The Gambling Establishment and the Exercise of Power: a Commentary on Hancock and Smith

Hancock and Smith's (2017) paper on the policy influence of the Reno model of gambling problems is very welcome.It contributes significantly to a debate we should be having but which has for a number of years been suppressed under the influence of an apparent gambling policy consensus in which the academic world has been complicit.The use of Advocacy Coalition Theory and the Corporate Political Activity framework in their paper is very helpful.Hancock and Smith describe how the ideology of the Reno model has suited the interests of governments, regulators and the gambling industry, united in a cosy, collaborative relationship whose adherence to the shared model threatens effective responsible provision of gambling.This government/regulator/industry coalition is a powerful one.It is at the centre of what I refer to as the gambling establishment (GE).In the British context, its core consists of a close working alliance of the Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Gambling Commission, the industry-led charity GambleAware and the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board.One of the most useful ways of understanding how power operates is in terms of power's various faces which differ in the degree to which the exercise of power is hidden (Lukes 2005; Orford 2013).GE exerts its influence most strongly, not through the obvious or naked use of power (its first face) but in more subtle ways.The second face of power involves controlling the agenda; bringing influence to bear on what topics are discussed and which are not.Hancock and Smith give the Collins et al. (2016), BACTA-funded research as an example of how, assisted by the Reno model, the process of deciding what questions should be asked can function to support the status quo.That was just one example of how British gambling research is being subverted in support of the interests of the powerful GE.The programme of research on EGMs which preceded the Collins et al. study was trailed as research of vital