The early years of gambling certainly looked different than it does today; a truly lawless landscape, online gamblers were generally at the mercy of businesses under no scrutiny.
Fortunately, we’ve come a long way since then, and the UK has prioritised caring for vulnerable players. Since its launch in April 2018, the GamStop self-exclusion programme has helped thousands of Brits. The Gambling Commission recently widened its scope as well, requiring all businesses that accept bets by telephone or email to abide by the scheme.
That’s just one example of how GamStop, an innovative system in its own right, has grabbed a hold of the gambling industry and started to shape it in a new way.
The GamStop Effect: How It’s Impacted BritsOver 80% of GamStop-registered players reduce their overall gambling and stop submitting to addictive temptations. More than that, players who volunteer to sign up report substantial increases in their well-being, which is crucial in the fight against the insalubrious side of gambling. GamStop clearly plays a pivotal role here, and so it too reshapes online gambling in this way - by prioritising the well-being of the bettor, who can make clearer, more informed decisions and take fewer risks.
But much like its country’s cloudy climate, GamStop doesn’t always paint a perfectly sunny picture. Indeed, even with its increased range, GamStop’s coverage is limited, only affecting gambling businesses that are within the UK. As long as the casino site operates with an overseas licence - or none at all - then it is not obligated to enforce the scheme, and it very often elects not to.
Additionally, as a volunteer programme, it requires user honesty to work; should someone provide false information somewhere along the way, it’s easy to bypass any limits - and that’s not even mentioning the variety of UK bookmakers with no GamStop at BettingNonGamStop that don’t communicate with the database at all. Even when the scheme does work, it affects the online gambling industry by reducing player engagement across every market, which means less money going around.
Plus, with so much personal information stored in one place, it’s easier than ever for non-UK sites to acquire this data and advertise to players since their self-exclusion stops at the border. These are the UK’s most vulnerable gamblers, and it’s easy to fall into temptation with this level of accessibility before they’re ready to return on their own. And one would be remiss not to point out the inherent security vulnerabilities in having all that data stored in one accessible location.
Challenges For GamStop’s Long Term SuccessBroadening coverage should only be the beginning for the Gambling Commission’s efforts; while it’s good that more businesses will fall under new liability, the problem remains if Brits are allowed to continue gambling overseas. Banning this freedom isn’t the answer, though - global GamStop coverage is.
It sounds like an incredible challenge because it is, but it’s necessary for GamStop’s long-term success, as is adapting to the digital age. As the online gambling industry continues to grow rampantly, the self-exclusion scheme must not lose control over these platforms; the number of new sites that pop up grows by leaps and bounds all the time, and the gap will only worsen otherwise.
Moreover, additional measures could be taken for user verification. For starters, it, along with casinos, could implement stronger validation checks by requesting additional forms of identification beyond the government-issued ID and utility bill. Moreover, it could also take more steps to confirm the supplied information is accurate and without error.
Another step still might be to include biometric authentication in online gambling; facial recognition and fingerprint scanning are just two additional layers of security that would lock down circumvention.
Finally, many players don’t realise that GamStop’s terms of self-exclusion are minimum values. That means you’re not just choosing to exclude yourself for six months to five years - you’re opting in to restrictions for at least that long. Deactivation is not automatic, and it’s not always a seamless process.
Is GamStop A Good Programme?It’s important that we should measure the success of GamStop in the correct terms - focusing instead on how many British players it has helped rather than how it may have impacted the gambling industry.
The programme is not without faults, but the current state of it remains helpful to people with a gambling addiction. The evidence is clear in the numbers; not only have over 80% of those who signed up reduced problematic gambling, but more than 80,000 inspired Brits signed up in 2022 alone.
Still, GamStop is an overall success, even though it has, in many ways, changed the very landscape of online gambling. Players can eventually return to their hobbies refreshed and ready to go, having put their well-being first, and that means not just healthier gambling, but a healthier flow of money, too.