The UK regulator has debuted its first ever dedicated podcast, which it says will provide listeners with the an insider perspective from “the frontline of regulation”. Many, though, believe it’s another case of the Gambling Commission talking at stakeholders and still not listening to them. Let’s see.

Last week saw the Gambling Commission launch its first bespoke podcast, Inside the Commission, which it said would cover “the latest topics and trends from all across the gambling sector.” 

Hosted by the Commission’s communications director Haroon Jabar, the debut episode promised that listeners would be brought “the facts from the frontline of regulation…and the stats and stories from those in the know.” 

The question is: whose stats?

The regulator’s chief executive Andrew Rhodes featured as the special guest for the show’s launch, who used the platform to underline, what he said, had been the most significant achievement of his four-year tenure thus far: namely patching up relations with the gambling industry.

One read of the redacted internal documents released recently by the Commission should have led the interviewer to ask the chief executive if he would like to revisit that answer – the regulator’s attitude to the industry was certainly not patched up in those documents – GC figures were like JD Vance on steroids.

But hey, Rhodes was happy to talk up the relationship, and in fairness it’s not all bad. “If what you want is good compliance and good standards, then you have to have a productive relationship with the industry you regulate,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you’re going to be a pushover or that you’re going to agree with everything.”

Indeed, Rhodes went on to really reinforce how far he had gone to patch up the relationship with the industry by pointing out the fact that under his leadership, more enforcement action had been taken against certain straying operators “than at any time in the history of gambling regulation in this country,” but acknowledged that efforts by gambling businesses had seen the industry “move on a lot” in recent years. 

“I think we’re in a very different position in terms of our general engagement with the industry and I think with media as well,” he reflected. “You get a lot of criticism. I think we’re a more open organisation now. I think we communicate more. We engage more. Not everybody likes it, it’s not always enjoyable. But I think there’s an obligation if you’re in a role like this  to do as much of that as you reasonably can.”

Hmmm. There is no doubt that the GC chief has been hyper-active on engagement, but then there are a number of definitions of the word. One, being a kind of cosying up and involving people; another, is the act of beginning to fight someone, or a period of time in a war.

Take your pick.