Written evidence submitted by Dr Carolyn Downs
This document is a response to the Culture, Media, and Sports cross-party select committee call for follow-up responses to its enquiry into gambling regulation, as set out in the white paper, High Stakes: gambling reform for the Digital Age.
Dr Carolyn Downs is Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University (Marketing Department). Her areas of expertise include women’s gambling, gambling and debt, virtual gambling, young people gambling and social responsibility and gambling. Dr Downs has conducted externally funded research into gambling, most recently in 2022/23, with an ESRC-IAA funded study of gambling related harms in help-seeking populations. Her 2010 study of Gambling and Debt was the first enquiry into this topic, and remains an important and very well-cited academic text.
Answer: Affordability Checking and the Statutory Levy have the potential to drive significant change in addressing gambling-related harm
Research conducted on gambling-related debt (Downs and Woolrych, 2010) and more recently in the ongoing study of gambling related harms among help-seeking populations (Downs and Towse, 2023, ongoing) indicates that intractable debt (debt which does not reduce despite a debt management plan being in place), is a clear indicator of a possible problem with gambling. Ongoing research with people who are help seeking (money advice, foodbank, mental health, housing advice etc) found much higher than expected rates of problem gambling (between 3.4% - 15% depending on the population), with a 99% confidence interval in our data. This indicates that the affordability checks proposed are a step in the right direction, and a welcome move by regulators. However, in to be effective, the checks will need to be revisited regularly, at least quarterly, and need to be supported by evidence of income and outgoings rather than relying on credit reference agencies (described as ‘disagreeable checks’ in the white paper. Furthermore, there is much evidence to indicate people experiencing problem gambling can be adept at developing strategies to maintain their gambling (Delfabbro et al, 2018; Pavalko, 1999; McComb and Lee, 2009). For example, people may move from online to terrestrial gambling, may switch from card payments to cash payments, may set up an additional bank accounts, may have several online accounts with different providers or may gamble by proxy (getting someone else to set up an account on their behalf). Problem gamblers are just as driven to obtain their ‘fix’ as are alcoholics, and they become adept at deception (Downs, 2015, Pavalko, 1999).
Once a robust approach to assessing affordability is agreed then the regulations need to take account of different strategies used by problem gamblers to continue gambling when developing a multi-operator approach to preventing unaffordable losses as well as signposting people to support services.
This is very welcome and, if set at a suitable level, will provide a significant boost to the availability of services and will improve levels of knowledge around the impacts of problem gambling.
Within the consultation on the level of the levy government needs to be mindful of the conflicting interests at play. Undoubtedly industry figures will call for a lower amount of levy, while other stakeholders will prefer a higher levy. To achieve a fair settlement, it will be important to cost out the services required BEFORE deciding on the final levy.
The benefits of a levy include the opportunity for a more cohesive response to support services for problem gambling. Treatment is currently provided by a wide range of different organisations across NHS, third sector and for-profit services, and what is available to service users is a postcode-lottery. The Gambling Commission, DCMS and DHSC should seize the opportunity provided by certainty of funding to develop an overarching treatment strategy, a clear treatment pathway with timescales, and a set of best practice guidelines for providers.
The levy opens the prospect of important research being carried out, enabling some of the key gaps in knowledge to begin to be filled (socio-cultural drivers for gambling, extent of gambling-related harms in different communities, relationship of gaming to health inequalities etc). Research funding is currently difficult to access with limited pots of money and significant gaps in knowledge on important topics. It is good to see that the government plans to open a dialogue with UKRI and aims to build capacity for gambling-related research.
Education on gambling and the risks associated with this leisure activity is very limited indeed, with schools rarely including gambling in the PSHE curriculum, and most universities and FE colleges not addressing the topic at all. Gambling education is an important topic for future research, currently there is very little knowledge about what might be effective or how and where this should be delivered. Therefore, if there is more money available for education, careful planning should go into developing a research-based education programme that is effectively targeted and which the Commission can be certain will be delivered across a wide variety of settings.
Answer: Marketing and Advertising need more thought, and the impacts of AI, both positive and negative need consideration.
While there are some useful ideas in this section of the White Paper the proposals do not go far enough and do not take sufficient account of technological advances in marketing and advertising which will rapidly outrun the modest actions suggested.
Children and young people are insufficiently protected by the suggestions in the white paper. It is unrealistic to believe that with catch-up / on-demand TV, and with widespread mobile phone usage among children that they will not see gambling-related advertisements on a regular basis. Ofcom (2023) find that almost 40% of 4-year-olds use a mobile phone to go online, while most 9-year-olds have a mobile phone and by the age of 12 almost all children own a mobile phone which can access the Internet. By the age of 11 children’s online activities are only monitored by around 22% of parents (Ofcom, 2023, p.25). This means that young children have almost unrestricted access to online content, which includes marketing and advertising of gambling products, and current data suggests over 60% of children aged 11-16 have seen online and offline gambling advertising (DCMS, 2023). Furthermore, at a conservative estimate, over 50,000 children aged between 11-16 are problem gamblers and there is much research to show that the younger children are exposed to gambling the more likely it is they will become a habitual gambler (Blaszczynski and Nower, 2002). Changes to the regulation of gambling must address the risks to children from advertisements promoting gambling. The impact of gambling advertising on the gambling consumption decisions of children is an area where there has been limited research, but the precautionary principle should be paramount in protecting children from potential harm.
The Gambling Act (2005) requires that vulnerable people should be protected from gambling related harms. The definition of vulnerability within the terms of the act is not made explicit. While the committee reports that population problem gambling rates have remained broadly stable, despite increased advertising, this is not the entire or most accurate picture. Population problem gambling rates vary significantly depending upon which measure is used, the difference between 0.2% and 0.5% of the population (the current prevalence figures from the Gambling Commission and the Public Health England Surveys differ by 0.3%) is very significant in terms of likely numbers affected by problem gambling. However, recent research (project ends Aug 31st, 2023) with help-seeking populations shows that rates of problem gambling in some communities are likely significantly higher than the headline figures, ranging from 3.9% - 15% of the target population, with the project team reporting these results with a 99% confidence interval.[1] Help-seeking populations could be defined as vulnerable populations (experiencing poverty, poor mental health, chronic physical health problems, involved with the criminal justice system etc) and our findings suggest that nationwide problem gambling prevalence does not present a complete picture of the extent of problem gambling among vulnerable communities.
With our research showing that rates of problem gambling vary widely between different communities we recommend the committee take a precautionary principle on gambling advertising and marketing regulation. As an academic working in the longest-established UK university marketing department I am fully aware of robust evidence showing that well-constructed advertising and marketing campaigns change consumer behaviour, and may be more likely to change behaviour where a consumer could be considered vulnerable (Green et al, 2019, Samponga et al, 2017)
The personalisation of advertising and marketing is moving rapidly and is increasingly powered by AI. We already see AI-driven tools where celebrities appear to speak a personalised marketing message (Uber Duck) and are likely to see many innovations in the use of AI-driven, personalised campaigns (Nalbant and Aydin, 2023). These tools can identify exactly what triggers will result in a purchase in each individual targeted (Nalbant and Aydin, 2023). There are already AI-driven avatar ‘influencers’ delivering personalised content to users, and these avatars will increasingly look, sound, and react to end-user inputs (conversation) just like a real human (Gilliand, 2022). Marketing and advertising driven by AI will make it increasingly difficult for consumers to identify who is delivering the message and make it more likely that consumers will respond to the marketing message. These new ways of marketing and advertising will undoubtedly present a challenge to regulators and need to be taken account of in preparing legislation.
There are scenarios in which AI could reduce or limit gambling related harms through the efficient and early identification of patterns of play that indicate the likelihood of harm being generated. However, leaving the creation and implementation of any such system to the gambling companies themselves would be expecting the poacher to turn gamekeeper. The committee should consider empowering the Gambling Commission to work with AI experts to develop such a system, funded by the industry. Once developed, implementing the system should be mandatory for all online gambling organisations.
Answer: Lobbyists for the Gambling Industry, the forthcoming election, failure to obtain parliamentary time
While I can identify some possible barriers to implementation of the White Paper’s main recommendations, which with gambling can be considerable (the delay in reducing stakes on Category B1 slot machines is illustrative here), I have no suggestions to offer the committee on how to overcome these. However, I would urge the committee to take whatever steps are in their power to expedite the proposed reforms, and to update the proposals with regard to advertising and marketing, as well as to future-proof their work by considering what steps they can take to prepare for the forces unleashed by widespread industry adoption of AI.
Advertising Standards Authority, 2023. Gambling, Betting and Gaming, Appeal to Children, available online at https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/betting-and-gaming-appeal-to-children.html last accessed 10 Jul. 2023.
Blaszczynski, A. and Nower, L., 2002. A pathways model of problem and pathological gambling. Addiction, 97(5), pp.487-499.
Department for Culture, Media and Sports, 2023. High Stakes Gambling: reform for the digital age, Command Paper: CP 835, Unique Ref: E02769112, available on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-stakes-gambling-reform-for-the-digital-age/high-stakes-gambling-reform-for-the-digital-age#ministerial-foreword last accessed 10 July, 2023.
Gilliand, N. 2022. Can avatars be authentic? Eric Dahan on the rise of virtual influencers. Ecoconsultancy, available online at https://econsultancy.com/virtual-infuencers-avatars-authentic/
Nalbant, K.G. and Aydin, S., 2023. Development and transformation in digital marketing and branding with artificial intelligence and digital technologies dynamics in the Metaverse universe. Journal of Metaverse, 3(1), pp.9-18.
Sampogna, G., Bakolis, I., Evans-Lacko, S., Robinson, E., Thornicroft, G. and Henderson, C., 2017. The impact of social marketing campaigns on reducing mental health stigma: Results from the 2009–2014 Time to Change programme. European Psychiatry, 40, pp.116-122.
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[1] This work will be published in a peer reviewed journal after the project ends on 31 Aug 2023