In an effort to prevent player harm, the U.K. Gambling Commission has established new rules that will demand all licensed online operators identify and directly intervene with at-risk players. How will the operators know? By keeping tabs on a specific range of indicators, the Commission said, according to SBC News.
The rules take effect on September 12, but licensed operators will be given guidance in June to ensure they fully understand the changes and that they comply ahead of their implementation, according to iGaming Business. The new guidance will outline the actions to track on customer care duties, player monitoring and business accountability.
These indicators will include customer spend, patterns of spending, time spent gambling, customer-led contact, use of gambling management tools, account indicators and already-established gambling behavior indicators. Licensees must also flag indicators of harm and act in a timely manner,
An overhaul of customer care responsibilities is needed to address “continued failings” in which operators were capable of selecting at-risk customers but were often too slow to intervene. The new rules monitor specific indicators; implement automated procedures; prevent marketing and promotion to at risk customers; and evaluate interactions with problem gamblers.
Other new rules that will come into effect later this year include preventing marketing and the take-up of new bonuses for at-risk customers, as well as evaluating their interactions and ensure they interact with consumers at least at the level of problem gambling for their relevant activity.
The commission also said operators must provide evidence of their customer interaction evaluation to the regulator during routine casework, as well as ensure their compliance, and that of any relate third parties, with the new rules at all times.
Technical provisions will insist operators “implement automated processes” to track indicators of player harm, and to ensure that marketing to these customers be prevented. Operators must also be able to show the results of customer interaction evaluations to the Commission if requested.
“Time and time again our enforcement cases show that some operators are still not doing enough to prevent gambling harm. These new rules, developed following an extensive consultation, make our expectations even more explicit,” said Commission Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes. “We expect operators to identify and tackle gambling harms with fast, proportionate and effective action and we will not hesitate to take tough action on operators who fail to do so.”
Confirmation of the new roles follows a consultation that was launched to address failings the Commission continued to see among online gambling operators. The regulator said operators were capable of identifying customers who may be harmed by gambling but were not always doing so or acting quickly enough.
The consultation and subsequent call for evidence attracted approximately 13,000 responses, all of which the commission said were carefully considered before the new rules were drafted.
The commission will continue to follow the new program as it moves into the next area of identification through customer affordability and subsequent financial harm.
The commission said it would continue to make online gambling fairer and safer, with the next stage of the program to include consulting further on identifying customers who are financially vulnerable and tackling significant unaffordable gambling, including unaffordable binge gambling and significant unaffordable losses over time.
The rules are part of an overhaul of the Gambling Act last reviewed in 2005. In late 2020, the U.K. government concluded that the rising tide of children exposed to unhealthy advertising warranted a look at overhauling the 2005 Gambling Act. This was further warranted amid a growing number of problem gamblers.
Sources within the government suggest that a white paper on the topic could be published as early as May, according to Vents Magazine.
The review comes courtesy of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS). The DCMS has gathered feedback from a variety of sources during the past year.
The Gambling Act 2005 and the U.K. Gambling Commission will face scrutiny and any regulations and restrictions related to the industry will also come under scrutiny.
As for what the white paper will recommend, look for stricter rules when it comes to advertising and promoting the industry, as evidenced by GamStop and GamCare, two charities that deal with problem gambling. Despite whistle-to-whistle bans for ads, the ads are more prevalent and come across as a concern for problem gamblers and children.
Look for restrictions on free bet promotions, rather than an outright ban. Online gambling operators favor this type of promotion to secure new customers.
Ireland is in the midst of its own review and the government has proposed a total ban on free bets that encourage gambling through free bonus offers. Across the pond in Ontario Canada, the regulatory body allows bonuses but may not advertise them anywhere except for the company website.
At the moment, operators enjoy a large presence through sponsorship deals with teams and players. An end to such arrangements could be one of the outcomes of the review.
This move to restrict the gambling industry’s involvement in sports marketing is no doubt a move designed to help reduce children and problem gamblers’ exposure to betting advertising. If so, this could be a blow to football clubs in the Premier League and the Championship.
Whatever happens, one thing we can be sure of is that the gambling industry will survive.
Meanwhile, the Commission’s Deputy CEO Sarah Gardner spoke at the ICE 2022 earlier this month in London detailing concerns and potential gambling related harm from new products.
Gardner says such products skirt the definition of gambling with language that tends to confuse whether a bet is being made. Thus, making it difficult to monitor harm from wins and losses.
“The patterns we see in some of these novel products do not look like that,” she said. ”We see consumers ‘investing’ life changing money on a product which they would not if they understood it to be gambling. Although the product might look different, the potential to cause harm is still present. Collectively, we need to be watchful, we need to act where we can. We need to talk to each other and share the lessons we learn.”
Leveraging of data has been repeatedly reiterated as a key objective of the U.K. GC and DCMS. Gambling Minister Chris Philp and U.K. GC CEO Andrew Rhodes have both promoted the development of a Single Customer Viewpoint (SCV) as headline directive safeguarding a new generation of consumers.
“In essence, we are improving the way we collect our most important dataset, to create a single, gold standard survey that covers the whole of Great Britain,” Gardner said.
“Data is also integral to our work on the Single Customer View, the goal of which is for industry to use their data in a more joined up manner to protect consumers from harm.”
In conclusion, Gardner said the commission will continue to slap penalties on companies which violate licensing conditions.
“We have been clear to the operators we regulate that a growing business is not an excuse for growing misconduct, and we will not turn a blind eye to bad practice.”
