Kirsty Caldwell named Interim Chair of the UK Gambling Commission's Industry Forum

The UK Gambling Commission has announced the appointment of Kirsty Caldwell as the Interim Chair of its Industry Forum. Launched in September 2023, the Industry Forum was established to offer the commission more insight into the views of operators.

Having been a member of the Forum since March 2024, Caldwell will serve as Interim-Chair whilst recruitment begins to appoint a "substantive" Chair to succeed Nick Rust, whose term as Chair ended in November 2025.

Caldwell, who holds an extensive background in compliance, runs Betsmart Consulting, an organisation she founded in 2019. Earlier in her career, she served as vice president of compliance at Addison Global, the company behind MoPlay. Before that, she worked for eight years at William Hill, where her roles included head of compliance for online.

Caldwell said: "I am delighted to be taking on this role. I remain fully committed to building a healthy, respected gambling sector, and cooperation and communication between the regulator and industry are key to achieving this. We may not get it right every time, but the important thing is we learn from our mistakes, we keep talking, and we keep moving forward."

The Industry Forum is made up of members from Britain’s gambling sector and acts as a companion to several stakeholder engagement initiatives and advisory groups led by the Gambling Commission. These include the UKGC's Lived Experience Advisory Panel and Advisory Board for Safer Gambling.

Participants of the Industry Forum are tasked with providing the Commission with insight into the views of industry about the regulator's plans, its service to the industry and consumers, and providing insight into the wider environment in which they operate.