Spotting harmful gambling
How you monitor activity depends on your business. For some very small operators, manual monitoring may work. Larger operators will need comprehensive systems, which could include a mix of automated and manual processes and should draw on all available sources of data to give a comprehensive picture of the customer’s gambling.
Options for spotting harmful gambling include:
- Reports on activity where relevant, for example from observation or loyalty carded play, particularly if the play is linked to online play
- Sharing of information by staff about concerns
- Customer interaction forms, day diary with flags
- Utilising back office systems and alerts where they exist.
The right information can mean better and quicker decisions. The customer interaction records you keep should give staff a more complete picture of the customer’s previous activity, which will help to inform decisions.
Your customers should not be at more risk because your premises are either busier or quieter than usual. You should ensure you have appropriate levels of well-trained staff on duty to meet the licensing objectives.
Because VIP customers can also experience harm, it is good practice to carry out a safer gambling check when upgrading customers to VIP status and keep this under review. You should also use these opportunities to carry out checks for Anti-Money Laundering (AML). This could also help you to support customers who have had major wins.
The role of staff
It is important that all staff receive training so that they are aware of the signs that could indicate that a customer may be experiencing harms associated with gambling.
This is not an exhaustive list, but you should ensure that:
- Staff are trained to identify the signs of harm and refer back to documents that include the types of behaviour that may trigger customer interaction at an appropriate moment. Staff should know how to escalate a situation if they are unsure or require support.
- Staff understand how indicators of harm could be displayed differently in VIP or ‘high-value’ customers and know how to spot the signs.
- As a minimum, staff receive training at induction as well as refresher training.
Identify: questions to consider
These include:
- Are you curious about your customers?
- Are your indicators relevant to your gambling facilities and customers?
- How do you decide the right level of your thresholds?
- Do all appropriate staff have access to customer interaction records?
- How do you assess the risks posed by new and unfamiliar customers?
- Is staff training on customer interaction meaningful and engaging?
- Do you take into account all relevant information and act quickly?
- Does the structure and layout of your premises help or hinder identifying customers you need to interact with?
- Do you have any blind spots which mean that you are unable to monitor all customer activity?
- Is spend monitored across different products for individual customers?
- Do you offer the same level of protection for all your customers, no matter how long they have been a customer, or whether they are VIPs?
Vulnerability Next page
Interacting with the customer
Last updated: 4 June 2021
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