The next frontier for egaming tech

Getting funding for start-ups and early stage businesses has always been challenging. The pool of potential shareholders, lenders and bankers is reduced by the perception of gambling as a vice. Constant headlines about advertisements which fail to meet ASA and industry code standards, alleged exploitation of underage and other vulnerable customers, and failure to comply with anti-money laundering obligations, only exacerbate these concerns.

Is the time now ripe for the innovators and founders to concentrate on developing ideas to help the operators meet their social responsibility and other regulatory obligations? There should be a keen market for such regulatory/compliance products among the operators, and it might be easier to obtain funding and banking facilities for such businesses.

Technology has driven the development of remote gambling and is enabling operators to offer new products and improved user experience at an ever increasing pace. It also enables operators and their suppliers to store and process more data about customers, which can be used to check identity, verify information received, and establish comparators and identify potential links between cause and effect.

The Gambling Commission has been clear for some time that operators must take a holistic view of customer information. Data gathered for marketing purposes must be taken into account when considering if a customer is at risk. There is an increasing focus on the need not only to comply with the letter of the law, but also to take the initiative and to behave in a socially responsible way with the consumer’s interests at the heart of their decision-making processes.

Meeting the challenge

The regulator has also been clear that it expects its licensed operators to use developing technologies to meet their regulatory obligations. The industry repeatedly, and rightly, calls for “an evidence-based approach” to regulation – so we need more and better tools to gather and analyse data.

Industry news in recent months has included reports of technology being used in this area. “For example, suppliers are developing algorithms and analytic software to identify at-risk behaviours, apps are enabling players to track their gambling and offering help to problem gamblers, and there are requirements to use age-screening tools on social media.” But there must be more opportunities for inventive developers.

Potential opportunities might include virtual reality mentors to help manage gambling habits, and more nuanced reminders of time and/or money spent gambling. Could wearables offer a timely but subtle way to prompt a consumer about his or her behaviour without public embarrassment? Recent fines have made it clear to anyone who doubted it that operators are responsible for their affiliates’ compliance with advertising restrictions – so what about more sophisticated tools to compare customer and exclusion lists, to prevent adverts going to consumers who fit certain parameters.

The National Responsible Gambling Strategy Board’s progress update in June 2017 emphasised in particular that more is required in relation to reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of operators’ customer interactions. What about more, and more effective, tools to monitor the efficacy of the methods which operators are using to meet their regulatory obligations? Just as the GDPR requires privacy by design, is there now an opportunity to promote “social responsibility by design” and “anti-money laundering by design”?

Instead of being blamed for an increased prevalence of gambling, technology actually has the opportunity to be part of the solution.

Susan Biddle is a legal consultant with Kemp Little LLP, a leading technology and digital law firm in London. She provides commercial and IT advice to businesses in the gambling and technology sectors, with particular emphasis on remote gambling.