatory climate in a generation. 

Now is a useful time to take stock and consider what long term sustainability and success looks like for your business, and establish the role that training plays.

Non-compliance is expensive, meaning that prevention is certainly better than a cure.  To minimise this risk, we go above and beyond pure legal advice by providing supplementary services to our clients to assist them with staying abreast of legal and regulatory developments and priorities.  The aim is to ensure that personal management licence (“PML”) holders, other key staff (for example, compliance, IT developers, those managing PMLs, commercial or other support staff) or a gambling business’ Board or Compliance Committee, understand the obligations and responsibilities that come with being licensed by the Commission.

It is, of course, individuals who make the decisions concerning the gambling business, and, therefore, these individuals who will determine whether the licence holding entity is compliant.  Increasingly, the Commission is focused on holding leaders in gambling businesses to account, with the aim to improve Board focus on, and accountability for, the licensing objectives, and encouraging them to set the tone from the top and lead a culture of compliance.  This is not a new area of focus.  The Commission’s casework continues to show licensees (operating and personal) are not doing enough to learn and, as a direct result, it is taking a stricter approach to enforcement against businesses, imposing bigger financial penalties and tougher sanctions.

Since April 2018, there have been more than £50 million in penalty packages, including more than £30 million in 2020.  Since 2018, and during the course of investigations into nine of the most serious operating licensees, the Commission examined the actions of 22 PMLs. Of these, nine surrendered their PML, six received a formal warning, one received an advice to conduct, seven are still ongoing and no further action was taken against two. 

Licences (operating and personal) are a privilege, not a right.  Training employees is an investment in them and the business, and help protect any gambling operator or supplier’s most valuable asset – its licence(s).

How can we help?

Ensuring compliance with an increasingly complex, pervasive and ever-changing regulatory environment requires expert advice and support.  We help gambling businesses before, during and after compliance and enforcement intervention by the Commission.  We have significant experience training senior management teams from leading online and land-based operators and suppliers.  As external training providers, we bring a new perspective to operators and suppliers used to looking at training and compliance through their own prism.  

Our training is very much tailored to our clients’ needs and, in most cases, based on our extensive knowledge working closely with them.  We work closely with clients to ensure training is pitched at the right level, informative and interactive, with wide use of case studies.

Our unrivalled training services include:

• reviewing internal training materials;
• designing new, robust and effective training materials;
• developing training and development programmes;
• developing employee handbooks and manuals;
• delivering training in person (post-COVID-19);
• delivering training via videoconference;
• delivering training via audioconference; and
• training internal trainers.

We regularly train the following stakeholders:

• start-ups;
• PMLs;
• senior management;
• compliance departments;
• Boards; and
• Compliance Committees.

For more details of our training services, please visit our designated Training page on our website, email or call us.

From next week, we will be posting a weekly video blog (we believe the youngsters call this a vlog) or blog tutorial providing training on key topics in the gambling industry.  We are committed to creating content you will be interested about and find useful.  Please email us with any (reasonable!) suggestions