The impact of operator practices
This theme is about understanding how common operator practices influence consumer behaviour and assessing the effectiveness of interventions designed to detect and reduce gambling harms and financial crime.
Roadmap - The direct impact of marketing and advertising on gambling harms
Sub-topics for this roadmap are:
- Direct marketing and the potential of differing impacts on consumer behaviours and harm
- The volume of advertising seen by consumers, when, for how long, what types and through which channels (including social media)
- Direct impact of advertising on particular demographic groups.
All gamblers registered with online operators are likely to receive targeted marketing offers (unless they have opted out of doing so). Although evidence about marketing impact exists, more could be known about whether impacts vary for different demographic groups. Amongst other features, this could include considerations of how and when offers are communicated, how frequently they are sent and the structure of the offer itself.
The extent of gambling advertising has been a widely discussed topic internationally for many years, leading to regulatory action in multiple jurisdictions. Within Great Britain, there is an opportunity to remain up to date with the continually developing evidence base focused upon consumer exposure to advertising, such as the volume of adverts seen, when they are seen, duration and the key channels. Future research could help to develop a better understanding of the potential consequences for different demographic groups of marketing and advertising in the GB market at both an individual operator and collective level.
The focus of our own activities here will be on evaluating the impact of recently introduced marketing regulations.
Roadmap - Consumer comprehension
Sub-topics for this roadmap are:
- Consumer comprehension of odds, offers and terms and conditions
- Consumer comprehension of the withdrawals process, complaints processes and redress.
One of the Gambling Commission’s licensing objectives is to ensure gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and consumer comprehension - particularly relating to how odds, offers, in-game language and terms and conditions are understood– is part of that. Evidence exists which suggests that some consumers, including those scoring higher on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), lack understanding when engaging with these aspects of gambling products.
Further work is needed which demonstrates how levels of understanding influence consumer decision making and behaviour, for example when signing up to reward or loyalty schemes or accepting personalised offers. We are also interested in learning more about consumer experiences and operator practices concerning withdrawals, complaints and redress processes.
Roadmap - Effectiveness of operator-led harm prevention measures
Sub-topics for this roadmap are:
- The size, scope and mechanics of operator player risk detection algorithms across all sectors for harm and financial crime prevention purposes
- Effectiveness of customer interactions and interventions in different land-based environments
- The use and effectiveness of self-exclusion measures
- The effectiveness of safer gambling tools and self-exclusion schemes in all gambling environments.
Many harm-prevention measures involve a role for operators, whether through remote operators’ risk detection algorithms, observations in the land-based sector, or through subsequent customer interactions. With risk detection algorithms, however, the systems used by operators can be proprietary and, therefore, the information in the public domain about these algorithms is limited. Not much is known about the scope of these algorithms across the entire sector at the same time. Greater understanding of the size, scope and mechanics of the algorithms to determine the effectiveness of harm prevention methods and the detection of financial crime may help to identify best practice for the protection of consumers and the use of algorithms to aid anti-money laundering measures. Similarly, assessing the effectiveness of customer interactions and exploring the impact of different environments, including land-based settings, may achieve the same goal.
Another key area of interest where there is some evidence, but the evidence base could be strengthened, is the effectiveness of safer gambling tools and self-exclusion measures to gain a better understanding of how consumer behaviour changes across operators and environments following the use of one of the available tools, or following a decision to self-exclude.
The focus of our own activities here will be on helping the industry to take action that identifies customers at increased risk of experiencing harm or financial crimes.
Forward look - The impact of operator practices
Many of the topics highlighted in this theme lend themselves to mixed methods designs. For example, there is an opportunity for the combination of industry-held data to identify which consumers have received different forms of marketing or customer interaction, and why, with a follow-up qualitative phase to explore the impact. Data protection regulations mean that any research taking this form is likely to need the collaboration of – or to be led by – the gambling operators that hold the data. As a statutory regulator this is an entirely appropriate and necessary approach to our research and is an approach that is in line with the expectations placed upon us by the Regulators Code.
The Commission plans to utilise a variety of experimental methods to further explore consumer comprehension of gambling-related terms and concepts through our Consumer Voice programme. Regarding online gambling behaviour, we will be able to conduct more in-depth analyses of consumer play data to explore the impact of a range of factors on gambling behaviour through our Regular Feed of Operator Core Data (ROCD) pilot project.
Are you conducting research or planning to conduct research on any of our priority topics? If so, please tell us about it by completing our online form (opens in new tab).
Find out more about our other evidence roadmaps. You can find links to the other themes in the related content section.
Last updated: 23 October 2025
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