As described by the third of Newton’s laws of motion of classical mechanics, all forces occur in pairs such that if one object exerts a force on another object, then the second object exerts an equal and opposite reaction force on the first.The third law is also more generally stated as: «To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.»The attribution of which of the two forces is the action and which is the reaction is arbitrary. Either of the two can be considered the action, while the other is its associated reaction. It also happens in the betting industry.
Sir Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. His work was of enormous value to all mankind, even to form a thought in matters he had never imagined. In fact, to explain many of the tools of responsible betting, one of his most important studies can be cited. As described by the third of Newton’s laws of motion of classical mechanics, all forces occur in pairs such that if one object exerts a force on another object, then the second object exerts an equal and opposite reaction force on the first. The third law is also more generally stated as: «To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.»The attribution of which of the two forces is the action and which is the reaction is arbitrary. Either of the two can be considered the action, while the other is its associated reaction.”
GAMSTOP AND GOOGLE SERCHES
The offer of online casinos and betting sites in general is endless. The industry developed even to compete directly with land casinos. You need a click to download software, enter personal data, use the credit card to have funds, and welcome to the world of betting from a personal computer or from your mobile phone. From that point the need was also born through digital tools to take care of the consumer of the risks of gambling in excess.
Launched in early 2018, GamStop is the UK’s national self-exclusion program. All licensed online gambling sites in the country are obliged to screen users and refuse service to anyone on the list, which contained some 50,000 names by the beginning of 2019. GamStop was originally the creation of a group of UK operators known as the Remote Gambling Association (RGA). In September 2019, the RGA transferred ownership to GamStop’s board of directors so that it could operate independently and without the potential conflict of interest.
In January it was detected that if a user that a Google search for “gamstop uk” returned paid advertisements for three online gambling affiliates before any results for the service itself. All three linked to pages specifically promoting offshore sites not enrolled with GamStop. The top result from a Google search for “GamStop UK” was an advert stating: “Not on Gamstop Popular sites – Get 300 per cent Bonus.” All of the top four links, which advertisers pay Google for, pointed to lists of casinos allowing customers to work around the self-exclusion service.
Clicking through leads to lists of dozens of offers presenting new customers with hundreds free spins on online slot machines, roulette and other potentially addictive games at virtual casinos based in Cyprus and the Caribbean island of Curacao, among other locations. The link to the actual GamStop website was relegated to Google’s free search results which start from position five on the page. Searches for a number of other related terms threw up similar results.
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) was quick to respond: “UK licensed operators do not advertise using search terms linked to words seeking help. Any non-UK licensed or affiliate using terms such as GamStop, must be stopped. We will raise this with relevant bodies and push search firms to strengthen their key word prohibitions.”
The response of GamStop was also very emphatic. “When people search for information about self-excluding from online gambling, they should only see results relating to Gamstop and organizations providing support for problem gambling,” Fiona Palmer (chief executive) said. “Consequently, we are working with Google and other search engines to ensure that when people search for information about self-excluding from online gambling our website is prominently displayed and these websites are not included within the search results,” she added.
Politics also took sides in this situation. “I don’t necessarily blame Google,” Carolyn Harris, a Labor MP and chair of a cross-party group on gambling-related harm said. “In a way they are victims of the ingenuity of companies who are capable of bypassing any measures that are put in place. I have serious reservations about the entire self-exclusion system and the gambling industry’s willingness to tackle the problem. ”
A Google spokesperson said: “We support responsible gambling advertising and it’s important to us that people see useful and relevant ads in this area. As such, we have strict policies around gambling ads, which we enforce rigorously. We have suspended the accounts in question.” The company says it uses a combination of humans and algorithms to vet adverts and enforce its rules.
Gambling adverts have been inappropriately placed on Google searches before. In October, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned an ad for a casino app that targeted customers who googled “How to unsubscribe from all gambling”.
BGC
The BGC is an even more recent initiative than GamStop, announced in July 2019, and began operations in November. It is essentially a unified council for all gambling and sports betting operators in the UK. It replaces what used to be three separate entities: the RGA for online gambling, plus the Association of British Bookmakers and the National Casino Forum, which focused on their respective verticals in the retail market. The BGC will represents approximately 90 percent of the UK betting and gaming industry (excluding lotteries) – an industry that employs over 100,000 people and contributes more than £14 billion to the UK economy.
The council expressed its foundations at the end of 2019 with a dynamic and attractive project. Over the Christmas period, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) conducted a multimedia campaign to encourage individuals to set limits before betting. Targeted at people aged between 18-34, the campaign formed part of the Safer Gambling Commitments, and will promote the tools to facilitate customers staying in control of their betting. Just as we all set limits in many aspects of daily lives, that the same should apply to gambling.
The ‘limits are good’ message is based on research commissioned by the Senet Group which demonstrated the direct link between enjoyable gambling and individuals ’ability to stay in control. Most gamblers establish self-determined limits for their play. The research suggests that negative sentiment towards gambling is almost exclusively associated with the sense of lost control. It is under these circumstances that customers bet and game in a harmful way.
With this research in mind, the path to progress seems clear. The betting and gaming sector must endorse methods for individuals to control their gambling behavior. That means actively provide tools that make it easier for customers to limit both their time and money spent gambling, and to encourage them to do so.
¿NO MORE CREDIT CARD?
There are no major obstacles to betting from home: it reaches with a credit card. News that Britain’s gambling watchdog was planning to curb credit card gambling first arising in the summer of 2019. But it wasn’t such an easy decision to make. An analysis had to be carried out at the height of the circumstances for such a complex business unit. The UK Gambling Commission launched a twelve-week consultation period in early August, inviting the public and other industry stakeholders to voice their opinion on whether the use of credit cards for gambling purposes should be prohibited or at least limited.
The gambling regulator said at the start of the consultation period that after its end in early November, it would “take the most appropriate course of action in view of any evidence obtained by this consultation, alongside data already submitted.”
The decision covers a large part of the market offer. Customers of UK-licensed sports betting and casino gaming websites as well as retail betting shops are currently allowed to make deposits using their credit cards. Experts have cited the use of credit cards as one of the major factors driving the rise of problem gambling that has been recorded in recent years. According to industry sources, the UK Gambling Commission is set to recommend a blanket ban on the use of credit cards for gambling or, at the very least, heavy restrictions, including limiting customers to the use of one credit card only.
Credit card gambling was also mentioned in relation to a planned overhaul of UK’s Gambling Act that was drawn up and introduced under Tony Blair in the mid-2000s. The use of credit cards for gambling purposes was one of the main issues raised by some MPs, including Labor Deputy Leader Tom Watson, who detailed the case of a woman who racked up at £ 100,000 gambling debt in just two days by wagering online with nine credit cards
Labor MP Carolyn Harris, who chairs an all-party parliamentary group on gambling-related harm, has been adamantly calling for a blanket ban on the use of credit cards for gambling. She has also been lobbying for banks to roll out measures preventing customers from using their overdrafts to gamble. Instrumentation also requires responsibility from the financial sector. Some banks have already introduced tools aimed at helping customers who might have a gambling problem. Halifax and HSBC have both recently announced that their customers can self-exclude their credit cards from being used to gamble. HSBC card holders can only start re-using their credit cards for gambling purposes after a 24-hour cooling-off period, while Halifax customers can only resume making deposits with their cards after 48 hours.
MORE CHANGES TO COME
UK Gambling Commission is programming other modifications for this year’s regulation. Some of the newest regulations cover gambling advertising, as well as age verification issues as some of the matters with a paramount priority that have been set by the watchdog. Both of them are expected to make the gambling industry’s public perception better and make sure local customers are more responsible when it comes to gambling.
There is also a line for sponsorship, just a very lively issue for some time now. An advertising rules update has been among the most important changes that have been made in the gambling sector of the UK, with the changes being preceded by plenty of criticism for the regulatory failure to ensure better protection for UK residents. Several months ago, the largest players in the country’s gambling sector self-imposed an advertisement ban after making a decision to suspend gambling advertising broadcast during live sporting events aired on television.
As for self-exclusion, the debate is not only subject to sites such as Gamstop or similar consumer care associations. It is analyzed that the coverage has a broader vision. That was one of the most notable changes made in the regulation, or should we say in the self-regulation, of the advertising during televised live sports events. A voluntary ban on gambling adverts at the time when such events are aired on TV was imposed by the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling in August 2019. Under the move, no gambling adverts are not allowed to be displayed during live sporting events before 9: 00 P.M.
YOUNG PEOPLE AND GAMBLING, DOWN
The Gambling Commission has published the 2019 Young People & Gambling survey which looks at gambling trends of 11 – 16-year-olds in Great Britain.
On behalf of The Gambling Commission, Ipsos MORI carried out a survey among 2,943 pupils aged 11- 16 across curriculum years 7-11 (S1 – S5 in Scotland) using the Ipsos MORI Young People Omnibus. A total of 606 schools were selected, at random, from a sample frame of all Academies and Maintained secondary schools across Great Britain. 124 schools agreed to take part, giving a school response rate of 21%. Within each of these schools, one curriculum year group was selected, at random, and, within this year group, one class (two in four schools) was randomly selected and the pupils within this class asked to take part in an online self-completion survey.
Results to the current 2019 survey are compared with previous waves for some questions. The selection of the sample and weighting were carried out in the same manner as 2018. In 2018, 2,865 11-16 year olds took part in the research. Whilst the 2019 survey was carried out online, the 2018 survey was a mix of online and paper-based interviews and all previous waves were paper-based.
The survey looks at those forms of gambling and gambling style games that young people legally* take part in along with gambling on age restricted products.
The findings show that 11% of 11-16-year olds that took part in the survey say they have spent their own money on gambling in the past seven days, compared with 14% in 2018. The long-term trend shows a decline in participation since the questions were first asked in 2011.
The most common type of gambling activity that young people are taking part in is private bets for money (e.g. with friends) (5%) with a further 3% playing cards with friends for money.
“This report demonstrates that children and young people’s interaction with gambling or gambling behaviours comes from three sources – 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, said Tim Miller, Executive Director, said.
“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. Where 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.”
