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Tough times need a light touch
Former UK Shadow Gambling Minister Nick Hawkins sorts the wheat from the chaff in his bi-monthly column…
I write this in the depressing circumstances of stock markets apparently in free fall round the world – I hope by the time readers are reading it, matters may have stabilised somewhat, but I begin with a newsletter summary of a report headlined “Recession will negatively impact land-based gaming”… – as the old catch-phrase had it, a ‘statement of the bleeding obvious’, if ever there was one, surely!
Times are very tough – marginal businesses will go to the wall. To take just one example, even before the latest crisis, in excess of 30 pubs a week around the UK, were closing – the smoking ban and cheap supermarket booze among the causes – that trend is sadly likely to get worse.
We appear (as of, again, the week of writing), to be in an economic war with Iceland. For anyone of my age or older, memories of “the cod war”…! Who would have predicted that, even a month ago?!
Mind you, with all the stories that much of the money flowing through Iceland was really Russian in origin, perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised that peculiar things have occurred…
One of the results of a major worldwide economic crisis is that Governments are understandably so busy dealing with the implosion of banks, that other issues drop way down the pecking order.
In any industry, those at a senior level are focussed on their issues for their business, and sometimes find it hard to accept that, to politicians and civil servants, their industry may not count for a lot.
When the entire banking system appears to be in meltdown, however, it is perhaps realistic to reflect that helping the gambling industry, or even leisure more generally, is not going to be high up any Government’s agenda.
There will therefore have to be a lot of focus on “self-help”, by the industry, as much as possible, for a prolonged period, I suspect.
What is certain is that the “Leisure Pound” will be under pressure – if unemployment rises substantially, as predicted, there are fewer punters with disposable cash.
However, some groups have organised their businesses in such a way that recent Stock Exchange results announced have been quite good, amidst the doom and gloom – though there is a perception that 2009 will definitely be much worse, even for those for whom 2008 has been OK – and it is pretty difficult to gainsay that, having listened to news reports which every day could make one feel suicidal on the way in to work!
My instinctive feeling is that in these tougher times there will be a real premium on those who can innovate at modest cost.
If an organisation can produce new products or services in our field, which punters feel give them something, new, exciting, different, and not too costly, and above all simple to understand and play, without massive capital expenditure, then that must be a winning formula.
The Leisure Pound is less likely to be spent on anything to which the punter’s reaction is “same old, same old”.
There is a challenge for Government and regulators not to add to the industry’s burdens in tough times – regulation must really be “light touch”, and the Government must be clear that unless it helps the industry, jobs will be lost as businesses go under. I worry that there seems so much hostility in Government for the licensed trade. We once had Prime Ministers who understood that “the pub is the hub” of so much community life, in villages, small towns, suburbs and the like, and that its not all about drunken yobs in City Centres – but then this is the same bunch who have decimated Post Offices by their policies which actively reduced “footfall” by stopping people getting services via the Post Office – it became a self-fulfilling, self-destructing policy. They may do the same to pubs by their series of measures which are a “law of only half-intended consequences” and the ‘health freaks’ of the Nanny State who hold sway over Number 10 and much policy development seem unable to understand the sense of “all things in moderation”.
I do hope that a Government which has reintroduced Nationalisation on an unprecedented scale will not go down also as the “new Puritans”, but I fear that the son of the Manse in the top job wouldn’t mind too much if he did…
Nick Hawkins is a Barrister specialising in Gambling and Leisure law. In his 13 years in Parliament previously, he held roles in Government and Opposition, including Shadow Solicitor-General and Shadow Sports Minister. He is now Legal Director for a gaming company.
