Gambling Commission conducts specified research project into gambling products
New research project “goes beyond simply analysing data” to determine types of products causing more gambling related harm than others
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced it will conduct an “extensive research project” into whether some gambling products or environments cause more gambling related harm than others.
The regulator will partner with the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB) and GambleAware for the project, which will initially focus on online.
Tthe three organisations will be able to “strategically request” data from gambling operators which can be used and reused for research projects in the future.
The UKGC said the data will be used to “understand how products, environments and characteristics vary – and importantly, identify those more associated with harmful play”.
Ben Haden, programme director at the Commission said a successful responsible gambling strategy relies on “growing our evidence base to better understand the types of gambling products and services that present more of a risk of harm to consumers than others.”
Haden added: “Gambling firms have an important role to play in achieving this as they hold comprehensive data that is vital to this research. It goes beyond simply analysing the data which is already reported to us by operators and we will be encouraging the industry to get involved.”
As a part of the project, the UKGC and the RGSB has published a research brief setting out its approach and providing for the establishment of a research team dedicated to the project.
Once the team is put in place online operators will be contacted by the UKGC to confirm their involvement in the project and the required data.
Addressing the potential of the project in identifying more harmful strands of gambling, Clare Wyllie director of research commissioning at GambleAware added: “For the first time, we will be able to look comprehensively across the gambling industry to understand where the risk of harm lies and by making data available to researchers, industry can gain new insights to prevent harm and to ensure customers gamble safely.”