The UK will find out which gambling types is doing more harm

United Kingdom want to find out which gambling types is doing more harm to players

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) will conduct a study to find out which gambling products are causing users more harm.

The study of the impact of gambling will be controlled by the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB) and the industry charitable organization GambleAware.

UKGC plans to collect information about consumers and data from stakeholders in the industry, focusing on understanding product properties, gaming environment and other characteristics that can lead to the development of gambling addiction.

Comments of representatives of organizations

Clare Wyllie, research director at GambleAware, commented: "GambleAware is pleased to work with UKGC and RGSB as part of a project that will help us better understand the behavior of players when using different products and find out which characteristics are most strongly associated with damage — focus on the online sector in the first phase and the transition to other sectors in subsequent phases. For the first time, we will be able to comprehensively analyze the entire gambling business in order to understand which sector of gambling has a higher risk of harm. By providing data to researchers, the industry can get new ideas to prevent harm and ensure the safety of customers regarding responsible gambling."

UKGC program director Ben Haden explained that the success of the strategy depends on the growth of the base of identified facts that will allow us to better understand the types of gambling and services that pose a greater risk to consumers. Gambling companies play an important role in achieving this, because they have exhaustive data, which is extremely important for research.

"This goes beyond the simple analysis of data that operators are already conveying to us, and we will encourage the industry to participate in this study," - Haden said.
During 2017, UKGC fined gambling companies for $23.6 million (£18 million) for violating established rules regarding consumer protection.