The UK Online Gambling ‘Self-Exclusion Puzzle’
Putting the Pieces Together
The aims of this brief review were the following:
- To better define online gambling self-exclusion in the UK
- To briefly examine each piece of the self-exclusion puzzle, weighing up strengths and weaknesses in an attempt to highlight the importance of a multi-layered approach to self-exclusion from online gambling
- To briefly review the evidence on the effectiveness of self-exclusion tools and strategies
Paper Overview
- Online gambling is growing exponentially
- Mobile gambling is also growing exponentially and in certain cases it makes up a significant percentage of the revenue of some online gambling operators
- Self-exclusion from online gambling is currently wrongfully presented as a one-component process with focus placed around self-exclusion schemes
- A self-exclusion scheme approach is an incomplete approach to self-exclusion and fails the “reality test” of problem gambling behaviour
- A multi-component approach, ie: the self-exclusion puzzle, is proposed as a more complete and robust approach to self-exclusion from online gambling
- Self-exclusion schemes, online gambling transaction blocking and online gambling blocking software are proposed as the main components of the self-exclusion puzzle
- There are currently no peer-reviewed studies examining the effect of blocking software and transaction blocking on reducing online gambling activity or their effect on online gambling self-exclusion
- The current available evidence around self-exclusion from online gambling is limited
- Research is needed around the concept of the self-exclusion puzzle as well as for each of its components
Other Recently Published Research
Online gambling self-exclusion
Fundamental standards for gambling blocking software
Can You Contribute?
We are always on the lookout for people to aid with or offer value to our research. So, if you have something to offer, we'd love to hear from you…
Get In Touch With Gamban