The report, which primarily looks at the ways in which the gambling industry is regulated, suggested that the UK Gambling Commission and Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport should ‘be more strategic’ in the ways that it encourages licensees to protect punters.

While the report emphasised that the UKGC has implemented measures which have helped make gambling safer, it also highlighted that incentives could be utilised in order to push operators ‘to do more to make gambling safer beyond meeting minimum requirements’.

Among its recommendations, the NAO has suggested that both the regulator and government must become ‘more systematic and detailed’ in the ways that it records and analyses customer data.

The conclusions of the report found: “Gambling-related harm is a serious problem for the individual affected and people close to them. It imposes potentially significant costs on public services and society more widely, although the government has a limited understanding of these impacts. The Gambling Commission is a small regulator in a challenging and dynamic industry.

“To reduce these harms, it has increased its regulatory action (such as penalties on operators that break rules) and its collaboration with others in the field. But there is more it needs to do to identify where problems are occurring and ensure gambling operators raise their standards.

“The way people gamble is changing, with new risks emerging in online and mobile gambling and other technological developments. The Commission’s ability to ensure consumers are protected from these new risks is constrained by factors outside its control, including inflexible funding and a lack of evidence on how developments in the industry affect consumers.

“The Commission is unlikely to be fully effective in addressing risks and harms to consumers within the current arrangements.”

Commenting on the report, Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “Licensed gambling has grown by 57 per cent – £4.1 billion – over the last decade mainly due to a massive increase in online and smartphone gambling. The risks to gamblers are changing as technologies develop.

“Yet the Gambling Commission is a small regulator in a huge and fast-evolving industry. While the Commission has made improvements, gambling regulation lags behind the industry. The Commission and government need to work together to ensure that regulation keeps pace with the risk to gamblers.”

The re[pry also added that even if the UKGC were to take the recommendations on board, it is still ‘unlikely to be fully effective in regulating a challenging and fast-changing industry within the current system.’

Meg Hillier MP, chair elect of the Committee of Public Accounts, added: “Gambling firms make billions a year, often profiteering from addicts. It’s horrifying to hear that 55,000 children could be problem gamblers.

“The Gambling Commission needs to up its game. It is not doing enough to make gambling safe and ensure firms raise their standards.

“Government must play its part too. Many cash starved local authorities are not inspecting gambling premises and DCMS have failed to give the Gambling Commission access to the funding it needs. Problem gambling can lead to terrible human suffering, its high time government, regulators and industry resolved this.”

Responding to the report, a Gambling Commission spokesperson said: “We welcome today’s NAO report and are pleased that it recognises our work in making gambling safer. We agree with the report’s assessment that we face the significant challenge of regulating a dynamic and developing industry. It also underlines the constraints that our current funding arrangements presents and we are developing proposals to discuss this with DCMS.

“We have made progress in making gambling safer, but more needs to be done. In addition to a programme of tougher enforcement and compliance activity, in the last two years we have strengthened protections including online age and ID verification, customer interaction and most recently we banned gambling on credit cards.

“We must see a reduction in the number of people experiencing harm and we are currently pushing the industry to focus on poor VIP practices, advertising technology and game design.”

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The data for April was collected from the UK’s biggest operators combined with YouGov‘s ongoing ‘COVID-19 tracker’ measuring public trends and habits during the lockdown, covering a representative sample of circa 2,000 adults in Great Britain.

It was revealed that 75 per cent of active players had ‘no increase in time or money spent gambling’, which is inclusive of National Lottery products, while operator data revealed a five per cent decrease in ‘overall activity’ between March and April.

The lockdown, according to the UKGC, has not attracted new players – with only 0.2 per cent of adults admitting that they had taken up gambling during the lockdown.

However, data has shown that UK gambling consumers appear to be engaging in new products – a figure which has increased to 42 per cent during April. This has largely been driven by an increase in weekly draw participation, with one in five revealing they had taken part during the last four weeks.

The UKGC explained that data is consistent with the first set of findings – “Overall participation has decreased but some engaged players are spending more time and money gambling on certain products”.

Operator data revealed that the number of poker players had increased by 53 per cent since March, while those participating in other gaming activities – including online casinos – grew by five per cent.

According to the UKGC, ‘this shift is against the backdrop of relatively stable advertising awareness, where the YouGov research shows that 34 per cent of adults recalled seeing marketing for online bingo, casino or slots games in the last four weeks’.

Closing its statement, the UKGC said that it will continue to track and monitor risks by collecting the data to protect national consumers.

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The consultation will consider the current regulatory requirements in place for society lotteries to ensure that issues related to the fair and open licensing objective, regarding transparency to consumers, are addressed.

Launched on 19 December, the consultation will run until 12 March 2020. In its statement, the UKGC also highlighted a number of concerns regarding ‘the lack of transparency in relation to odds of winning a prize, how much of the money raised through ticket sales goes to good causes and which good causes are supported.’

It is hoped that this will ensure lotteries ‘continue to be run in a fair and open manner, including that consumers have all the information they require to make informed decisions before deciding to gamble.’

Section 99 of the Gambling Act 2005 requires the UKGC to assign a number of conditions to lottery operating licences issued to non-commercial societies or local authorities.

The commission explained: “These conditions include the monetary or percentage limits on proceeds (ticket sales) and prizes in lotteries run by such societies or by local authorities. Section 99(11) of the Act permits the Secretary of State to vary by Order a monetary amount or percentage set out in section 99.

“Section 99(10) of the Act permits the Commission to set similar, or alternatively more onerous, conditions on a lottery operating licence.

“This means that the Order (if implemented) will make changes to the limits in legislation. However, until those changes are reflected in the licence conditions attached to society lottery operating licences, operators will not be able to benefit from them. To make changes to the LCCP, the Commission is required to consult those affected.”

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The research, carried out by Ipsos MORI, found a three per cent decline in gambling participation among young persons compared to 2018. The report analysed the forms of gambling and gambling style games that young people legally take part in along with gambling on age restricted products.

The most popular form of gambling among 11-16 year olds was private bets for money (usually with friends), with 5 per cent of those taking part in the survey taking part in the activity. Meanwhile a further 3 per cent wager money on card games.

Tim Miller, Executive Director of the Gambling Commission, commented on the report: “This report demonstrates that children and young people’s interaction with gambling or gambling behaviours comes from three sources – gambling that they are legally allowed to participate in, gambling on age restricted products and gambling style games.  

“Any child or young person that experiences harm from these areas is a concern to us and we are absolutely committed to doing everything we can to protect them from gambling harms.

“Most of the gambling covered by this report takes place in ways which the law permits, but we must keep working to prevent children and young people from having access to age restricted products.  

“There operators have failed to protect children and young people we have and will continue to take firm action. This year alone, we have tightened rules and requirements around age verification to prevent children and young people from accessing age restricted products, put free-to-play games behind paywalls, and clamped down on irresponsible products.”

Four per cent of respondents reported playing on fruit or slot machines in the past seven days, while three per cent say they have played National Lottery scratchcards.

69 per cent of respondents had seen or heard gambling adverts or sponsorship deals while 83 per cent emphasised that such deals had not prompted them to gamble. 

Miller continued: ““We have been raising awareness about where risks may arise from gambling-style games such as loot boxes and social casino games for some time.  Even though we don’t have regulatory control in this area we are actively engaging with the games industry and social media platforms to look at ways to protect children and young people.

“Protecting children and young people from gambling harms is a collective responsibility and requires us, other regulators, the government, gambling operators, charities, teachers and parents to work together to make progress.”

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The new service, available on the Commission’s website, allows personal licence holders to quickly change personal details, report key events linked to their licence, and download e-copies of the licence itself.

According to the regulator, the portal will also give its users access to a new processing tool which ‘reduces processing times from several weeks to only a few days.’

Helen Venn, executive director at the Gambling Commission said: “This new service has only been running for a matter of weeks and already we’ve had over 4,000 users logging on and an improved processing time of 80%.

“Over half of those have used a mobile device to access the portal, allowing them to manage their personal licence on the go, save time and hopefully improving their experience.

“Listening to the needs of personal licence holders has been vital.

“Through their feedback, and through our own drive to continuously improve the way we regulate, we looked in detail at our licence management processes and set ourselves the challenge to cut down on administration by using technology and our systems more effectively.

“The result is a much more efficient process for everyone through a more streamlined, simpler service.”

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The partnership, which initially came into effect on 11 November 2019, will see the duo collaborate in sharing best practice on areas such as regulatory policies and procedures.

Director General of Spelinspektonen, Camilla Rosenberg said: “This is an important agreement for us. We have common interest in many areas. By opening the communication channels between the authorities we become stronger in our supervisory activities.

“This is the beginning of a broad and long-term cooperation. Earlier this year we have entered a MoU with Malta Gaming Authority and Gibraltar Gambling Division.”

UK Gambling Commission chief executive Neil McArthur explained: “We have excellent relations with other gambling regulators from across the world and our new link up with the Swedish Gambling Authority will give more opportunities to share good practice on a whole host of regulatory issues, cooperate closely and take shared action where appropriate.”

As part of the enhanced partnership, the UKGC and Spelinspektionen will work alongside one another to promote a common understanding of legitimate interests, engaging on matters of mutual policy and operational interest, as well as the provision of operational assistance.

The memorandum of understanding will come under a periodic review from the two regulators, and will evaluate the effectiveness of the arrangement and put forward any suggested amendments.

Both Spelinspektionen and the UKGC will work together to monitor general policy and supervisory issues, matters relevant to remote gambling operators, as well as measures related to anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing. Issues relating to betting, gaming and other transactional data will also be included.

Information collected by the two regulators which could have an adverse impact on a remote gambling operator will be shared, while data will also be shared on regulatory enforcements or actions that could also have a material effect on a remote operator.

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Matt Bastock

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published a short report examining the reasons behind people’s gambling activities. 

The report broadly categorizes the reasons people give for gambling into five themes: monetary, social, enhancement (fun or excitement), coping and/or escapism, and finally, the mental challenge. 

86% of gamblers in the past 12 months, and 90% in the past four weeks responded to the survey outlining they gamble for the chance of winning big money. 

Of the respondents, 70% (12 months) and 72% (four weeks) gambled because it’s fun. This was reduced to 58% (12 months) and 63% (four weeks) for the reason of ‘making money’. The least popular reason provided was ‘gambling to impress others’, which recorded just 8% across both time frames. 

Different Games, Different Motivations

When applying the broad themes to different gambling products, there were some interesting results. 

• Lottery and scratchcards: Entering the national lottery draw was most linked to monetary motivation. Scratchcard motivation was more of a mix, with monetary, coping/escapism, and enhancement all featuring prominently.
• Betting (Sports, racing, and events): Online sports betting’s strongest association was enhancement (excitement). In-person betting was more associated with the challenge motivation. Betting on ‘Other Events’ was primarily driven by coping and escapism motives. 
• Bingo: According to survey respondents, attending bingo halls in person is mainly driven by social motivations. Online bingo, on the other hand, is strongly associated with coping/escapism. 
• Casino games: The casino category excludes slots. Online play is strongly tied to coping/escapism, whereas in-person moves towards social but also coping/escapism and challenge. The use of casino machines or terminals shares similar characteristics but is also linked to monetary motivations. 
• Slot machines (Fruit machines and slots): The strongest motivations for online play were coping and escapism. The same motivations were prevalent for in-person slot play, but to a lesser extent. 

As shown above, online gambling is associated significantly more with coping and escapism. In-person play tends to be more associated with social and enhancement motivations. Monetary gain, or winning big, is not the main motivation for most activities (except draw-based lottery). 

How the Data Was Collected & the Limitations

The report’s data comes from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). It included individuals aged 16 and older who had gambled at least once in the past twelve months. Of the 5,780 survey respondents, 4,562 had gambled in the past four weeks and provided data on more recent behavior. 

The report does not draw conclusions, and critics of the results point to self-reporting and sampling bias as reasons why the data can be misinterpreted. However, it can be considered a useful tool for understanding gambling motivations in the UK, especially the emphasis on social elements in person versus online. 

Helen Bryce, the UKGC’s Head of Statistics commented, “This is the first of two deep dive reports we will be releasing from the GSGB. The 2nd report explores the relationship between gambling activities and Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores building on the relative difference analysis we included in the GSGB Annual Report (2023) published last Summer, by taking account of other factors such as number of activities someone takes part in and demographic variables.” 

The report on the relationship between gambling activities and the PGSI will be released in the next week. 

Written By

Matt Bastock

Matt is a casino and sports betting expert with over two decades’ writing and editing experience. He loves getting into the nitty gritty of how casinos and sportsbooks really operate in order to make solid recommendations based on real experiences. His favourite games are blackjack and poker, and he loves watching NFL and soccer in his spare time.

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This is the view of Michael Dugher, chief executive of the Betting and Gaming Council, in a comment piece penned the The Telegraph, who reiterated the importance of safeguarding public health concerns “while also protecting people’s personal freedoms, jobs and businesses”.

“Around 30 million people – nearly half the population – gamble on the National Lottery, bingo, in a betting shop or casino, and increasingly online,” he explained. “When I quote that figure to my former parliamentary colleagues, most are surprised at how high it is.

“This poses an interesting challenge to ministers charged with introducing the biggest shake-up of our gambling laws in years. It is vital they make good on their promise that future changes will be ‘evidence-led’.

“But it’s important we strike the right balance between protecting the vulnerable, and not spoiling the enjoyment of the overwhelming majority of people who enjoy a flutter safely and responsibly,” argued the BGC chief.

The former Labour MP and shadow cabinet member further maintained that ‘huge strides’ have been made in recent years with regards to player protection, especially relating to online gambling.  

As referenced by Dugher, the primary forms of betting carried out by 11 to 16 year olds are private bets between friends, scratchcards, fruit machines and card games – which fall outside of the BGC’s remit. 

Additionally, although a UK Gambling Commission report found that the number of young people gambling has fallen from 23 per cent in 2011 to 11 per cent in 2019, Dugher maintained that this figure is “still far too high”. 

“I hope one of the big priorities for ministers in this review will be child protection,” Dugher remarked. “We need to build on the good work, funded by the industry, to better educate youngsters about gambling-related harm.

“There have always been people who are anti-gambling – prohibitionists who want to ban stuff. They compare gambling to drugs or tobacco, things which are intrinsically and universally harmful, rather than alcohol – something that most people don’t have an issue with, but where we need to act to help the minority who develop a problem.

“That’s why they want to ban advertising and sponsorship, despite there being no evidence that it causes problem gambling. They may not care about the impact this would have on rugby league, darts, snooker and lower league football, but ministers should. It would, for example, likely be the end of horse racing on terrestrial TV.”

He continued to explain how anti-gambling campaigners “don’t want to see safer gambling – they want to see less gambling”, highlighting that stricter regulation may well see the regulated industry shrink in size, but it will not lead to a reduction in gambling.

“If people are restricted from betting with licensed operators, with all their safer gambling measures, they will simply move to the many unlicensed, unregulated and unsafe gambling websites in the black market.”

Additionally, a report by PwC showed the number using unlicensed sites has more than doubled to 460,000. The amount of money staked on the online black market is now in the billions of pounds.

Furthermore, the report also pinpoints countries including France, Norway, Italy and Spain – which have tougher restrictions on licensed operators – as examples of where the black market share is far bigger than the UK.

Citing a recent survey by Racing TV, Dugher highlighted that 85 per cent of punters believed that there is a danger consumers would move towards the unregulated black market should restrictions be implemented, whilst 95 per cent of respondents would not be happy if bookmakers were to have access to their bank accounts or if they were made to hand over payslips as proof of funds.

“It’s worth remembering that Betting and Gaming Council members support 119,000 jobs on our high streets, in hospitality and in world-leading British tech, and generate £4.5bn a year in tax. A smaller regulated industry means fewer jobs and less revenue for a Chancellor who needs every penny he can get.

“How the government safeguards jobs and personal freedoms, prevents gamblers drifting off to the unsafe black market, and ensures more protections for the vulnerable and those at risk, without interfering in the enjoyment of millions of responsible gamblers, is a balancing act.”

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£685,000

The UK Gambling Commission has ordered Greentube Alderney to pay a £685,000 payment in lieu of a financial penalty after its investigation revealed social responsibility and money laundering failures.

The investigation, launched by the UKGC on December 16, 2020, unearthed that Admiralcasino.co.uk and Bellfruitcasino.com, both Greentube subsidiaries, were lacking in money laundering and player protection safeguards.

“Compliance with Commission rules aimed at keeping people safe and gambling crime free is not optional,” stated Helen Venn, Commission executive director. “We will always take firm action against those operators who fail to meet the high standards we expect for consumers in Britain.”

As part of the regulatory settlement, the payment in lieu of a financial penalty will be directed towards delivering the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.

Furthermore, Greentube agreed to vary its operating licence to add a specific condition to carry out a third-party audit to review its compliance with the licensing conditions and codes of practice within 12 months, with the findings being shared with the Commission. 

In addition, a payment of £8,789.86 will be made towards the UKGC covering the costs of the investigation.

$75.9m

Last week saw Esports Technologies complete the acquisition of Aspire Global’s B2C business for $75.9m, following the definitive agreement agreed between the two companies in October. 

Following the completion, the wagering products provider will now control Aspire’s portfolio of B2C online casino and sportsbook brands, including Karamba, Hopa, Griffon Casino, BetTarget, Dansk777, and GenerationVIP. 

“The acquisition reaches new markets, and its 1.25 million deposited customers is a strategic leap in our journey to become a world leader in esports wagering. We look forward to our partnership with Aspire as we continue to scale,” noted Aaron Speach, CEO of Esports Technologies.

The company has reiterated that it will look to leverage this increased market access to “cross-sell esports wagering opportunities” in a bid to increase revenue, player bet transactions, and customer base.

The takeover sees the franchise now serve as the ‘back-end provider’ for the acquired brands, and look to enforce operational continuity as well as offer wagering products.

$1.7m

Connecticut’s state governor, Ned Lamont, revealed that the state collected around $1.7m during its first month of legalised online gaming and sports wagering.

Launched on October 12, and through to October 31, Connecticut collected approximately $513,000 from sports wagers and $1.2m from online casino gaming, with the funds deposited into the state’s general fund. 

“This first revenue collection for our state reinforces the process and approach by my administration when it came to ensuring our sports betting and icasino platforms worked seamlessly for consumers,” Lamont stated. 

“We worked tirelessly with our casino and state partners to ensure Connecticut consumers would have positive user experiences across platforms and that is exactly what these results illustrate. 

“We’re off to a great start with this new gaming marketplace and we’re looking forward to years of success.”

250,000

Over its three-year period Gamstop’s scheme has witnessed more than 250,000 people elect to self-exclude from online gambling. 

Lauding its ‘significant milestone’, Gamstop saw a spike in registrations in 2021, compared to the previous years, with more than 67,000 people signing up to the charity this year, compared to 51,000 in 2020. 

Furthermore, March this year recorded the second highest registration month in the scheme’s history to date, with 7,0478 sign-ups. Gamstop also noted that, of the 250,000 people to register, more than 228,000 are currently self-excluding through its service. 

On the figures, Fiona Palmer, CEO of Gamstop, said: “The registration levels are higher than anticipated this year, though we cannot pinpoint one specific reason for this. We have developed the scheme to make it easier to register and have worked hard on raising our profile to make sure we are more visible to those who might need us. 

“The effects of the pandemic might also have something to do with the rise. The independent evaluation which took place during the first three months of this year showed us how effective our consumers felt the scheme had been to their ongoing recovery. 

“This was very reassuring to the Gamstop team, the wider stakeholders and hopefully anyone thinking about registering. We are fully committed to improving the Gamstop service to make it even better next year.”

200

Three months on from its launch, Bettarget.com has registered a 200 per cent increase in average revenue per customer. 

Hailing its “major success”, Bettarget.com also witnessed a steady growth in turnover and a spike in numbers across its main KPIs on sport.

“Bettarget.com’s incredibly positive results clearly show the capabilities of BtoBet’s sportsbook and our ability to successfully integrate a previously acquired strategic product in our commercial development plans,” noted Tsachi Maimon, CEO at Aspire Global.

“This is yet another significant step in the execution of our effective growth strategy. Having such a successful brand in our repertoire illustrates the potential of our BtoBet solution for Aspire Global with both existing and new customers, particularly in Europe, the US and Latin America.”

Focusing on the UK and Ireland, Bettarget.com noted it is “leveraging BtoBet’s capabilities as a leading sportsbook in these demanding markets” with the latter also focusing on the aforementioned regions after it achieved UKGC certification earlier this year. 

Moving forward, BtoBet has scheduled a wide range of product enhancements for the “very near future,” to ensure its partners remain “competitive and see further growth”.

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Having concluded its investigation on 2 September, the UKGC accused the company of failing to take the Commission’s formal customer interaction guidance into account whilst AML shortcomings saw a lack of effective analysis of bank statements to prove customer’s addresses.

Additional AML inefficiencies included a failure to restrict accounts following source of funds requests and allowing customers to register third-party debit cards – in some cases in a different name to the user in question – to their account.

Lastly, the regulator’s investigation found that Lottoland was heavily reliant on ‘ineffective threshold triggers’ and ‘generally lacking information’ on customer spending limits based on income, wealth and other risk factors.

Helen Venn, commission executive director, said: “This case, like other recent enforcement actions, was the result of planned compliance activity. All operators should be very aware that we will not hesitate to take firm action against those who fail to meet the high standards we expect for consumers in Britain.”

Further customer social responsibility shortcomings included neglecting to recognise frequently changing deposit limits as an indicator of gambling-related harm among some customers.

There was also a lack of evidence of “suitable financial and affordability investments” to identify whether customers were experiencing harm or at risk of it, whilst also criticising the operator’s responsible gaming interactions with users.

According to the Commission, most interactions with users consisted of an email explaining responsible gaming tools available without the requirement for a customer response, and the regulator has argued that “there was little evidence of interactions being adapted depending on the extent of potential harm”.

Defending his company, Nigel Birrell, Lottoland CEO, remarked: “Lottoland is fully committed to ensuring the highest standards of compliance, including its anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations in all of the jurisdictions in which it operates.

“The Gambling Commission fine was related to legacy issues around some of our compliance controls which have now been addressed. Lottoland has extensive compliance measures in place and we are confident that our current policies and processes meet all relevant standards. 

“Remedial action taken included significantly increased investment in our compliance function, more than doubling headcount, alongside a host of other initiatives including bringing in third party support, enhancing training and a review of key policies. In addition, we recently committed to building our individual processes into an automated system to improve the system even further.”

EU Lotto is the second major company to face a UKGC fine for social responsibility and AML failings in recent months, following the regulator’s £5.85m penalty against Rank Group subsidiary Daub Alderney.

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