Daily Archives: May 15, 2020

WHITEHALL ANALYTICA THE AI SUPERSTATE: Part 1 The Corporate Money Behind Health Surveillance – Byline Times

Posted: May 15, 2020 at 7:53 am

The first part of Nafeez Ahmeds major investigation into the money, men and motivation behind a massive move into medical data.

The COVID-19 public health crisis is enriching a murky nexus of technology surveillance firms linked to senior Government officials at the expense of peoples lives. The financial adventures of a former MI5 spymaster and the medical fantasies of Boris Johnsons top advisor point toward an unnerving endgame: an artificially intelligent (AI) corporate super-state, with a special focus on NHS genetic research inspired by eugenics.

The tale begins with Britains security services and ends with Dominic Cummings. It uncovers the extent to which democracy and public health are now under threat from a series of Government failures rooted in a bankrupt ideology, influenced by the modern relics of scientific racism.

On Sunday 12 April, the Government announced that the NHS would be launching a new COVID-19 contact tracing app. Since then, there has been a flurry of analysis and commentary on the urgent privacy questions posed by this development. But, missing from these questions, is a much wider context which throws light on why the Government failed so dramatically to avert an unprecedented public health catastrophe which has left the UK with the second-highest COVID-19 death toll in the world.

On the same day that the contact tracing app was announced, former MI5 Director-General Lord Jonathan Evans argued that existing technology used in counter-terrorism and organised crime probes could be used to augment the app being developed by NHSX, the NHS subsidiary focused on digital innovation.

Lord Evans, who headed up Britains domestic security service from 2007 to 2013, currently leads the Governments public standards watchdog and is thus a top advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on ethical standards in the public sector.

Tough surveillance powers are acceptable where there is equally tough oversight and accountability that ensures the powers are applied lawfully, proportionately and only where necessary, he wrote in the Sunday Times. This is now the case for anti-terrorism and the same must apply to health.

More than a week earlier, Health Secretary Matt Hancock had already granted GCHQ access to NHS data, specifically on the grounds of cybersecurity.

What the former spymaster didnt say is that, just last year, the Investigatory Powers Commissioners Office (IPCO) found that MI5 had broken the law in relation to surveillance safeguards designed to limit the sharing and storage of intercepted data. The private data of millions of ordinary citizens could have been shared with foreign governments under opaque and unaccountable national security protocols.

Lord Evans is also connected to a burgeoning private cybersecurity industry which has long aimed to exploit the creeping privatisation of the NHS for profits. In fact, he is connected to three giant corporations which are presently profiting from major contracts with the NHS.

Lord Evans journey from MI5 Director-General to senior corporate advisor is not particularly unique when compared to the trajectories of his predecessors and successors in the same role. But it provides a window into how the UKs national security industry is profiting from the piecemeal privatisation of Britains public health infrastructure.

According to DeclassifiedUK, an investigative journalism platform focused on British national security issues, Britains former spy chiefs have regularly gone on to lobby government for the private sector. This has resulted in the Government investing millions of pounds of taxpayers money in national security private contractors which have weakened the states pandemic preparedness while prioritising far lesser threats.

The COVID-19 pandemic is now accelerating this process as the Government grants unprecedented power to private technology firms with little transparency.

During his 33 years in Britains domestic security service, Lord Evans played a key role in the agencys counter-espionage and counter-terrorism policies, heading up its counter-terrorism division for the duration of the post-9/11 War on Terror. In 2009, as deputy head of MI5, he distinguished himself by justifying the agencys ties to foreign regimes torturing terrorism suspects to provide intelligence to MI5 and MI6.

The same year that Lord Evans retired from MI5 in 2013, the UK Cabinet Offices National Risk Register warned that a pandemic was the most significant civil emergency risk a higher priority even than catastrophic terrorism or coastal flooding.

Following his MI5 career, Lord Evans became a lobbyist for a private national security industry that largely failed to protect Britain from this risk. He moved rapidly to take up lucrative positions in the financial services industry, including remunerated positions at Accenture, Deloitte and HSBC.

By September 2013, he went on to join the advisory board of Darktrace, a $1.65 billion AI-based cybersecurity firm which was founded by UK intelligence officials earlier that year, and the core technology of which was originally conceived by Britains version of the NSA the electronic surveillance agency GCHQ, which has just obtained unprecedented access to NHS information systems.

According to detailed analysis by DeclassifiedUK, Darktrace has an almost symbiotic relationship with the UK and US intelligence communities, with staff members coming from GCHQ, MI5, MI6, the UK Ministry of Defence, the UK military and special forces.

Documents from the Governments Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) which is supposed to regulate conflicts of interest for outgoing government officials confirm that, at the time of his departure in 2013, Lord Evans was granted approval by then Prime Minister David Cameron to become personally involved in lobbying the UK Government on behalf of his new employer namely Darktrace after two years of his last day of service.

Matt Hancock is a long-time fan of the GCHQ-seeded company advised by Lord Evans. In 2017, Darktrace was a lead member of a UK trade delegation to Singapore led by Hancock in his capacity as then Digital Minister. That year, it emerged that one of Darktraces new clients was an NHS agency, which was reportedly protected from the WannaCry malware attack by its Enterprise Immune System technology.

In July 2018, Hancock became Health and Social Care Secretary and Darktrace continued to follow him into the NHS. That month, the firm announced that it had signed a multi-million dollar contract with a Government department to deploy its technology to protect public services and citizens data, without identifying the department. A month later, the company confirmed that the NHS was scaling up its adoption of Darktrace technology to safeguard systems and patient information, including prescription and blood type data.

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, Darktrace has attempted to consolidate this work, declaring that it would offer its services to the NHS for free.

In the meantime, Lord Evans also acquired a new role as non-executive director to Ark Data Centers, a UK data storage company, in 2015. He replaced his predecessor, the former MI5 chief Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller. That same year, Ark won a 700 million four-year contract with the Cabinet Office to supply the Governments entire data centre estate, via its Crown Hosting contract.

By 2018 the same year that Darktrace began expanding its reach into the NHS Ark secured a 500 million four-year extension to the Crown Hosting framework, apparently bypassing the usual competitive tender process in the name of avoiding disruption from Brexit. Later that year, NHS trusts began taking up the Ark-backed data storage solution.

All the while, Lord Evans kept himself busy. Just the preceding year, he had taken up another non-executive directorship at the UK-based financial services firm KPMG, to sit on its Public Interest Committee. The latter is responsible for overseeing the public interest aspects of the decision-making for KPMG LLP (UK) and its related entities taking into account the legitimate interests of clients and government, among others.

Yet, KPMG has spearheaded the charge to privatise the NHS an endeavour in which Lord Evans board role implies significant oversight.

Back in October 2010, KPMGs global head of health Mark Britnell at the time a health advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron told the Apex Partners Global Healthcare Conference: In future, the NHS will be a state insurance provider not a state deliverer. The NHS will be shown no mercy and the best time to take advantage of this will be in the next couple of years.

An Apex Partners brochure further explained the gist of Britnells comments: In future any willing provider from the private sector will be able to sell goods and services to the system The monolithic arm of state control will be relaxed which will provide a huge opportunity for efficient private sector suppliers.

By 2015, KPMG was among several other financial services firms designated as approved suppliers to some two-thirds of the consortia bidding for the planning and supplying of care to GP commissioners in effect determining where and how the NHS budget would be spent.

During the COVID-19 crisis, KPMG secured a Government contract to oversee the management of the NHS Nightingale hospitals. The firm is also advising the Department for Work and Pensions on its response to the Coronavirus.

Many of the Nightingale hospitals have not been used and this has been hailed by some as a success in freeing up existing capacity. But, staffers at the new hospitals have said that the real bottlenecks have been the lack of appropriately-trained staff, a nationwide shortage of critical care nurses, and lack of kidney dialysis and cardiac support equipment at the hospitals for dealing with multiple organ failures meaning that they could not be used to treat the sickest patients.

Simultaneously with its influential role as a Government contractor, KPMG appears to be a key voice calling for a need to balance the economy with public health priorities.

In an April message to the firms 16,000 staff, KPMGs chairman Bill Michael wrote that at some point, we run the risk that the economic disaster will transcend the human one. But he reassured his staff that KPMG is well-placed to advise the Government on the difficult judgement to strike a balance between the health of our people and our economy.

Alongside these multiple business roles, the Government appointed Lord Evans as Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life in October 2018, which advises the Prime Minister on ethical standards across the public sector. He had been approached for the post by No. 10 veteran Jonathan Hellewell, currently a special advisor to Boris Johnson on faith communities.

It would seem that Lord Evans was to be the Governments point-man in sanitising its plans for an AI revolution that would, in effect, privatise the public sector by stealth.

Earlier in 2018, Lord Evans had addressed his colleagues in the House of Lords. Noting that he was an advisor to the UK facial recognition start-up Facewatch, he extolled the benefits of scaling-up the technology comprehensively across society in transport, shops, entertainment, in public spaces, by police, Government and the private sector to enable pre-emptive action to be taken for intelligence purposes and even, eventually, evidential purposes with the right standards in place. It is also important that this should not become a bonanza for the lawyers, he added, alluding to the problem posed by privacy laws.

During his Facewatch stint, which started in 2014, the company had rapidly expanded its product, building up a database of alleged wrongdoers, whose images have been submitted by businesses who sign up to its service. Although, in theory, anyone who suspects that they have been incorrectly added to this database can appeal, as technology journalist Geoff White observes, to do that, you have to know or suspect that youre on the database, and since the company doesnt make it public, that creates a catch-22 situation your face is now being used to access stores of data about you, whos controlling those stores? How accurate are they? And how will you ever find out?

Facewatch runs a crime reporting and intelligence-sharing online platform endorsed by Secured by Design, an official UK police security initiative. It would appear that the system operates as an unaccountable, crowd-sourced blacklist which lacks any due process.

Lord Evans recused himself from his Facewatch position as he took up his new appointment at the UKs public standards watchdog. In that capacity, he oversaw a landmark report essentially urging the Government to speed ahead with a grand plan to roll-out artificial intelligence (AI) across British society, including in the NHS. While acknowledging that the Government was failing on the goal of openness in how AI is being used, the report did not advocate any major change in governance models for the public sector.

Our evidence showed that healthcare and policing currently have the most developed AI programmes, with technology being used, for example, to identify eye disease and to predict reoffending rates, though levels of system maturity differ across NHS trusts and police forces, the report stated.

The main obstacle to adoption, the report concluded, is data access: Public policy experts frequently told this review that access to the right quantity of clean, good-quality data is limited, and that trial systems are not yet ready to be put into operation. It is our impression that many public bodies are still focusing on early-stage digitalisation of services, rather than more ambitious AI projects.

Amidst some welcome recommendations for better regulatory guidance and ethics codes, the reports overall import was to clear the way for the gradual destruction of democratic process.

It dismissed the idea of an AI regulator and carefully avoided Lord Evans bugbear: new AI laws. The approach flew in the face of the recognition by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) architect Paul Nemitz, that not regulating these all pervasive and often decisive technologies by law would effectively amount to the end of democracy.

Lord Evans report was published in February 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic was rapidly picking up steam. It received minimal scrutiny despite having just given the green light to a new AI era that will weaken Britains democratic checks and balances.

Though Lord Evans report acknowledged that some of the UKs most developed AI programmes are being activated in the NHS, it overlooked their wide-ranging ramifications.

In fact, the NHS has quietly been at the forefront of the Governments most ambitious AI drive yet. This is because the privatisation and transformation of the NHS is seen by the Governments top officials as the linchpin of a national biological strategy to out-compete rival economies. Sound bizarre? It is.

Two years before the public standards watchdog released its report, Matt Hancock set out his vision of preventative, predictive and personalised care, premised on a comprehensive digital transformation of the NHS in which patient data would be funnelled into the creation of new healthtech apps and services. One of the services he promoted was a smartphone app to facilitate video consultations with GPs created by start-up Babylon Health, which now sells the service to the NHS. Former Vote Leave architect Dominic Cummings was also previously a paid consultant to Babylon until July 2018, and continued to advise the company until September that year.

On 4 September 2019, No. 10 hosted a ministerial roundtable with Health Secretary Matt Hancock on life sciences and technology, inviting key private sector leaders. Attendees at the meeting included Babylon, Lord Evans Darktrace, NHS England and other firms such as Googles Deepmind, and Faculty.

Like Babylon, Faculty is intimately connected to Cummings, having serviced the Vote Leave campaigns electoral modelling work. The firms CEO, Mark Warner, is the brother of one of Cummings top technology aides in No. 10, Ben Warner. All three have sat in on meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE), which is set up to provide the Government with independent scientific advice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of responding as rapidly as possible based on public health best-practice to the novel Coronavirus, the Government has sped ahead with its ambitions for digital privatisation of the NHS.However, there is an extraordinarily dark vision behind these ambitions, which has not been fully understood.

On 13 March, the day after the Government abandoned contact tracing and as a spate of Government science advisors publicly confirmed that it was adopting a policy of herd immunity Faculty announced that it had partnered with NHSX to build its new AI lab to help drive digital transformation and the use of AI in the NHS Faculty will be helping NHSX to use and deploy cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques.

This was just a month after Lord Evans issued his committees report that largely rubber-stamped the ubiquitous spread of AI across British society.

Last year, both Faculty and Darktrace senior executives were part of a wider cohort of British AI luminaries feeding into Applied AI 1.0, a nationwide growth programme for start-ups supported by the Governments Office for Artificial Intelligence.

Faculty is the same firm which helped to configure the parameters for an Oxford University model that would form the basis for the NHSX contact tracing app. Faculty and Oxford University have denied that Faculty is working directly on the development of the app and would access the apps data. But, Faculty is simultaneously working with US big data giant Palantir on a massivedata-mining exerciseto process large volumes of confidential UK patient information in a centralised Government database.

According to a damning analysis by Dr Michael Veale, a data protection expert at University College London, under UK law, the NHSX app currently being trialled in the Isle of Wight does not preserve anonymity, can enable users to be personally identified, and is designed to systematically monitor publicly accessible spaces despite the Governments denials. Users can neither erase nor access their own data in the system.

Which all begs the question: what is this new push for mass health surveillance actually for?

Lord Jonathan Evans and Dominic Cummings were contacted for this article, but are yet to reply.

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WHITEHALL ANALYTICA THE AI SUPERSTATE: Part 1 The Corporate Money Behind Health Surveillance - Byline Times

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Japanese Gambling Industry: an overview of the Industry – TimesOfCasino

Posted: at 7:51 am

The online casino market in Japan is flourishing, and what makes it attractive is its huge untapped potential. The gambling industry in Japan is still in its infancy stage, although it is among the worlds largest markets when it comes to the overall revenue earned by markets in the world. If one includes the Tokyo and Yokohama market, then the Japanese online casino industry can be easily considered as one of the top gambling markets in the world. This is despite the fact that online gambling is completely banned in Japan with government authorities allowing only a few games to be played as a legal option.

In the backdrop of the complete ban in Japan, the number of options available for players is not very large. That said, you can easily find options in the market that are reliable and can be easily opted for. Some of the reliable options that are available in the market include the likes of Royal Panda, Cherry Casino, Jay Casino, etc. Among these credible options, Japanese casinos at Zamsinohave emerged as the most reliable option for the players.

It is important to take care of certain things when you select online casinos for gaming purposes. The casino must have 24/7 customer support. It should offer you quick payments and withdrawal facility. You must get a large selection of the games from which you can choose to play from, and it will be beneficial for you if you get a registration bonus.

There is a wide choice available when it comes to making an online payment in Japanese casinos. One can opt for the bank transfers, use the debit and credit cards, and can also go for the mobile payments. In addition, some casinos provide you facility of making payment via cryptocurrencies and prepaid cards, among others.

The Japanese government has outrightly banned online gambling process in the country with the exception of lottery and sports betting. It must be noted that casino games and poker are completely banned in the country, although the sports betting and lottery games can be played without any issue of safety and security.

The Japanese government has banned online gambling in the country; however, you can bet on the lottery and sports betting. Choosing the right gambling platform will be a key for a safe and reliable gaming experience. Whenever you are going to select the casino, make sure it performs well on all the reliability and safety aspects while providing you extra benefits, customer service, and allied aspects. Betting illegally could prove to be harmful to your financial health and land you in legal trouble. Therefore, it is advisable that before you venture into online gambling, you must apprise yourself with all the rules and regulations promulgated by the government authorities for a safe gaming experience.

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Gambling 101: What is Covering the Spread? – Sports Illustrated

Posted: at 7:51 am

Simply put, covering the spread is the goal of every bettor who has placed a point spread bet. This SI Gambling 101 feature explains what it takes to cover the spread.

What is a Point Spread?

Designed to create action on both sides when one is deemed superior to the other, point spread betting was invented by mathematician Charles K. McNeil and introduced in the early 1940s. Against the spread (ATS) wagering is part of the standard big three betting options, which also includes moneylines and totals. Points spreads are a popular gambling choice in pro and college football as well as basketball. Here are some examples of ATS betting odds from the NCAA, NBA and NFL.

NCAA Football Point Spread

Clemson 5.5 (-110)LSU -5.5 (-110)

NBA Point Spread

Houston Rockets +6 (-110)Los Angeles Lakers -6 (-110)

NFL Point Spread

Green Bay Packers +3 (-110)Minnesota Vikings -3 (-110)

How Does a Bet Cover the Spread?

LSU (-5.5) was posted as the point spread favorite against Clemson (+5.5) during the 2020 NCAA football National Championship game. That means LSU needed to not only beat Clemson, but win by more than 5.5 points in order to cover the spread. After falling behind, 17-7 in the second quarter, Joe Burrow and LSU stormed back and crushed Clemson 42-25. Bettors who wagered on LSU easily covered the spread because the Tigers won by 17.

Favorites are always listed with a negative (-) point spread line while the underdog is posted with positive (+) odds. In the NBA example above, Los Angeles needed to win by more than six points to cover the spread versus Houston. If the Lakers won by exactly six points, the bet would be ruled a push and whatever money was wagered would be returned to the bettor.

Why Bet a Spread?

Many bettors like betting spreads because they either get a better return on their investment wagering on a favorite or because they like the underdog to keep the game close but not necessarily win. In the three examples above, bettors would earn a $100 return on a $110 wager on any of the teams to cover the spread. Betting on the Vikings to win outright as a three-point favorite would likely come at the cost of -150 odds as opposed to -110. That means youd have to bet $150 to win the same $100. In other terms, a $100 bet on the Vikings to cover the spread would net a return of $90.90, while that same bet on the Vikings just to win (moneyline) would net a return of $66.70.

MORE GAMBLING TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW

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An unusual bright spot in the gambling biz: People are itching for scratch-off tickets – The Hustle

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Photo by: Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Heres a nickels worth of good news for state-budget bean counters: Were buying piles and piles of scratch-off tickets, according to Stateline.

For the week ending May 2, lottery sales in Texas hit $146m one of the highest totals since January 2016. They were driven by an all-time increase in scratch-offs (up 24% from last year).

The gambling industry folded like a house of cards after the pandemic drove everyone into isolation, and its just now inching back to the blackjack table.

Wagering on sports is basically off the table, unless you fancy Korean baseball (running a solid 2nd in popularity to Russian ping-pong, says the sportsbook director at William Hill).

Big multi-state games like Mega Millions and Powerball have reduced the size of jackpots with fewer players buying tickets.

Theres little left to do but grab your lucky penny and your Magic 8 Ball Bingo and hope your lucky numbers match.

Lottery critics and medical experts agree: Scratching wont help, especially for people who are in rough financial shape. The critics say its no streak of dumb luck that the spike coincided with the arrival of peoples stimulus checks.

That said, the scratching frenzy does provide some relief for state budgets. In most cases, lottery revenues make up less than 2% of the pie but these days, every dollar counts.

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Gambling’s share of NRL revenue could well double. That brings power – Sydney Morning Herald

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Another reason for this coyness has been that the people who run sports tend to hold their nose with one hand while holding the other out, behind their backs, to collect their gambling receipts. There is not a lot of pride from cricket and football about their partnerships with betting companies. There are billboards aplenty, and the advertising is impossible to avoid, but the administrators public spin draws our attention to how they are working so hard to protect children from seeing all those ads, to limit the spread of exotic betting products and sinister data-gathering, and to counter the corruption that gambling brings into sport as surely as night follows day.

Bryce Cartwright's Gold Coast Titans are sponsored by bookmaker Neds, one of several tie-ins the NRL has with the gambling industry.Credit:AAP

But this prim hypocrisy is the behaviour of times of plenty. Big sports can make out like they dont have a gambling addiction when their dependency is diluted by other sources of income. When money is rolling in from TV stations, corporate sponsors and fans buying tickets and merchandise, the sports are in a strong enough position to moderate the ambitions and the intrusiveness of their gambling partners.

So what happens when all that other income dries up, while the betting companies are still standing tall?

Take the NRL as an example. Last year its wagering and sponsorship revenue accounted for $84 million, not a large chunk of the $556 million the NRL earned, but still the second-biggest item behind broadcast rights. Now lets look into the future. Last years $55 million in game-day receipts can be just about written off this year. The $348 million in cash and contra provided by broadcasters could drop, according to reports, by more than $100 million depending on the outcome of negotiations between the league, Nine and Fox Sports.

Digital revenue ($24 million) and merchandise royalties ($12 million) are wet finger in the wind stuff; the question is not whether they will be down, only how far. When the games total revenue falls below $400 million, that gambling money begins to look more and more juicy, and the gambling companies become louder and more influential voices. (Leagues $84 million, by the way, does not include direct sponsorships of clubs and facilities by betting companies. Sportsbet has been showering NRL clubs with payments, as the ABCs 7.30 program recently revealed, and we are so used to stadiums carrying the bastard names of betting products most of us have stopped noticing.)

Racing is a vehicle for punting. The betting industry sees all sports in those terms.

Gambling revenue contributed approximately one-eighth of the dollars going into the overall rugby league industry last year. This year and next, its relative contribution might approach one-quarter. That brings power.

Illustration: Simon LetchCredit:

So in walks Peter Vlandys, who has already moved the games centre of gravity from management to board, from everywhere, in short, to himself. His effectiveness is beyond question. He can, and will, deserve credit for wrestling league back onto the field ahead of everyone else. He might end up wearing yellow and doing the refereeing while hes at it. As the chief executive of Racing NSW, he is also, axiomatically, a friend to the gambling industry. Racing is a vehicle for punting. The betting industry sees all sports in those terms.

How do we think Chairman Pete will respond to the coming outcry about the surge in gambling promotion in rugby league? What about the collection of analytics and other private information about NRL digital subscribers? Is every community development officer, every grassroots grant, every referee, every womens club, every hearts-and-minds project, every one of those threatened ventures outside of rugby leagues core business going to be held hostage to the greater good of maximising revenue? And if governments try to step in to control the excesses of gambling in rugby league, and they are up against Peter Vlandys and Sportsbet, who do you think is going to win that argument? Wanna bet? (Hint: we already know, so the markets are closed.)

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Australians piss away sorry, enjoy the thrill of losing - $24 billion a year on gambling. Online punting only accounts for 5 per cent of this, though its proportion has shot up during the pandemic, even in sports betting, where companies have offered odds on esports and horse racing, which have been able to carry on through the lockdown. When league and other sports get going again, prepare for a celebratory orgy of betting and betting advertising.

Im not a gambler myself, but if I had to take a punt on which way sports will turn when they come under pressure from their wagering partners, the most prosperous of all their corporate mates, I know who Id have my money on.

Malcolm Knox is a journalist, author and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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BGC launches 10m gambling education initiative – iGaming Business

Posted: at 7:51 am

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) is to roll out a 10m (11.3m/$12.2m) independent education programme that aims to teach young people across the UK about the risks of gambling.

Through the initiative, the BGC aims to ensure all 11-19 year-olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive at least one session of gambling awareness education as part of their secondary or further education.

The programme, part of the BGCs safer gambling commitments, will be delivered by GamCare and the Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM), and aims to provide reach 120,000 young people directly.

A further 100,000 education professionals, such as teachers, youth workers, community mental health practitioners, police and community sports trust will also be trained through the programme. By doing so, the BGC aims to ensure responsible adults have access to information about the risks of gambling, and the ability to identify gambling related harm in minors under their care.

Information will also be provided to parents and families, to ensure young people are kept safe, and can be referred for help or support.

GamCare have been working with young people and youth facing professionals to deliver gambling education for many years, GamCare chief executive Anna Hemmings explained. What we see in the classroom tends to be polarised views on gambling, and a lack of clear understanding about its potential risks.

We are delighted to be working with YGAM and extending this much needed programme. We believe that gambling education should have parity with education around other risky behaviours and the extension of this programme will help us take a significant step towards achieving that aim.

YGAM founder and CEO Lee Willows added that the charity was delighted to be working alongside GamCare and the BGC to deliver such an ambitious programme.Raising awareness and harm prevention education is an important component to reduce gambling-related harms, he explained. By training professionals who have influence over young peoples learning, we will equip these professionals with the skills, knowledge and confidence to not only deliver the programme but also highlight the age-appropriate support available from GamCare.

The educational elements will be supported by a range of materials developed in accordance with educational best practice, with video and digital content to be developed to ensure it can be delivered during the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown.

Those flagged as having been impacted by gambling related harm through the teaching will also be able to directly access help and support from GamCare.

It is being funded by the BGC, which is providing money to the Charities Aid Foundation to be distributed based on YGAM and GamCares advice. The programme will also be assessed by an independent evaluator, to ensure it is fit for purpose.

As the new standards body representing most of the regulated industry, the BGC is delighted to be supporting this fantastic initiative, BGC chief executive Michael Dugher said. Educating our young people is vital if we are to ensure that they are better informed and fully aware of the potential risks.

Its also essential that those who are teaching them are fully trained and able to look out for the tell-tale signs of any gambling-related harm and how to access help if required. Millions of people occasionally enjoy gambling, whether thats on the National Lottery or on sports or bingo or gaming. The overwhelming majority of people who gamble in the UK do so in a safe way.

This important project and investment is part of our ongoing determination at the BGC to promote safer gambling and to further drive up standards.

The launch of the educational initiative is the latest in a series of social responsibility measures spearheaded by the BGC in recent weeks. Having initially set out ten commitments for members to protect players under lockdown, it then coordinated an industry-wide ban on audiovisual advertising from 7 May.

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How to Help People to Be Responsible Gamblers? – London Post

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There is immense importance in training our societies the importance of responsible gambling. This is actually the main reason why we have all these gambling regulatory authorities. We, at London Post, think that it is only but to safeguard the vulnerable groups from exposure to harmful gambling practices.

It normally results in severe gambling addiction and poor decision making among many more negative setbacks. Gambling is a good vice that we have seen contribute greatly to economies of many countries through the taxes. As if not enough, the industry has employed a lot of people around the world.

This essentially means if the industry is not well managed, then poor gambling behaviours could possibly kill the entire industry leaving all these people unemployed.

Gambling is simply betting or in other words, could be described as a way of playing games and attaching some monetary value to the outcome. So it is very important for our people to understand how gambling works now that activities having monetary attachments tend to be trickier.

People react differently when it comes to money issues and it is good to understand the general effect of the winning and losing teams. Apart from this, we have high rates of addiction caused by gambling-related activities and behaviour. These are among the post gambling effects that most punters encounter in their day to day activities.

To some extent other players go bankrupt within a short whirl and end up having huge amounts of loans to be paid. The worst-case scenario is when gambling impairs decision making process and sound judgements especially those pertaining to cash and planning. All these in a nut-shell should be well explained to the societies so as the vice remains useful instead of causing harm.

You can also help people to be responsible gamblers by keenly explaining to them the principle of bankroll management. In a few words, this is the notion of keeping the money used for gambling-related activities totally separate from the cash you use in the remaining activities.

This in a way is suggesting that having a separate gambling account is worth it rather than keeping all your cash in one account. This shall help you to effectively manage the cash as you may not easily mix the cash meant for important activities with cash for gambling.

Getting to know what betting sites are not on Gamestop and the negative effects gambling could have to a person or the society at large is important as a simple means of helping people become responsible gamblers. Safe gambling should be practised at all times and it is the main reason why we have authoritative bodies in every country practising any form of gambling.

These bodies have been well-structured to ensure that we have a safe gambling environment and that the vulnerable groups are safe at the same time. Gambling harm could vary depending on its nature, some harm directly affects the player whirl some affect the society at large. Some of the problem gamblers have it hard to make sound decisions in money matters, others are running on credit for survival simply because they exhausted their account balances.

To society, children who are not allowed to gamble should be protected from any form of gambling so as to control the behaviour at an early stage. If exposed to this menace, they may not be able to effectively manage their activities and most importantly time.

If we take that courage of saving our future society and work closely with the authorities to reduce the effect of gambling on our societies, then gambling and betting would turn out to be one of the most productive activities. As far as money value has been attached to this form of activity, it is important to attach the value of care to gambling so as to raise a healthy gambling environment.

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How to Help People to Be Responsible Gamblers? - London Post

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COVID 19 PANDEMIC: Online Gambling Market Expert Guide to Boost the Industry in Market Share – Cole of Duty

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Global Online Gambling Market research report provides detail information about Market Introduction, Market Summary, Global market Revenue (Revenue USD), Market Drivers, Market Restraints, Market Opportunities, Competitive Analysis, Regional and Country Level.

Online Gambling Market Size Covers Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, CAGR, Trends, Forecast And Business Opportunity.

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Global Online Gambling Market is valued at USD 47.57 Billion in 2018 and expected to reach USD 94.37 Billion by 2025 with the CAGR of 10.28% over the forecast period.

Increased use of internet gambling by young people due to the fact that it has no payment restrictions and rapidly growing smartphone penetration with high participation in gambling activities are the major factors driving the growth of Global Online Gambling Market.

Gambling refers to the risking money or anything of material value for uncertain results. Online gambling is commonly known as internet gambling which is typically having a bet on casino or other sports type games over the Internet. The gambling varies from sports bets to casino style games include different games like roulette, poker, slots, lotteries, bingo and keno. The first online gambling Web sites were launched in the 1990 in the United States. In addition, online gambling differs from in-person casino gambling in many different ways, where there is no any interaction between the players and the dealer. Todays online gambling websites provide exciting and modern interfaces that may be especially attractive to younger players and to those who enjoy video games. These websites use celebrities for promotion and sometimes they take part in the tournaments to add the glamour and excitement together.

Global Online Gambling Market is segmented on the basis of by type, platform and region & country level. Based on type, online gambling market is segmented into online betting, online casino and online lottery. Based upon platform, the market is classified into desktop and mobile.

The regions covered in this online gambling market report are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. On the basis of country level, market of Online Gambling market is sub divided into U.S., Mexico, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, India, South East Asia, GCC, Africa, etc.

Key Players for Online Gambling Market Report

Key players of the online gambling market are MGM Resorts International, Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., GVC Holdings Plc, INTRALOT SA., William Hill Plc among, 888 Holdings Plc, bet365 Group, Betsson Ab, Camelot UK Lotteries Ltd., Flutter Entertainment Plc and others.

Global Online Gambling Market Dynamics

Increased use of internet gambling by young people due to the fact that it has no payment restrictions and rapidly growing smartphone penetration with high participation in gambling activities are the major factors contributed to the increasing demand of online gambling. For example; Smartphone gambling have been fastest growing segment than traditional forms of gambling for last few years. It is estimated that around 8.92 million people in the UK gamble and more than half of the young individuals playing games through mobile or tablet. According to the World gambling statistics reported that about 25% of the population gamble meaning that nearly 1.4 billion people worldwide gamble and 4.1 billion gamble at least once every year. When it comes to online gambling, the UK reports concluded that approximately 17% of the population gambles online. In addition, growing importance of internet along with the rise of social networking channels is another key factor propelling the growth of this market. Most online gambling operators are located in the Netherlands Antilles, Gibraltar and United Kingdom (UK) among others. However, some countries mandate the laws towards the online casino gaming structure, so it may difficult for online gambling industry to access certain gaming facilities. This may hinder the online gambling market growth up to some extent.

Europe is Expected to Dominate the Global Online Gambling Market Throughout the Forecast Period.

Europe is expected to dominate the global online gambling market due to the rapid growth in innovation coupled with increasing number of casino platforms and shifting of governments supportive landscape for the promotion of online gaming activities in this region. For example; European gaming & betting association (EGBA) member companies provide their services across 20 EU Member States processing over 121 different online gambling licenses in order to access online gambling. In addition, in 2015 globally EU market made around 47.6% of the USD 37.50 billion of online gaming gross win generated. North America is expected to be the fastest growing region in online gambling market. The U.S. is leading its way in gambling with the large casino industry. Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware are among the first states to legalize online gaming. Now, Delaware and New Jersey have permitted online casinos and poker sites with increased in casino gaming revenue.

Key Benefits for Global Online Gambling Market Report

Global market report covers in depth historical and forecast analysis.

Global market research report provides detail information about Market Introduction, Market Summary, Global market Revenue (Revenue USD), Market Drivers, Market Restraints, Market opportunities, Competitive Analysis, Regional and Country Level.

Global market report helps to identify opportunities in market place.

Global market report covers extensive analysis of emerging trends and competitive landscape.

By Type:

By Platform:

By Regional & Country Analysis:

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Table of Content:

Market Overview: The report begins with this section where product overview and highlights of product and application segments of the Global Online Gambling Market are provided. Highlights of the segmentation study include price, revenue, sales, sales growth rate, and market share by product.

Competition by Company: Here, the competition in the Worldwide Global Online Gambling Market is analyzed, By price, revenue, sales, and market share by company, market rate, competitive situations Landscape, and latest trends, merger, expansion, acquisition, and market shares of top companies.

Company Profiles and Sales Data: As the name suggests, this section gives the sales data of key players of the Global Online Gambling Market as well as some useful information on their business. It talks about the gross margin, price, revenue, products, and their specifications, type, applications, competitors, manufacturing base, and the main business of key players operating in the Global Online Gambling Market.

Market Status and Outlook by Region: In this section, the report discusses about gross margin, sales, revenue, production, market share, CAGR, and market size by region. Here, the Global Online Gambling Market is deeply analyzed on the basis of regions and countries such as North America, Europe, China, India, Japan, and the MEA.

Application or End User: This section of the research study shows how different end-user/application segments contribute to the Global Online Gambling Market.

Market Forecast: Here, the report offers a complete forecast of the Global Online Gambling Market by product, application, and region. It also offers global sales and revenue forecast for all years of the forecast period.

Research Findings and Conclusion: This is one of the last sections of the report where the findings of the analysts and the conclusion of the research study are provided.

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COVID 19 PANDEMIC: Online Gambling Market Expert Guide to Boost the Industry in Market Share - Cole of Duty

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Gambling Software Market Growth by Top Companies, Trends by Types and Application, Forecast to 2026 – Cole of Duty

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Everymatrix

Moreover, the Gambling Software report offers a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape in terms of regions and the major service providers are also highlighted along with attributes of the market overview, business strategies, financials, developments pertaining as well as the product portfolio of the Gambling Software market. Likewise, this report comprises significant data about market segmentation on the basis of type, application, and regional landscape. The Gambling Software market report also provides a brief analysis of the market opportunities and challenges faced by the leading service provides. This report is specially designed to know accurate market insights and market status.

By Regions:

* North America (The US, Canada, and Mexico)

* Europe (Germany, France, the UK, and Rest of the World)

* Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, and Rest of Asia Pacific)

* Latin America (Brazil and Rest of Latin America.)

* Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, , South Africa, and Rest of Middle East & Africa)

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Table of Content

1 Introduction of Gambling Software Market

1.1 Overview of the Market1.2 Scope of Report1.3 Assumptions

2 Executive Summary

3 Research Methodology

3.1 Data Mining3.2 Validation3.3 Primary Interviews3.4 List of Data Sources

4 Gambling Software Market Outlook

4.1 Overview4.2 Market Dynamics4.2.1 Drivers4.2.2 Restraints4.2.3 Opportunities4.3 Porters Five Force Model4.4 Value Chain Analysis

5 Gambling Software Market, By Deployment Model

5.1 Overview

6 Gambling Software Market, By Solution

6.1 Overview

7 Gambling Software Market, By Vertical

7.1 Overview

8 Gambling Software Market, By Geography

8.1 Overview8.2 North America8.2.1 U.S.8.2.2 Canada8.2.3 Mexico8.3 Europe8.3.1 Germany8.3.2 U.K.8.3.3 France8.3.4 Rest of Europe8.4 Asia Pacific8.4.1 China8.4.2 Japan8.4.3 India8.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific8.5 Rest of the World8.5.1 Latin America8.5.2 Middle East

9 Gambling Software Market Competitive Landscape

9.1 Overview9.2 Company Market Ranking9.3 Key Development Strategies

10 Company Profiles

10.1.1 Overview10.1.2 Financial Performance10.1.3 Product Outlook10.1.4 Key Developments

11 Appendix

11.1 Related Research

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Gambling Software Market Growth by Top Companies, Trends by Types and Application, Forecast to 2026 - Cole of Duty

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Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011) – IMDb

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It was great to be alive, once, but the world was perishing. Factories were shutting down, transportation was grinding to a halt, granaries were empty--and key people who had once kept it running were disappearing all over the country. As the lights winked out and the cities went cold, nothing was left to anyone but misery. No one knew how to stop it, no one understood why it was happening - except one woman, the operating executive of a once mighty transcontinental railroad, who suspects the answer may rest with a remarkable invention and the man who created it - a man who once said he would stop the motor of the world. Everything now depends on finding him and discovering the answer to the question on the lips of everyone as they whisper it in fear: Who *is* John Galt? Written byRobb

Taglines:Who is John Galt?

Budget:$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA: $1,677,000,17 April 2011

Gross USA: $4,627,375

Cumulative Worldwide Gross: $4,627,375

Runtime: 97 min

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

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Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011) - IMDb

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