Data sharing for gambling operators
IAGR partner, Greo, provides IAGR members with a snapshot of regulatory approaches to online gambling worldwide. Greo is an independent knowledge translation and exchange organisation that helps organisations improve their programs, policies and practices by harnessing the power of evidence and stakeholder insight.
This month, Greo have shared a selection of research around data sharing for gambling operators.
Data sharing across key stakeholders and sectors has been identified as a potential strategy to help prevent, identify, and address gambling-related harms.
Research shows that many people who gamble online hold accounts with more than one operator. Combining account data from all operators within a jurisdiction allows for a single, comprehensive view of a person’s gambling activities. This can help to identify gambling-related harms among people who hold accounts with several operators and prevent people from circumventing the safer gambling interventions of a single operator.
Additionally, some stakeholders have called for increased availability of operator data for the purposes of research and evaluation related to safer gambling policies and practices. On the other hand, several stakeholders have expressed concerns about the data protection and privacy implications of sharing player data, highlighting the need to ensure that data is effectively protected.
How can regulators strike a balance between facilitating data sharing to support safer gambling and protecting player privacy and security?
Recently published gambling research
Below is a selection of plain-language summaries of research articles that explore perspectives on and approaches to using player data to support safer gambling:
- Characterizing people who gamble using payment transaction information
- Exploring how players could use their online gambling data to gamble responsibly
- Developing lower-risk gambling limits using behavioural tracking data
- Using big financial data to understand how gambling is associated with financial, social, and health outcomes
- What are the digital responsibilities of sports betting companies?
Evidence-informed action
The following are examples of data sharing guidance internationally that regulators might consider when creating or revising regulatory frameworks in relation to sharing player data.
Ontario (Canada)
As part of the introduction of internet gaming in 2022, iGaming Ontario (iGO) introduced a requirement that operators share anonymized player data with iGO for the purpose of advancing problem and responsible gambling research.
Europe
The European Gaming and Betting Association produced the Code of Conduct on Data Protection in Online Gambling. The code provides guidance to online gambling operators about how to process personal data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation.
- Code of Conduct on Data Protection in Online Gambling from the European Gaming and Betting Association (See section 5: Data Sharing and Transfer)
Sweden
The Swedish Ministry of Finance has introduced a proposal to allow licensed operators to share individual player data. The sharing of customer data will help gambling operators to counter signs of problem gambling. If the proposal is accepted, the changes will come into effect in 2024 and would also allow licence holders to review and analyse self-reported account information on health and finances.
United Kingdom
As part of the Gambling Act Review white paper, the UK government announced that they will consult on making data sharing on people at high risk mandatory between online operators to support collaborative harm prevention. An industry-led trial with GAMSTOP, the multi-operator online self-exclusion platform, as the delivery partner is underway with initial trial results expected in summer 2023.
- High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age (see page 45)
