Digital teams building sites and apps in the gambling industry have more at stake than just delivering entertainment. They also have the critical responsibility of ensuring that customers enjoy the platform—and do so safely.
The term "responsible gambling" is often thrown around, but what does it mean for businesses to ensure their customers are gambling responsibly? What steps can companies take to identify early signs of risk and prevent harmful behaviors before they escalate? In this article, we’ll review key aspects of responsible gambling and explain how responsible gambling tools can help you foster a safe and enjoyable gaming environment.
The complex gambling landscape
Despite good intentions, gambling operators navigate an increasingly complex landscape of changing gambling regulations without clear guidelines for identifying and addressing harmful behavior.
The stakes are high—in 2023 alone, the UK Gambling Commission imposed £40.6 million in fines specifically for social responsibility failures. Operators who fall short face heavy financial penalties, reputational damage, and potential license revocation.
Relying on transactional data fails to protect gamblers in real-time
Many compliance teams rely heavily on transactional data to identify users exhibiting harmful behavioral patterns. This approach is manual and resource-intensive, and the data is often from the previous day. When communications are sent based on this delayed data, the opportunity to prevent escalation has often passed. Real-time behavioral data is essential for targeted, impactful, and timely communications with at-risk users.
Gambling risk factors to monitor
Understanding the early warning signs of problematic gambling is crucial for operators to uphold the responsible conduct of gambling. With real-time behavioral data, compliance teams can monitor key risk indicators and intervene proactively. Here are some common risk factors behavioral insights can help uncover.
1. Insufficient funds
When users repeatedly encounter payment failures, it often signals gambling beyond their means. These situations frequently escalate as players chase losses or struggle with impulse control.
2. High velocity spend
Rapid-fire betting and frequent deposits within short time frames can indicate emotional rather than recreational gambling. This type of behavior often lacks the deliberate, cautious approach associated with responsible gambling.
3. Duration of play
Extended gambling sessions, especially when increasing in length over time, may signal addictive behavior. Additionally, the longer someone plays, the more money they are likely to spend. Extended sessions can lead to greater losses, which may escalate financial harm.
4. Unsociable hours
Regular gambling during late-night or early-morning hours (12 AM-7 AM) often correlates with irresponsible behavior. These patterns can indicate disrupted sleep schedules and prioritizing gambling over daily responsibilities.
5. Chasing losses
Continuing to gamble after experiencing a loss to win back the lost money is a hallmark of irresponsible gambling because it often signals emotional reactions—driven by frustration or desperation—rather than logical decision-making.
6. Increasing stakes
Gradual or sudden increases in betting amounts can be a sign of irresponsible gambling because it may indicate a shift from controlled, recreational betting to more risk-taking behavior.
7. Reaching and increasing limits
Limits help individuals gamble responsibly by preventing them from spending more than they can afford or gambling for longer than intended. Continually raising limits may suggest an individual is seeking greater thrills or higher returns.
8. Multiple accounts and bonus abuse
Creating several accounts or manipulating promotional offers to exploit bonuses provided by gambling platforms is considered irresponsible and unethical behavior. It undermines the intended fair play and safeguards that are in place to protect both the gambler and the business.
9. Multiple payment methods
Switching between multiple payment methods can be considered irresponsible gambling behavior when it's used to bypass self-imposed limits, track spending less carefully, or access funds that should be reserved for other purposes.
Understanding these risk factors is the first step in protecting players. However, identifying them requires sophisticated tools that can capture and analyze behavior in real time. Responsible gambling tools and gaming analytics are essential for maintaining a safe gambling environment.
How Fullstory can help you ensure responsible gambling
By working with our customer compliance teams and investigating government fine enforcement reports, Fullstory has created a framework that doesn’t only rely on transactional data, but instead signals based on behavioral data that uncovers the why behind user interactions. This gives operators a clear picture of customers showing early signs of risk.
By collecting all user interactions with your website and app and tying behavior to individual users, Fullstory empowers compliance teams to identify at-risk users faster. Fullstory also integrates with your customer relationship management (CRM) tools, allowing you to intervene with customers in real time and provide personalized responses to their behavior.
Armed with these insights, your teams can build a detection system to monitor changes in individual users' behavior, such as increases in average stakes, deposit amounts, or time spent on the platform.
Ready to learn more? See how Fullstory can help you promote a safe gambling environment.
