Guidance

Lootboxes: Advice to the Gambling Commission from ABSG

ABSG has given advice to the Gambling Commission in regards to lootboxes. This advice outlines what lootboxes are, concerns around them, and how to protect consumers.

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Published
13 August 2021

Last updated
24 February 2022 - Changes

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Contents

• Lootboxes: Advice to the Gambling Commission from ABSG

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• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Background
• Evidence of harm
  • - Summary of key points
  • - Links to current harmful behaviour
  • - Links to future harmful gambling
  • - High levels of unplanned expenditure
• Under-utilisation of existing consumer law
• International approaches
• Conclusions
• Annex A: Links to Recent Research with abstract summaries on key conclusions
• Annex B: Extract from ABSG advice (published July 2019)

Problem and at-risk gambling

This appendix provides further explanation of the methodologies used for each section of this report, including sample sizes and margins of error

Rates of problem gambling are collected on a quarterly basis in the telephone survey, using the short form Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI mini-screen)³⁴. The screen was developed by Gemini Research to provide a screen which is more easily administered than the full 9-item PGSI.

The screen is formed of three questions which broadly capture issues associated with problem gambling.

The questions are:

1. Have you bet more than you could really afford to lose?
2. Have people criticised your betting or told you that you have a gambling problem?
3. Have you felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble?

Respondents select from never – sometimes – most of the time – almost always for each of the questions. Questions are then scored from 0-3 based on response giving a total possible screen score of 9. The scoring categorisation is:

• 0 - Non-problem gambler (gamble with no negative consequences)
• 1 - Low-risk gambler (experience a low level of problems with few or no identified negative consequences)
• 2-3 - Moderate-risk gambler (experience a moderate level of problems leading to some negative consequences)
• 4+ - Problem gambler (gamble with negative consequences and possible loss of control)

The Health Surveys provides the Commission's most robust estimates of problem and at-risk gambling due to the use of a high quality random probability sampling approach, a large sample size and the availability of both PGSI and DSM-IV screens. The latest data available from the Health Surveys is from the Health Survey England 2018, which is included within this report.

References

³⁴ Developing a Short Form of the PGSI (Volberg, 2012)

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Last updated: 24 February 2022

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