I have talked before, at length, about Responsible Gambling (Tweet 60). It is an incredibly polarising subject. You get the whole spectrum from those who have experienced significant issues with it, to those who think it’s a nonsense and harming the gambling industry.
I think its important to look at this issue as two separate problems. They are obviously linked and we will bring it all together at the end. Firstly, a look at the issue of problem gambling. Secondly, how the bookmakers currently operate and the impact that has on problem gambling. What could be improved.
Before I start, I feel compelled to point out that I am not anti-gambling. I never have been and never will be. I am very pro gambling. My living is dependent upon gambling. It’s just that the current version is not where the game should be. I am just offering my opinions on how I see the current state of play. Others will obviously disagree.
I am in a fairly unique situation in that I have experienced problem gambling when I was younger but have subsequently made a career as a professional punter for the last ten years and worked for Betfair for eight years before that. That is definitely not intended to give hope to those going through issues but more that I understand well the different sides to this debate.
Quite a few people have reached out to me to tell me their stories about issues they have encountered with problem gambling. Nearly all of them are harrowing. Nearly all of them have resulted in a devastating impact on their lives. All I can say is stop betting. Please. Now. You won’t get it back. It has gone. Try to limit the damage you do moving forward.
It was incredibly powerful of Hannah Jane Parkinson to tell her story in the Guardian last weekend. These are real stories hugely affecting real lives. I think one of the most powerful parts of her story was that it can happen to anyone. This is a professional, intelligent, middle aged professional. In an age of 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unfettered access to gambling, it will happen more and more. There is no downtime. The shops don’t shut. The casinos aren’t asking you for a cooling introductory period. If you want to bet on sports or casinos there are no limits. Phone. Computer. Shops. So many options. The only limits placed on you, are if you are in danger of actually winning. I am obviously being facetious given there are deposit limits but the general point remains.
The one thing I have always said is that I hate the idea of people ruining their lives because of some poor decisions made over the course of one evening. I have heard of many stories about people who have lost large, life changing sums of money in very short periods of time. The reality is that if someone is determined to lose their money betting over a sustained period of time, then it is almost impossible to stop them doing that. They will do whatever it takes to place the bets they want or need to. As Hannah alluded to, as accounts were closed (self-excluded) she simply went to less well-known ones.
The issue with problem gambling is that it can start out innocently enough. People are placing a few small bets. They suddenly lose more than they wanted to or make a few poor decisions. The situation can spiral out of control very quickly if someone starts chasing losses. A £1k deficit might be a big hole for someone. Before you know it, they might be down £10k trying to get back to even. Before they know it, the hole they are in is so big they feel they have no option but to try and bet their way out of it. Hope they get lucky. It ends in an even bigger hole where they literally have nothing left. They will have lied, borrowed, and begged their way into a horrible situation.
Something I have talked about at length is that it is incredibly easy to lose concept of the value of money. Online they are simply numbers on a screen. It could be a computer game for all intents and purpose. I always say to people this. Imagine your average stake was £100 or £250 or £500. Go and feel what that amount of cash actually feels like in your hand. Think about what you can spend it on. It makes you far less likely to go and throw that amount around online, like confetti.
One interesting aspect of the article was when she talked about gambling not coming with a health or should I say a wealth warning. On this she is wrong. There have never been so many warnings. Granted they could be more effective but they are there. Gambling has never made more of an effort towards problem gambling than it currently does. This is part of the problem though. I suspect that the campaigns run by bookmakers are incredibly ineffective. They are just paying lip service to the regulators. The campaigns are so disingenuous. We all know that the bookmakers have no real interest in the issue. In fact, it costs them money.
A good example of that would be the Twitter campaigns that bookmakers run. Each day the accounts will have a tweet scheduled to be sent at some stage. Literally, it is just a copy of the one sent the day before. Completely uninspiring and just a box ticking exercise. The problem is that people come completely desensitised to the message now. No one in the middle of a chasing session, doing their absolutes, has ever said oh I remember that tweet about gambling responsibly. It is completely ineffective. I am honestly not sure who they are intended to help.
Some of the measures like deposit limits are very good and is something that should be expanded upon. The problem again though is that if someone is determined to place bets, they will do so elsewhere. Its why the proposed affordability checks are a complete nonsense. The reality is that this isnt a one shoe fits all situation. All problem gamblers have different gambling methodologies, unique financial situations, unique triggers, unique coping mechanisms, unique home situations, just completely unique situations.
Let us take a look at the industry itself. What started out as the noble art of bookmaking has now descended into corporate bean counting where the customer has almost no chance of winning anything remotely significant (not including exchanges). It started out as a battle, where the cards were heavily in the bookmakers favour anyway, through the margins they took. The customer always had the hope though that they could get lucky or find something that could help them to turn a profit from it. They were willing to take some risk and could be potentially rewarded for it. That was not enough for the bookmakers though. Nowadays as soon as you show even the slightest sign of being savvy you are restricted to pennies. The aspirations to be successful in this game have pretty much gone these days.
The bookmaker’s behaviour is so predatory it is untrue. Let us have a quick look at a definition of predatory. “Inclined or intended to injure or exploit others for personal profit or gain”. Its’ an interesting word as those in the industry hate people using the phrase. Unfortunately, though that is exactly the type of behaviour they demonstrate. I have talked about the types of behaviours they engage in many times on other tweets and posts. They are doing everything they can to target and exploit the weakest members of society. Those most vulnerable.
One area that isnt talked about nearly enough in the media is the amount of data that bookmakers are harvesting from customers. The bookmakers collect ludicrous amounts of data about you, to ensure that they can have exactly the type of customer they want (losers). The bigger, the better. If you do not fit the profile of what they are looking for they won’t take your business. They continually take far more information than is required but nothing is ever said. Why are they taking the data? You tell me why a bookmaker would need to know if I have visited sites like Amazon or Facebook and what I have been looking at. When its not even open in the browser. Yes, I am sure they are covered in the terms and conditions but it does not make it right. It’s just another example of the bookmakers abusing their position knowing that the regulators will do little to protect the customer. In fact they are using that treasure trove of data to pinpoint those who are most valuable to them. How does that look in reality? The biggest losers. The most vulnerable. The bookmakers have long broken any trust we may have had in their ability to willingly do the right thing.
Recently we had a situation where a bookmaker used Transunion, who are a consumer credit reporting agency, to check on a customer. The terms and conditions no doubt cover the use of 3rd parties but this oversteps the mark so badly it is untrue. The customer wasn’t looking to borrow money. Just place a bet. It is literally a free for all, by the bookmakers, with regards to customers data. They just hide behind Anti-Money Laundering rules (AML) as an excuse to do as they please. The ICO has been utterly useless at addressing the issues raised.
The frustrating part is that the data they are collecting should be used in a much more positive way. In terms of identifying those with potential issues. The problem is why would they do that? It hits their bottom line. There is such a conflict of interests between problem gambling and bookmakers making money. Its why they cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
Whether the industry likes it or not the optics from articles such as Hannah Parkinson’s are horrendous. You cannot read the article and think of any positive aspects to the betting industry. There have been numerous other articles in recent days on a variety of similar topics. Problem gambling has real-life consequences.
I think the gambling industry has been incredibly short-sighted, with regard, to things like problem gambling and the overall message they are conveying now. The message is simple. Pursue maximum profits at all costs. Winners are not welcome. Only losers. The bigger the loser, the better. We will justify those losses by calling them an ‘entertainment’ cost to the customer. That type of messaging will only last so long before someone will seek to redress it.
The problem is that by taking this attitude you open yourself up to a whole manner of ridiculous ideas to try and combat the perceived issues. Whether that be £100 deposit limits, affordability checks, single customer view or any of the other incredibly intrusive ideas. If the industry had behaved in a much fairer manner, taken the initiative themselves with things like problem gambling and behaved in a more honourable manner, the calls for change would be far less deafening.
We are left with a situation where the mainstream media will publish articles based on studies that suit the narrative of the cause they are pursuing (usually anti-gambling). These studies are usually flawed but the headlines they create, cause the gambling industry big problems. Often the studies are incredibly small sample sizes or the questions asked are so leading, that the responses are meaningless. They serve the purpose of those trying to restrict gambling though.
If the gambling industry is not very careful the government and regulators will come up with solutions that will decimate the industry. They will have no one to blame but themselves and their own greed. There are far too many people involved with these things who don’t understand the true consequences of what is being proposed.
What is the solution? I think bookmakers should be compelled to paint a true picture for customers. Tell customers that 99% of them will lose money. Tell them that winners will be banned or heavily restricted. That they have to be clear as to what the actual situation is. We currently see it with products in the financial services like CFDs, where the companies are obliged to declare how many people lose money using those products. It should be the same for betting. These have to be real and relevant numbers, not like the parliamentary review that happened a couple of years ago.
The whole concept of free bets should be banished. What other industry, which sells a potentially addictive product, is able to attract people in by offering inducements? Can you imagine the alcohol or tobacco industries being able to say here you go, use our product for free, until we have you hooked. All the ridiculous price enhancements are no different. It is just a way for bookmakers to lure punters in. Encourage them to bet. The same applies to the loyalty programmes. Often in shops they are used to collect data as much as for the free bets but again its encouraging people to place bets. All VIP schemes and rewards clearly serve no positive purpose.
I know plenty of people will say that removing these products impacts a huge number of normal punters. Why should they suffer? They are living in a fantasy land. They are only offered them because the bookmaker expects a positive return from the advertising campaign they are running. They will get the money back in spades later on.
Education around betting has to improve significantly. It is tough though, as the huge majority have shown a complete lack of want or willingness to engage in it. The bookmaker should be compelled though to be transparent about the margins they are working to in a market. Maybe that bet builder won’t be quite so appealing when people realise what horrendous value they are. Maybe people will become a little bit more price sensitive. It will help people lose less. People have to understand what they are up against when placing bets. What it is that makes people successful or not. The concept was clearly lost on Hannah (same applies to 99%+ of punters fwiw) that knowledge of a sport and success betting on it are highly correlated. If only it was that easy.
The most important part though, is that the bookmakers actually use the data they collect, to do good and not just satisfy their greed. They can see very quickly with deposits and betting patterns who the problem gamblers are. If someone is willing to disguise that over many bookmakers that will always be tricky but I am fed up of hearing some of the stories I have recently. Where people have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds. All with one bookmaker who will have been well aware of what is going on. You can be sure that if they had won even 1/100th of that amount, then they would have been restricted. Hardly the ‘fair and open way’ that the Gambling Commission sets out as one of their key objectives.
I think the betting companies have to reduce the ridiculous offerings that they currently have. There is no need for hundreds of markets on each match. Particularly in play. Particularly when so many of these offerings are almost casino like in their offering. Bets of chance rather than skill. We have this weird situation where the bookmakers will say but we offer 100k markets a week. Like a badge of honour. Then one minute later they will be but we have to restrict you because we cant price them up effectively. Go back to the basics.
All casino products online should either be banned or reduced to stakes so small that people cannot lose fortunes on them. They offer nothing to a civilised society but a tax on the uneducated. They are literally nothing but a money printing operation for the bookmakers. Customers are almost guaranteed to lose money over the long term.
All gambling advertising should be properly managed. I know they have reduced it. I am sick to death though of being in the car and I may have Talksport on the radio. Gambling advert after gambling advert. Children are in the car and they hear it. It is inappropriate. You go to a football match. All you see is gambling adverts everywhere. Watch a game on TV and all you see is more gambling adverts. It is honestly pathetic that these sports and media outlets are so desperate for cash that this is the way they feel they need to do it.
The regulators have to wake up and start actually protecting customers. The Gambling Commission is a complete shambles and really isn’t fit for purpose. A few headline fines don’t make up for the rest. I worry though when I hear of new ombudsman’s being introduced. The one thing we do not see in this industry is any impartiality away from the bookmakers. It is hard to believe that will change. Unfortunately, money speaks volumes.
The betting media has to stop slurping on their lovely gravy train and actually call out some of the behaviours we are seeing by bookmakers. If they hear a story of someone depositing and losing hundreds of thousands of pounds with a bookmaker, with minimal checks or numerous inducements then it clearly isnt right. By sitting there quietly and saying nothing, you are endorsing such behaviour. Often. they are literally endorsing the company in question. Have some morals.
One statistic stood out from the article that Hannah wrote and it was that 70% of revenue comes from 5% of customers. It says everything that needs to be said. It’s important we differentiate those games where skill exists and those that are based purely on chance. It seems that they are all lumped into one when that clearly shouldn’t be the case.
The real shame is that sports betting per se is a beautiful concept. It should be fun. It is a chance for you to back your opinion on a sporting outcome over someone else. The type of thing we have all done with friends. The problem is that it has been turned into something else by the bookmakers.
Despite all the negative comments I have made about bookmakers and the industry there is also a huge reality check needed by those campaigning for draconian measures to help the situation. Gambling is a past time enjoyed by millions who do not have any issues. It is very tough to introduce measures that adversely affect those millions, for the relatively small number who have issues with problem gambling. The action being proposed has to be appropriate to the problem.
There is a time where people have to take personal responsibility for their actions. Do we really want to live in a nanny state where we are told whether we are allowed to have a bet or not? Of course not. That’s a ridiculous impingement upon people’s civil liberties. People just have to realise that problem gambling is a very serious issue, that it can really damage the lives it affects. The bookmakers and regulators can be doing so much more to make it a fairer, safer past time.
I can understand those that say there should be no restrictions. We are all adults. People should only bet what they can afford to lose. I used to very much be in that camp growing up and when I first started betting. However, things change. It is no longer a fair contest between bookmaker and punter. The bookmaker has shifted the posts so far that it does not seem a reasonable conclusion to draw anymore. You cannot win, but you can lose. Lose a lot. That just does not sit right with me. Problem gambling is a big issue that will only get worse and will devastate lives. Reasonable and sensible steps need to be taken to try and limit the damage it causes. You will never eliminate it.
As always, if anyone wants to get in touch to discuss any issues they may have, my DMs are open and everything will always be confidential.
ProPunting 