Finlay has stood down from his position as CEO of UK self-regulatory body the Senet Group.

Having initially been recruited as interim CEO to set up governance for the organisation in August 2014, Finlay oversaw its official launch in January 2015, when it began its campaign to promote responsible gambling.

Six UK operators are members of the body, which include Ladbrokes, Coral, Paddy Power, William Hill, Scotbet and Sky Betting and Gaming.

Members, which join on a voluntary basis, are required to remove advertising of gaming machines from shop windows and must dedicate 20% of shop window advertising to responsible gambling messages, promoting the slogan “When the fun stops, stop”.

Another measure is that the advertising of sign-up offers, including free bets and free money, are banned from being shown before 9pm.

Finlay said: “We have taken the idea from a piece of paper to create an independent body that has delivered a national advertising campaign, engaged the industry and its key stakeholders in an important debate and recruited Sky Betting and Gaming as the first digital-only member.

“Now feels like the time for someone new to take it on the next step of the journey.”

No details have been given on any potential replacement for Finlay, who is the principal of consultancy Ron Finlay Communications and previously served as a member of the Independent Complaints Panel for alcohol responsibility body the Portman Group.