A number of UK licensed bookmakers have committed to working together to protect their most vulnerable customers as part of a new initiative.
GamProtect will be launched on Wednesday September 11 in a bid to make it easier for betting sites to securely share data about any customers that are displaying problem gambling behaviours.
That way, if the individual is depositing and/or betting large sums with one online firm, that information will be shared across the network of operators within the GamProtect programme.
And the hope is that the new scheme will protect against customers that use multiple accounts across a number of bookmakers in a bid to circumnavigate their deposit and/or stake limits.
Safe and Secure
GamProtect has been formed as a partnership between the UK Gambling Commission, the government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Betting and Gaming Council.
They have also worked closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a regulator created to protect the rights of individuals and businesses in how their sensitive data can be collected and used.
The former Conservative government’s gambling industry white paper identified the need for a data-sharing system between bookmakers, with a large percentage of punters actively using two or more betting accounts – creating the possibility of gambling harm going unnoticed if their wagering is spread across multiple accounts.
A number of industry heavyweights have thrown their weight behind the scheme, with Flutter (Paddy Power and Betfair) and Entain (Ladbrokes, Coral, Party Casino etc) agreeing to participate in GamProtect.
William Hill, Betway, Mr Green and Jackpot City are just some of the other firms that will also be working in partnership with the other participating operators.
The idea behind the scheme was to create a way for bookmakers and betting operators to share sensitive data securely and without compromising the privacy of their players.
A similar system, known as the ‘single customer view’, has been in operation for a number of years, but there is a feeling within the industry that it has never been rigorous enough nor deployed effectively enough to be a complete success.
For such a concept to come to fruition, GamProtect needed a number of key industry players to come on board – not only to govern the ground-rules of the scheme, but also to ensure that they are upheld too.
The project began on a trial basis as far back as February 2023, with a handful of bookmakers signing up to the soft launch. They have been trialling the systems that GamProtect will use to share data, with the results – in terms of identifying potentially vulnerable customers – thought to be successful.
Helen Rhodes, commenting on behalf of the UK Gambling Commission, said:
“We look forward to the swift development of GamProtect, which will include the onboarding of more gambling businesses and the expansion of the markers of harm applied to identify those at serious risk of serious harm.”
How Does GamProtect Work?
It’s possible that a customer will trigger a warning over their gambling behaviour – typically when they have bet and/or lost a sizable sum over a short period of time (known as ‘binge spending’), or when a new player has deposited a considerable sum.
As part of GamProtect, this information can be shared by the ‘host’ bookmaker with other operators in the network, who will then use their own in-house system to monitor their activity.
While there are critics of such data-sharing schemes, it should be said that only the most basic of information is shared by operators. That includes the individual’s name and date of birth, their postcode, their telephone number, the email address that they used to set up their account and their unique customer ID number, where applicable.
Any firm that closes a customer account will also share that information with the rest of GamProtect, who will then have discretion to do likewise. In this scenario, the individual will be added to the GamProtect register – this will bar them from accessing betting sites for a five year period, after which they can ask for reinstatement.
The chairman of GamProtect, Kane Purdy, said:
“After four years hard work, we are delighted to officially launch GamProtect and welcome the entire sector to learn more about what it is and how it works.
“GamProtect truly is designed by industry, for industry, and we believe what we say, it is the most advanced safety solution available to operators today.”