Report
High Value Customer and VIP Scheme Monitoring
Gambling Commission report focusing on research conducted into high value customer and VIP scheme monitoring
Hypothesis 1: The HVC market
The market for High Value Customer (HVC) or VIP schemes has remained depressed since rule tightening.
The original exercise led by the Gambling Commission’s compliance team in 2021 showed that many operators had closed their HVC or VIP schemes following the introduction of the new regulations. As reported in the Commission’s GAR Advice Paper, there was a reduction of approximately 90 percent of the number of customers on HVC or VIP schemes.
Further analysis of compliance responses (n=33)1 from 2021 reveals that 15 percent of operators that had a scheme in place prior to the regulatory change subsequently closed their scheme, and a third either greatly or significantly reduced their numbers. On average (before the changes) each operator reported over 1,000 customers enrolled on HVC or VIP schemes, which reduced significantly to under 100 customers after the changes were introduced. Many attributed the reduction in schemes, or numbers enrolled on schemes, to the change in regulation.
This report builds upon the 2021 exercise to explore the degree to which VIP or HVC schemes are associated with Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) amongst the sampled operators. The extent to which HVC or VIP schemes are currently offered in a market increasingly driven by remote activities is important: the Theory of Change includes an outcome linking the tightening of rules to a reduced reliance on HVC or VIP schemes as a share of GGY. We therefore collected data on the degree to which such schemes contribute to operator GGY to further understand market dynamics.
References
1 n= typically refers to the number of observations or individuals in a sample.
Theory of Change Next section
Hypothesis 2: Controls
Last updated: 17 July 2025
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