The DCMS has this week put some meat on the bone of its much fan-fared Illegal Gambling Taskforce.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the government confirmed that the taskforce, established as a 12-month initiative, will be chaired by the minister responsible for gambling and co-chaired by DCMS’s director of sport and gambling. 

It would meet twice a year and the membership will comprise “a mix of experts and industry participants from the gambling industry, tech platforms and payment providers, the Gambling Commission and other regulators, government departments, and trade bodies”. 

Whilst there will obviously be much secrecy around the taskforce, it will place particular emphasis on online operators and the payment and advertising channels that facilitate their operations.

In what may prove to be the mother of all fuck ups, the DCMS emphasised that the taskforce is not designed to intervene in the operational activities of the Gambling Commission.

That, and a £26m budget to the regulator, may be a decision the department might live to regret, particularly given the fact that only one year ago the Commission refused to recognise the size of the black market, and worse still, has done nothing in two decades, despite constant requests from the industry, to combat the low hanging fruit of the black market – the daily sale of illegal gaming machines on eBay and other media sites.

When it comes to fit for purpose, the DCMS should review its choice of the Gambling Commission to marshall the war on illegal gambling.