Responsible Gambling – Taking the Leap from Theory to Practice

Posted by Harry Kane on Monday, September 30, 2019

Ever since the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced its core strategic objectives through 2021, the concept of responsible gambling has taken over the iGaming space. It’s certainly a driving force for both operators and the UK regulator, as the industry’s key players strive to safeguard players and enhance the reputation of online gambling.

Whilst responsible gambling has historically been defined by the underlying concept and the approach of stakeholders, we’re now seeing the emergence of practical tools and technologies that can active help players to manage their activity more effectively.

But what responsible gambling tools are helping to revolutionise the iGaming space, and how exactly are they assisting players? Let’s find out!

From Self-Exclusion to Green Gaming – The Brief History of Responsible Gambling

In simple terms, responsible gambling is defined as a broad concept that compromises of several policies and regulatory requirements.

These have been designed to deliver a fair, transparent and secure online gambling experience to players, whilst they’re also intended to safeguard potentially vulnerable players who are struggling to control compulsive behaviour.

Self-exclusion is arguably one of the best examples of a responsible gambling measure, as this is a facility for individuals who have showcased compulsive behaviour and wish to stop gambling for a period of at least six months.

Once you’ve registered your details, you can choose how long you’d like to be banned for, creating a scenario where you’ll be prohibited from logging on to gambling websites online.

This concept is best embodied by the GamStop initiative, which is a free, independent self-exclusion scheme that has been designed to work nationwide. This has been in action since April 2018, whilst in excess of 50,000 people have signed up to the scheme since its inception.

Whilst all of the market leading operators have signed up to the GamStop program, however, the issues that have been experienced by the scheme during the last 16 months have highlighted just how much work needs to be done in order to make responsible gambling a practical and actionable initiative.

For example, a BBC Radio 5 Live investigation at the beginning of the year revealed that GamStop was operationally ineffective. More specifically, players who had previously self-excluded were able to open new accounts with operators simply by changing their email address and misspelling their surname.

This also exposed potentially vulnerable players to enticing promotional offers and a large number of free bets, rendering the GamStop initiative completely unfit for purpose.

Whilst it’s hoped that the GamStop scheme will benefit from continued improvements over time, its failings have encouraged individual operators to tailor their own robust self-exclusion initiatives.

Not only this, but brands like Mr. Green have even cultivated their own tools and responsible gambling solutions, in a bid to safeguard their players and identify signs of concerning behaviour before it becomes too problematic.

In simple terms, the so-called ‘Green Gaming’ solution is a tool that initially surveys individuals on what they consider to be healthy and unhealthy gambling habits.

This information is then stored, whilst the tool intuitively analyses each customers’ online behaviour before comparing this with their responses. From here, Mr. Green can automatically alert customers once they begin to gamble more frequently or spend outside of their means, based on their own criteria and innate understanding of responsible wagering.

This essentially targets vulnerable players who are not yet ready to embrace self-exclusion by providing them with a deeper insight into their own behaviour. This is an important consideration, as players usually lack self-awareness when wagering and can often experience psychological highs even in instances where they lose.

The Green Gaming solution also allows the operator to adequately safeguard their players and tailor their marketing activities to suit each individual’s risk profile.

Where necessary, they can even refrain from marketing their verticals to players who are deemed to be at risk, providing an added layer of protection for those may not know they have an issue.

This is trail-blazing in the existing market, but it’s also likely to become increasingly important as the UKGC continues to impose new standards and regulations for firms to adhere to.

Players who do exhibit problem behaviour will subsequently have access to other tools to help manage their activity, whether they engage in a self-exclusion scheme or set time and deposit limits on their account.

From Reactive to Preventative – The Modern Face of Responsible Gambling

If we compare GamStop to the tool developed by Mr. Green, it’s clear that we’re witnessing a shift away from reactive responsible gambling solutions to more proactive alternatives.

After all, self-exclusion themes rely on direct action from vulnerable players and only kick-in once compulsive gambling has already begun to take hold, whereas Mr. Green’s solution seeks to identify telltale behavioural trends before players incur significant losses.

This is arguably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of proactive responsible gambling measures, however, with the development of preventative tools and features now driving a massive trend within the industry.

The UKGC is at the forefront of this drive, with one of its latest measures seeking to verify each customer’s identity before they wager their hard-earned cash and prevent unnecessarily delays when completing withdrawals.

Historically, operators have had a 72-hour window in which to conduct age-verification checks on new customers. Whilst this may seem like a relatively short period of time, it enabled players to register for a new account, claim their welcome bonus (where applicable) and wager cash before their ID has been verified.

This not only created a scenario where underage players and people who had previously self-excluded were able to gamble, but it also caused significant issues in instances where customers had their winnings withheld until their identification had been confirmed.

Under new rules, however, operators must now ensure that a new customer is verified and of legal age before they’re allowed to deposit funds and place a bet, either using their own cash or the funds provided by a free bet or bonus.

These rules will apply to all casino games and free-to-play gambling products, and whilst they’ll create significant challenges for operators, they’ll at least enable the Commission to introduce practical measures that aim to prevent gambling harm before it occurs.

In response to this, a host of operators and UK gaming sites have developed similar responsible gambling tools, with the VideoSlots platform offering a relevant case in point.

This website hit the headlines recently, having unveiled a mandatory loss limit feature that compels players to specify the amount that they can afford to gamble each and every month. They’ll then have to provide evidence of their occupation and monthly earnings, at which point the operator will complete their initial checks and impose a bespoke loss limit.

This is arguably the single most comprehensive responsible gambling tool on the market, as it proactively safeguards players by ensuring that they wager within their means and cease activity once they’ve incurred a predetermined level of loss.

Interestingly, this moves beyond simply safeguarding underage or vulnerable gamblers, by effectively targeting all online casino players and encouraging the type of responsible behaviour that minimises financial loss and the risk of long-term addition.

Interestingly, this is the latest in a long line of responsible gambling investments made by VideoSlots, who have taken huge strides to becoming the country’s most socially responsible operators.

It has certainly blazed a trail for others to follow in the iGaming space, whilst introducing tools that are designed to help prevent individuals from transitioning into problem gamblers.

One of the most intriguing investments resulted in the ground-breaking ‘My RTP’ tool, which essentially serves as an advanced account history resource.

Rather than simply listing players deposits and withdraws, for example, My RTP enabled customers to review a comprehensive list of their wins, wagers and losses over time. It even relayed hit-ratios across specific verticals, helping players to calculate their losses and the percentage of their bankroll that they recoup each month.

This tool, which offers the added benefit of making players more mindful and aware of their gambling activity, has certainly helped to bridge the gap between perception and reality and highlighted any potential issues before they begin to cause significant harm.

A Glance into the Future and the Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Whilst these measures are undoubtedly preventative and indicative of a more aggressive regulatory approach, they remain far from fallible and continue to place an emphasis on individual players to use them responsibly.

Even VideoSlots’ mandatory loss limit feature has potential flaws; particularly as players have the autonomy to adjust their settings and update their occupations details at any time.

Whilst customers are required to immediately correct their details and ask to have their loss limit decreased in instances where they’re monthly earnings decline, for example, those who are struggling to manage their activity may refrain from doing this.

This creates a scenario where players could start to wager outside of their means, even though VideoSlots has pledged to decrease loss limits immediately after this has been corrected.

With this in mind, there’s a clear theme that begins to develop when you analyse the most recent responsible gambling measures as part of significant innovation in the iGaming space.

More specifically, there remains too great an emphasis on the active participation of players, who must be trusted to provide accurate information and use the available tools responsibly over a concerted period of time.

This underestimates the impact of human error and weakness, which often become all-too evident once addictive and compulsive behaviours have begun to take hold.

This arguably remains the single biggest challenge facing responsible gambling in the modern age, as even preventative tools have not yet advanced to the point where they can be described as fool-proof.

However, the answer to this problem may lie in the form of familiar and more advanced technologies; namely artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.

The online casino platform ComeOn has blazed a trail in this respect, having recently launched a brand-new AI-based project designed to track customer behaviour intuitively and without the need for continued player participation.

In conjunction with the technology brand Neccton, ComeOn has developed software that analyse will players as they wager and provide personalised feedback based on their activity (to both operators and individuals as required).

Neccton is a big data specialist, and there’s no doubt that ComeOn intend to leverage huge swathes of information in order to revolutionise responsible gambling.

This will see the pooling of various resources with the latest AI technology, which will intuitively detect any changes in player behaviour and assess risk patterns before flagging these in real-time.

In some respects, this is similar to VideoSlot’s innovative loss limit tool, in that it will be mandatory and aims to detect signs of problem gambling before it becomes an issue. It will also prevent customers from wagering more than they can afford, which is seen as being central to the ongoing fight against gambling addiction.

However, the implementation of big data and AI has elevated the existing technology onto an entirely new level, whilst it will enable operators to rely less on players to provide them with the necessary information.

So, although customers may need to participate and provide accurate (and verifiable) details when they register, ComeOn’s advanced software should be able to detect patterns and pre-empt instances of problem gambling without further player interaction.

The Last Word

The use of big data and AI undoubtedly represents the future of responsible gambling in the UK, thanks primarily to the growing capacity of machine learning and its ability to identify patterns and predict outcomes with a high degree of accuracy.

The implementation of these technologies will certainly help operators and the UKGC to build on the hard work that they’ve already undertaken since the beginning of 2018, as they look to create proactive responsible gambling tools that prevent gambling harm rather than manage it.

Of course, much work is to be done in the field of responsible gambling, whilst it can be argued that technology can never fully overcome human addiction. However, there’s no doubt that operators and regulators in progressive markets are moving in the right direction, whilst tremendous strides have already been made during the last 18 months.