Telling stories is how you shape the narrative

aka stop using lawyers to do your lobbying

This week on The Gambling Files Podcast we speak with Alan Hardacre, PhD of Advocacy Strategy a Public Affairs Consultancy

You’ll tell from listening that I totally nerd out on this and bombard the Doctor with a lot of questions as we get into the weeds of lobbying politicians

Key Takeaways:

Most gambling firms lobbying efforts is led by lawyers or compliance experts not public affairs specialists, this is a huge gap and in my view explains a lot of the very mechanical practically tone deaf lobbying efforts I see in many countries

We spend a lot of time talking about the “but the black market will take all the customers” response to any legislation changes, Dr Hardacre walks through the limitations of this approach due to large quantification issues and instead outlines how humanising the narrative would be way more effective.

We touch on the lessons that can be learned from Tobacco and Alcohol industries with the recommendation of the excellent “Big Vape, Rise and Fall of Juul” which I am currently bingeing on Netflix

Finally I was broken hearted to learn that lobbying does not involve big steak lunches but research, data and position papers.

A big thank you to the Doctor Hardacre for an excellent chat

Full episode links here: https://www.thegamblingfiles.com/alan-hardacre-talks-public-affairs-the-gambling-files-rtfm-153/