Britain's biggest bookmakers in self-regulation plan

By Sarah Young

LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Britain's four biggest bookmakers have committed to advertise more responsibly as part of a voluntary move to self-police, hoping to fend off further regulation.

William Hill (Other OTC: WIMHF - news) , Ladbrokes (LSE: LAD.L - news) , Gala Coral and Paddy Power (LSE: PAP.L - news) said in an open letter published on Monday they would sign up to a set of rules and establish a watchdog, responding to what they said were growing concerns about gambling in Britain and in particular the way it is advertised on television.

Britain in April moved to tighten planning controls on the spread of betting shops and the high-stakes gambling machines that make up a growing part of their business.

The bookmakers said a new watchdog would be established to hold them to account on their pledge to fund a new advertising campaign on responsible gambling, and to ensure TV advertising carries more prominent responsible gambling messages from the start of next year.

Before that comes into effect, the bookies also said that from Oct. 1 they would remove advertising of the machines from betting shop windows, introduce an advertising ban on promotional offers before 9 p.m. and commit 20 percent of advertising in their shop windows to responsible gambling messages.

The companies invited other gambling companies in Britain to join them in signing up to the rules.

"We ... will continue to work constructively with the Government and the Regulator to improve standards of player protection," the letter signed by the chief executives of the four companies said.

The regulations announced earlier this year come on top of higher taxes on gambling machines announced in the budget in March, which the industry said together would cost it 350 million pounds ($569.4 million) a year and risked putting more than 2,000 betting shops out of business.

The latest letter could represent a change of tone by the industry compared with a previous communication from leading bookies in April, which said government tax measures were "difficult to comprehend" and argued there was no evidence to suggest gaming machines were causing an increase in problem gambling.

Anti-gambling campaigners have long warned of the addictive nature of these machines, often cited in betting shops in poor inner-city areas and which feature games such as roulette allowing as much as 300 pounds to be staked a minute. (1 US dollar = 0.6147 British pound) (Editing by David Holmes)