Report
Consumers' views on informed choice in gambling
Findings from a research project to explore how consumers understand the meaning of “informed choice” in gambling.
1 - Executive summary
This research sets out to establish what "informed choice" means to gambling consumers in practice, moving beyond the regulatory principle to the lived experience of making decisions while gambling. It combined a rapid desk review of 53 sources, 3 deliberative focus groups, and 4 in-depth interviews with players at higher risk of harm, mapping findings against the Gambling Commission's Path to Play framework.
Participants viewed the Commission's current definition as a strong starting point, valuing its emphasis on fairness and accessible information1. But they consistently identified a gap between information being available and consumers feeling informed. Across each stage of gambling, people described information that existed on a platform but did not translate into understanding, because it was hard to find, hard to interpret, or surfaced at the wrong moment. This distinction between provision and comprehension is one that comparator sectors, notably through the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Consumer Duty, have increasingly built into regulation, and the findings suggest it is not consistently met in gambling2. The consequences extend beyond the risk of gambling harm: consumers who cannot interpret odds, verify payouts, or understand the terms attached to a promotion may be worse off through decisions they would not have made with adequate information. This engages the Commission's 'fair and open' licensing objective as much as its duty to protect consumers from harm.
In this project, participants identified 4 limitations in the current definition:
- information that is technically available but practically obscured during fast-paced or in-venue play
- a static view of the consumer that does not distinguish beginners from experienced players or onboarding from ongoing support
- a focus on administrative transparency over gambling companies' active commitment towards consumer protection, especially towards higher-risk players
- an assumption of odds literacy that leaves consumers unsupported with complex modern products.
On responsibility, participants favoured a shared model but did not hold this evenly across the journey. Before gambling, they were comfortable with personal responsibility, provided information was visible. During play, particularly in immersive or fast-paced contexts, they were more willing for gambling companies to intervene on their behalf. After play, some looked beyond the operator entirely, to banks or a central body with oversight of total spend across platforms. Where responsibility sits depends on the stage, the product, and the consumer's capacity at that moment.
There were 2 further themes that cut across the findings. Personalised information and interventions were consistently valued over generic messaging, which participants found easy to ignore; yet the same behavioural data that enables a helpful intervention also enables targeted marketing, and some participants were openly distrustful of gambling companies' motives for collecting it, and needs varied substantially by product type: sports bettors arrived with a goal and experienced interruptions as a hindrance, casino players needed accessible explanations and active interventions during immersive play, and land-based players operated in an environment where formal information provision was largely absent.
Drawing these findings together, the report proposes a consumer-centred baseline definition to guide future work:
- informed choice in gambling is the consumer's ongoing ability to understand and act on the information relevant to their decisions at each stage of play
- it requires that the rules, odds, mechanics, costs, and risks of a product are presented so that consumers can genuinely understand and use them, with the same prominence as promotions and rewards
- it requires that information and support adapt to a consumer's experience, capability, and changing state, including an active commitment towards consumer protection and those at greater risk of harm
- it recognises that informed choice is shaped before play by the wider information environment, and can be eroded during play by design, pace, and emotional state.
This deliberately extends the current definition in 4 respects: it treats informed choice as a continuous state rather than a pre-play moment; it requires comprehension rather than availability alone; it places an emphasis on gambling companies to take a commitment towards consumer protection, especially those who are at greater risk of harms; and it accommodates varying levels of literacy and capability.
References
1 The current statement of principles, as established by the Commission, defines Informed Choice as: 5.13. The Commission expects that not only is gambling fair in the way it is conducted and/or provided, but that the rules are transparent to players and they know what to expect. 5.14. The Commission will ensure that the rules are fair and that easily understandable information is made readily available by operators to consumers about, for example: the rules of the game, the probability of losing or winning, and the terms and conditions on which business is conducted.
2 The Consumer Duty (opens in new tab) sets the standard of care that firms should give to retail consumers. It moves beyond compliance checklists and focuses on embedding fairness, transparency, and customer-centricity into every interaction.
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Informed choice - Introduction
Last updated: 15 September 2026
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