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The Gambling Commission Challenge

The extent and nature of gambling in the Gambling Commission is being transformed by technology, particularly mobile technology. It is also clear that there is no sign that this growth is going to stop. The initial wave of online gambling characterised by the web, mobile apps and the links to social, is being overrun by a second wave of digital technologies impacting on the industry created by big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and wearables.

The impact of this second wave of digital technologies has yet to materialise fully. These technologies present operators with the opportunity to generate further growth by using the techniques developed by social media and games companies to maintain player engagement with their mobile apps and thereby increase their revenue and profits.

The operators have also started to use the huge data assets and analytic capabilities that have been built by the dominant internet companies such as Google and Facebook to target potential gamblers; a proportion of these new gamblers will be vulnerable. The ability to target advertisements has increased dramatically in the last five years. A study7 estimates that the total spend by gambling companies on marketing increased by 56% between 2014 and 2017. A further study reported8 that children and young people talked of high levels of exposure to gambling advertising.

In our view the Gambling Commission must respond to the challenges being presented by technological advance because they have had such a major impact on the growth of advertising. Given the remarkable increases in overall levels of gambling spend, there must be a significant risk that this growth will drive an overall increase in gambling related harm to adults, young people and children.

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Background: Impact of web-based and mobile technology on characteristics of Online Gambling Next page
Opportunities to Reduce Gambling-Related Harm

Last updated: 6 April 2021

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