Yet more failings in the UK gambling industry have been lately been exposed by the media. This time, sadly, said failings involve services intended to help problem gamblers, in particular those designed to aid them in excluding themselves from gambling activity.
These services, such as GamStop, are of crucial importance, since other measures of self-exclusion – for example, self-imposed bank blocks on debit or credit cards – can easily be lifted. GamStop and other services of its ilk were designed to be more robust in helping problem gamblers prevent their own ability to gamble online, and to see them exposed as insufficient is, to say the least, disappointing.
A report on the BBC’s Five Live radio station last Sunday revealed that problem gamblers who registered with the GamStop scheme were nevertheless able to easily access gambling sites simply by changing a few user details and registering second accounts on gambling sites.
GamStop has been in operation since April of last year, and its user options allow for blocks to be set for anywhere from six months to five years. Theoretically, at least. That it is apparently so easily circumvented will be a blow to the service and to problem gamblers alike.
On top of the issues with GamStop, BBC Five Live recently followed up on an expose from last year that examined the flaws in the current MOSES (Multi-Operator Self Exclusion Scheme) system for self-exclusion in betting shops. That expose, conducted in Grimsby, Lincolnshire last year, involved a BBC producer registering with the MOSES system and then attempting to continue betting in shops in Grimsby. Of 21 shops in the city, the BBC rep was able to continue gambling in 19.
It appears little has improved, a different BBC producer repeating the same experiment in the same town and found he was still able to bet in 15 out of 20 shops from which he had self-excluded using the MOSES system.
Lessons have not been learned. Another blow for the industry.
At the time of the first Grimsby investigation, the Association of British Bookkeepers said that an independent survey carried out by GambleAware found that in 83% of users gambling was reduced or stopped by participating in MOSES. Which sounds decent. But the same survey found that 71% of users had not attempted to use their nominated sites since signing up.
This clearly indicates that the survey cannot be used to draw conclusions about the quality of implementation of the system itself on shop floors, which is what needs addressing urgently.
These BBC reports have been an obvious double whammy for the industry. They should nonetheless be welcomed as important. public service. Call them whatever you like, these systems are still failing their users terribly.
