Paddy Power has gone digital with its high street betting shop self-exclusion system, replacing its original 2016 MOSES handwritten pen- and paper-based system with a mobile players’ app compatible with both iPhone and Android platforms. The app, designed by the Responsible Gambling Consultancy, a firm founded in 2016 which focuses on risk management allows players to self-exclude from up to 10 betting shops in their vicinity at a time. Self-exclusion is instantaneous and broadcasts a profile which features an image of the player and their contact details to the local shops on the list.
Fresh off the back of a successful trial implementation in Kent, the system is now going live nationwide. It should be in place across the UK by June and rolled out across Ireland by the end of the year.
David Newton, Managing Director of Retail at Paddy Power, said the following in the wake of the news: “Providing quick support for customers who want to self-exclude is a key element of our responsible gambling agenda. We believe that this new process will make self-exclusion easier and quicker for our customers, and (we) hope that other retail betting-operators join us in providing this service.”
The app has been developed in full compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and has been designed so that any betting operator can sign up to use it.
The true test of the new system will be in whether it supports the abilities of betting shop staffers to enforce self-exclusion. In an undercover operation last year, the BBC exposed some shocking failures in the implementation of existing self-exclusion systems across numerous betting shops, and, after all, a system is only as good as the people operating it.
MOSES, was, however, reported to be broadly effective by self-excluding players in an independent poll, with 83% stating that it had helped reduce or stop their gambling activity. However, 71% of those admitted that they had not tried to use their local betting shop since signing up for exclusion, therefore somewhat invalidating the former figure’s relevance.
Paddy Power, to their credit, have stated that the new app features a “responsive interface for shop staff” and that it will make the “photo identification process” easier. Presumably, also, they will be providing strong staff training to support the effectiveness of this new service as it rolls out. If there’s a reluctance or a disinterest on the part of staff to enforce a given system, it won’t matter how many bells and whistles it has, and this is a service, after all, that’s designed to protect those at risk of problem gambling.
