Ladbrokes Proves the Value of Social Responsibility

In prioritizing its community role, London-based Ladbrokes has appointed a social responsibility committee to spearhead the development of responsible gambling policy across all of the betting and gaming operator's diverse sectors.

Committee Components

The committee is set to convene a minimum of three times per year, regularly reporting to the Ladbrokes board with updates on its responsible gambling policy development, while measuring company performance versus self-defined benchmarked goals of social responsibility.

The head of the committee will be Ladbrokes senior independent director John Kelly. Non-executive director Christine Hodgson will join the committee, as will Ladbrokes group chairman Peter Erskine along with the company's chief executive Richard Glynn.

Outside Consultation

Further consultation will be gathered from company experts on a regular basis. Further close cooperation will be provided by the Ladbrokes’ remuneration committee in defining and developing benchmarked goals as incentives such as tying executive salaries to realistic and responsible gaming revenue and usage goals.

Making Ideals Practical

Erskine identified this process as a means by which the traditional ideological commitment of Ladbrokes to integrating responsible gambling and social responsibility into its organizational practices can ensure long-term ethical practices, in a market that is disproportionately stigmatized:

“It is clear that trust in bookmakers has been impacted by negative publicity and lobbying in the last year, and while we may believe that much of the concern is ill founded, we accept that it is only by our actions will be able to win it back,” Erskine explained.

Building Trust

While components of Ladbrokes still remain controversial in terms of the values they promote, the task of increasing community trust will take shape with concrete measures in the near future, with such measures as the linking to executive pay to gambling to take effect in 2015, as well as consulting membership data gathered from its Odds On loyalty card to learn more about the triggers and vulnerabilities for at-risk behavior.

Stock Optimism

Though there is work to be done, the measure was met with success and optimism by investors, as London trade shares in Ladbrokes (LSE:LAD) were up 0.99 per cent to 142.40 pence.