SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
GAMSTOP has expressed full commitment to supporting the shifting UK gambling landscape in the wake of a successful 2024.
The gambling self-exclusion scheme reported a 75% success rate with users who have stopped gambling online after registering with the service between April and June 2024. This was backed by an independent evaluation from Ipsos.
Within the same evaluation, “almost half” of users have stopped gambling altogether, while 75% reported feeling more confident in controlling their gambling choices.
Overall satisfactory rates with the service were found to be 74%, with a total of 78% saying they have achieved the results they’ve been looking for when reaching out to GAMSTOP.
The three main quoted reasons that people signed up to GAMSTOP last year were to stop online gambling, regain control over their lives, and control their gambling spend.
This is further explained by the negative impact that people reported gambling as having on their personal relationships before seeking support from GAMSTOP.
A total of 60% reported bad relationships with friends and family, 85% were in a bad financial situation, 58% reported having bad physical health as a result of gambling, while 80% believed they were negatively impacted mentally.
Another highlight that catches the attention is that out of the three optional self-exclusion periods of eight months, one year, and five years, GAMSTOP reported that most users selected the latter.
The five-year period option was upgraded in December with an auto-renewal function, excluding players automatically for another five years once the first interval is completed.
Moving forward, GAMSTOP will need to work in a somewhat different UK gambling market given the statutory levy on funding, research, education, and treatment (RET Levy) by the DCMS, which was introduced last year as an additional layer of player protection.
This measure aims to secure £100m in additional funding annually for organisations, projects, and initiatives related to the prevention of problem gambling.
On the new landscape and GAMSTOP’s active role within it, Fiona Palmer, CEO of the self-exclusion scheme, concluded: “While the newly-announced funding mechanism for research, prevention, and treatment in the UK, revealed in November, does not impact our funding model, we anticipate significant changes to the broader environment within which we work.
“We are well-placed to assist the new commissioners of prevention and treatment at national and local levels by providing GAMSTOP heatmap and demographic data, and have made a commitment to them to do this going forward.”
