As leaders of major gambling businesses, we are committed to a package of safer gambling commitments to strengthen safer gambling measures and minimise gambling related harm The Chief Executives (CEOs) of the leading gambling companies in the UK have announced, with immediate effect, a package of Safer Gambling Commitments to address the harm. Safer gambling Anyone can become at risk of problem gambling and it’s clear that some people are especially vulnerable. For the vast majority of people, gambling is a safe and fun activity. However, people do experience problems and these can develop both over time and more quickly. Safer Gambling Ensuring the highest possible levels of player safety and protection is the best way of guaranteeing our long-term success. Our technology enables us to continuously upgrade and personalise our protections for customers. That is why we launched our Advanced Responsibility & Care (“ARC”) programme.
The Behavioural Insights Team has today launched its new report on how to improve the industry-standard safer gambling tools that are designed to help people control how much they spend. We found that people who gamble reduce their spending limits by almost half once industry-set options are removed from view. This report follows our initial research into whether behavioural insights can reduce risky play in online environments.
Background
Great Britain is home to the biggest regulated gambling market in the world. Indeed, if you were to encounter a British adult at random, the chances are almost 50:50 that they would have gambled, including on the National Lottery, in the last four weeks.
Of those who gamble, a small but significant proportion are considered ‘at risk’ of developing severe gambling issues. For others, the consequences of their gambling are so serious and frequent that they meet a clinical threshold of ‘problem gambling’. This is not only detrimental to the individual’s financial and mental wellbeing; the harmful effects are passed on to close friends and family members.
Our safer gambling work
In 2017, the Behavioural Insights Team was commissioned by GambleAware to explore whether behavioural science could help to reduce risky gambling. The first phase of our research showed that applying behavioural insights, even as small changes, can have a substantial impact on the uptake of safer gambling tools. Our latest work goes a step further and asks how these tools can be made more effective.
Anchoring and deposit limit tools
Deposit limits are one type of safer gambling tool, and are a common feature on British gambling platforms. They are used to cap the amount of money that someone is able to deposit each day, week or month. Customers are typically required to scroll through a dropdown menu of pre-defined options, such as £10,000, £5,000, £1,000 and £5, to find the value they wish to select. The options usually begin with the largest deposit limit available, which in some cases can be as high as £100,000.
A key principle in behavioural science is that our choices tend to be influenced by a suggested reference point. This effect, known as ‘anchoring’, has been researched extensively in the context of charity donations, where the presence of a higher or lower anchor has been shown to influence the size of subsequent donations.
Given we know that this anchoring bias exists, the presence of pre-set options in deposit limit tools has clear behavioural design implications. We wanted to examine whether exposure to larger values might influence customers to set higherdeposit limits for themselves than they otherwise would.
Our trial
In the first field trial of its kind, we worked with major British gambling operator bet365 to test two variations against the business-as-usual approach. In one variation, deposit limits options were presented with lower values, the largest being £250. In the other, there were no values at all. Participants were instead asked to set a deposit limit using a free text box. bet365 customers were allocated randomly between these three groups: (1) control — business-as-usual with anchors as high as £100,000; (2) low anchors — up to £250; and (3) no anchors.
Key findings
Our first analysis measured the size of the initial deposit limit set by customers across each of the three trial arms. The results were profound. We found thatremovinghigh anchors from view led to an estimated reduction in the size of chosen deposit limits of around 45%.
We were also interested in whether setting lower deposit limits would have an effect on how much money was actually deposited. We estimated that on average, an individual in the control group deposited £445 over 30 days. We estimated that the same individual would deposit 4.4% less into their account (£426) over the same time period if exposed to lower anchors, and 18% less (£360) if given a free text box to set a deposit limit. However, these findings were not statistically significant, meaning that we cannot rule out that they were due to chance. Repeating the work with a larger group of customers would help us to answer this.
Our recommendations
Only last month, the UK government announced a major and wide-rangingreviewinto the 2005 Gambling Act, described as “an analogue law in a digital age”. Our work continues to show the profound impact that behavioural insights can have on modernising the regulatory landscape and creating better, easier to access, safer gambling tools for consumers.
We offer three key recommendations based on this trial’s primary findings:
- Customers should be presented with a free text box with no visible or suggested minimum/maximum values when setting deposit limits. We recommend that this be implemented across the industry as part of social responsibility code provisions under the Gambling Commission’s License Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP).
- Operators should apply known effective methods to increase uptake of deposit limits, continue to test what works, and share those insights. Our previous work demonstrated that making it easier for people to access deposit limit tools increases uptake. We therefore recommend that operators carry out testing into how best to prompt customers to set meaningful limits.
- More research funding must be directed towards causal evaluations that will yield insights to inform policy and be scaled across the industry. Much more work is needed to test the impacts of various features of online gambling using randomised controlled trials in live business environments. Only then will robust, independent evidence exist to inform policies, practices and procedures.
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While the Gambling industry continued to savor its market profits, “problem gambling” slowly strengthened its root in the underbelly of the gambling community. Owing to this persistent problem, Gamcare was first established in the UK in 1997 as a charity organization that provides advice and lends a helping hand to better the lives of problem gamblers. By now, it has become the leading provider of advice and info regarding the prevention of problem gambling. It successfully operates throughout England, Scotland, and Wales.
Safer Gambling Week
Gamcare provides a multitude of services to its customers, which range from online counseling sessions, support groups, to face-to-face help. Gamcare also includes an incredibly well-trained portfolio which includes health professionals, betting industry professionals, counselors, educators, and policymakers.
While almost all the top UK bookmakers carry the Gamcare logo, many reliable betting sites not on Gamcare have started flourishing as responsible gamblers have started becoming aware of how to prevent themselves from indulging in compulsive gambling habits. If you are interested in non Gamcare gambling operators you may visit NonGamstopBets where you find detailed reviews about betting sites, features of those companies, and many other useful information.
Gamcare introduces a safer gambling environment for all gamblers. You can choose to take part in all the programs GamCare organizes and inch towards a safer gambling space where your concerns are heard and your interests are preserved.
Safer gambling standard overview
“Safer Gambling” is usually defined as the gambling industry’s initiative to prevent gamblers from falling into the trap of compulsive gambling. Licensed gambling operators make sure to help you adopt the right strategies for a safer gambling environment. They provide you the best set of rules and if you abide by them, you will be untouched by this problematic phenomenon of compulsive gambling. Some of the ideal support options that these gambling operators will provide you are:
- They will take care of the customers and be committed to giving the customers their best service.
- They will shed light on the aspect of how to be a responsible gambler.
- They will protect you from the adverse consequences of compulsive gambling.
If your gambling practice is harming your career or your family, you should seek help. Now, take a look at what GamCare means by introducing gamblers to a safer gambling environment.
- A set of rules or warning signs are set in place by gambling businesses. The portfolio trains its staff to reach out for help if they observe such signs.
- Gambling businesses offer you the option to select a specific time limit or a limit on the amount you wager so that you can never go overboard.
- A robust system that immediately detects and forbids underage gambling practices.
Any licensed gambling operator can apply for GamCare accreditation and if they successfully secure it, the bookmakers can carry the Safer Gambling logo.
The Safer Gambling Standard involves 10 areas and a total of 73 criteria which are essential to building a strong foundation for introducing a safer gambling approach. Some of the criteria that are shed light upon are:
- Risk management and corporate superintendence: Inclusion of safer gambling culture within the organization and setting up of policies and strategies for customers at potential risk of slipping into the grasp of compulsive gambling.
- Self-exclusion: You can go for the self-exclusion program at any time and exclude yourself from all bookmakers for a minimum period of 6 months.
- Customer interaction: This is a very important milestone in guiding them through the right path of safer gambling. So, gambling organizations as well as online bookmakers have decided to provide the customers with all the help they need.
Conclusion
The rules and requirements of the Safer Gambling Standards set by GamCare are constantly improving keeping user interest as the focal point. Gambling is supposed to be a fun temporary escape from your monotonous life and not a daily thing where you exhaust your money to gain some big wins! You have to keep in mind that the whole concept of gambling revolves around “chance/luck”.
Gambling is fun till it’s done responsibly and accepting that losing and winning- both are like two sides of a coin when you are betting your money. But, worry not. GamCare has successfully upheld “player protection” as its motto and continues to do so with better standards for a safer approach towards gambling.
Story by Paul Hayward. He is a professional gambler who has more than 10 years of experience in the iGaming industry.
Safer Gambling Standard
