Major operators to assist online problem gambling study

The Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT) is teaming up with the Remote Gaming Association (RGA) and its UK-facing members for a new study aimed at helping online operators identify cases of gambling-related harm.

The study, which was announced last week along with the issue of a public tender for the project, is set to get underway in June with the RGT having pledged a total of £500,000 to fund the ground-breaking research.

With the tender still out, the scope of the research has yet to be finalised but speaking to eGaming Review yesterday , RGA chief executive Clive Hawkswood said the main intention of the study was to identify a consistent method for identifying problem gamblers using data held by operators.

“Many companies already do this kind of analysis with the aim of interacting at an early stage to help the player keep their gambling under control,” Hawkswood said.

“However, some of this has been developed in-house or is a service provided by a third party [and] this means there is inconsistency across the industry.

“The research will hopefully identify the most representative markers of harm and produce some best practice on how best to use them,” he added.

Hawkswood said the RGA and its members, which include William Hill, Ladbrokes and bet365, had been used as a “sounding board” in the development of the tender and will be willing to provide player data to facilitate the research.

The project is expected to deliver its final report in December 2016.

The RGT is a charitable organisation set up in 2012 with the remit of trying to understand how to prevent people getting into gambling-related trouble and how best to help them out of it.

Last year the RGT completed an exhaustive piece of research into B2 gaming machines.