National Casino Forum – All You Need to Know About This Organisation

Casino entertainment is an intrinsic part of the mainstream leisure industry, widely viewed as an adult leisure pursuit. The National Casino Forum (NCF) has been formed with the aim of promoting a positive agenda for a well-regulated, socially responsible and economically sustainable gambling industry. The NCF represents all UK land-based operators and offers membership to various suppliers, lawyers, accountants and others who work with the casino industry. Throughout this article, we will review all important aspects of this Forum, and you will hopefully get a better idea of what it is about.

What Is the National Casino Forum?

The origins of the National Casino Forum date back to 1966 with the establishment of the British Gaming Association – the first formalized membership body in the gambling industry. In its core, the National Casino Forum is a non-profit trade association. It was established with the purpose to provide a safe environment for gamblers, by offering first-class hospitality and helping them gamble responsibly. After all, customers always come first! By representing the UK casinos, NCF works very closely with regulators, government, charities and other industry stakeholders. You might be wondering why such an organization needs to exist? Well, the answer is simple. Casinos are such an integral part of modern entertainment sector, that they have over 14 million visits annually.

One of the aims of NCF, is to make the United Kingdom an attractive destination for gambling. This can be achieved through modernisation and innovation of the industry, harmonised regulation and a fair tax regime. Social responsibility and operator diversity are strongly encouraged by the National Casino Forum, which is also a board member of the European Casino Association. This organization fully embraces the 2005 Gambling Act and goes beyond the established responsibilities to protect and nurture the young and vulnerable. Therefore, NCF makes sure that gambling in all its casinos is closely supervised. This is one of the reasons, casinos have more licensed staff than any other sector in the gambling industry. It really is important to look for safe operators when gambling online and if you are looking for the best online casino, then check out our ranking.

The National Casino Forum has even launched a pioneering industry-wide programme called Playing Safe, which promotes responsible gambling in every casino. All land-based casinos are evaluated by ACE, which is an independent panel of respected academics and industry experts, which conform to these principles. In 2015 NCF even launched a voluntary self-exclusion programme – SENSE for customers who believe they might be in some sort of risk. Safety should, by all means, be your number one concern when gambling online and if you are looking to play safe games but are unsure of what to look for, then check out which the best casino games in the UK are to get a better understanding of the area.

What Is It They Do?

The National Casino Forum has a mission of supporting the interest of all UK land-based operators. They run forums to develop and innovate the casino industry and are actively involved in all aspects of the legislation and regulations of the casino gaming sector. One of the most common things they do is work closely with Government departments, the UKGC, Local Authorities, researches and other specialists within the gambling field. Furthermore, the NCF can proudly call themselves a fully GDPR compliant organisation. Down below, you can see a systematization of the 4 main activities that the National Casino Forum Does.

Political Engagement: NCF represents the casino industry’s interests at the highest political level, through being an active advocate of innovation and modernization. Their main desires are harmonised regulation, a fair tax regime for operators and any other regulation, which will cause current and future growth in the sector. The National Casino Forum works with Government departments, the UK Gambling Commission and Local Authorities.

Social Responsibility: All the casino operators under the hat of NCF have signed up to the principles of Playing Safe and have made a commitment to safeguard customers and make casinos a safe place to gamble. All casino employees are regularly trained and accredited in social responsibility practices. The risk of gambling is an important topic and we ensure it is well understood, measured and communicated to all customers.

Best Practice: Another one of their duties is to communicate examples of best practice within the industry by sharing information in the gambling sector. The National Casino Forum ensured that successful initiatives are developed and promoted to all staff, regardless of where they work. Furthermore, operators can learn from each other and adapt a joined approach to issues, which somehow affect the industry.

Profile Raising: The Casino Forum also has a duty to engage with journalists on behalf of members, in order to dispel any untrue myths and outdated views regarding the gambling sector. Instead, they provide information about the current state of the modern casino industry and also promote events, which highlight the talent and career opportunities of the sector. They also play a role in international organisations, such as Institute of Licensing and the European Association for the Study of Gambling.

What Objectives Does This Forum Have for the UK Casino Industry?

Their number one objective is, of course, promoting the benefits of social responsibility within the industry. The National Casino Forum recognises the social responsibility in the gambling industry is of fundamental importance the sector’s reputation and its contribution to tourism, entertainment, employment and investment growth. Through Playing Safe, the casino industry is committed to developing responsible gambling protocols and addressing issues of social responsibility.

All members of the NCF voluntarily contribute 0.1% of their Gross Gambling Yield to GambleAware – an organization, which fights gambling addiction and also funds treatment for those, already affected. Some of their other objectives, related to social responsibility within the industry include:

• Modernisation and innovation of the sector and harmonising gambling regulations
• Producing equitable and efficient fiscal policies
• Creating constructive and positive interaction with stakeholders
• Providing greater diversity at boardroom level
• Working alongside Government departments to identify the social and economic impact of gambling
• Supporting research that contributes positively to responsible gambling policies
• Engage with treatment providers to ensure safety messages about gambling reach their customers

Except for social duties, the National Casino Forum is also evolving in response to consumer demand, which is why they are constantly looking for new methods to deliver already existing games in the electronic marketplace, both online and in land-based casinos. One of those innovations in the gambling sector are mobile games. If you are looking for the top mobile apps in the UK to play games at, then check out our rankings. Another task on their agenda is making sure regular land-based casinos, which are heavily regulated have the same access to technology as other, less-regulated parts of the sector. What NCF members are seeking is making it legal to offer online access both inside a casino and outside a casino. Furthermore, they want to allow casino operators to offer virtual cards and freer access to electronic gaming equipment without compromising standards.

What are the 7 Playing Safe Principles?

When talking about social responsibility and fighting problem gambling, there are 7 main principles that the NCF aims to follow in order to ensure it’s a real advocate for playing safe. The first one is to create a responsible gambling culture and governance. What this means is that all directors and managers need to be advocates for responsible gambling and need to work hard to embed a culture of safe gambling in their organisations.

The second principle claims that children and young people need to be protected at all costs. With this, the NCF promises to protect children and young people by ensuring that gaming and non-gaming staff all take seriously their duty to prevent entry of such underaged people to the casino. The third principle states, “Protect the vulnerable” and it is regarded to helping those, who already have problems with addiction to exclude themselves from casinos through the help of the self-exclusion scheme SENSE.

As a forth principles, NCF has the following – Provide advice and information for customers. With this, they claim that all information they provide to customers will be clear, truthful, fair and socially responsible and will not hide any risks whatsoever connected to gambling. The next principle is Customer Interactions, or in other words, interacting with all customers whose behaviors has even the slightest indication that they may have a problem with their gambling practices.

Principle number 6 is called “Marketing and Advertising”. This principle claims that NCF will be compliant with all laws and regulations in regard to advertising all gambling-related businesses and will never target vulnerable groups. The last principle is training and development, which states that all staff must understand the corporate culture of the NCF and all personal responsibilities in relation to safe gambling.

What is the role of the National Casino Forum in Responsible Gambling Week 2018?

The NCF actively supports Responsible Gambling week, a major cross-industry initiative, which took place November 1-7, 2018. In this event, all five sectors of the gambling industry have come together to have a serious conversation about responsible gambling. The organizer of this event is the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling (IGRG), of which NCF is a leading member. This year’s theme was Let’s Talk About Responsible Gambling. The main idea was to promote a dialogue between operators, their customers and the wider public about what it means to gamble responsibly.

In many casinos, business cards were prominently displayed with information about the self-exclusion scheme, SENSE. The role of the National Casino Forum in Responsible Gambling Week 2018 is to co-ordinate activities for the 2018 event, encouraging staff at all venues to participate. This event was heavily promoted on all social media channels as well. Literature was handed out at casinos, which gave info on setting limits and spending only as much as they can afford and to never gamble when angry or frustrated. If you are passionate about gambling and would like to try out online casino, we would highly recommend playing live games. If you have trouble finding such, then check out the greatest live casinos in the UK. Good luck!