Online gambling: principles to ensure effective protection of consumers

Justification

The European Commission has recently adopted a Recommendation on online gambling services. It encourages Member States to pursue a high level of protection for consumers, players and minors through the adoption of principles for online gambling services and for responsible advertising and sponsorship of those services. The aims of the principles are to safeguard health and to minimise the eventual economic harm that may result from compulsive or excessive gambling.

Recommendations

In line with the Commission’s recommendation the following are a number of principles the Association for Consumer Rights (ACR) is putting forward to government to include  in the gambling regulations:

• Basic information requirements for gambling websites, in particular to ensure that consumers are provided with sufficient information to understand the risks related to gambling.
• Commercial communication (advertising and sponsorship) should be carried out in a responsible way.
• Member States should ensure that minors are not able to gamble online, and that rules are in place to minimise their contact with gambling, including through advertising or promotion of gambling services whether broadcast or displayed.
• There should be a registration process to open a player account so that consumers have to provide details of age and identity and photo for verification by the operators. This should also enable operators to keep track of player behaviour and raise the alarm if necessary.
• Ongoing support should be available to players to prevent gambling-related problems, by equipping them with tools to keep gambling under control: possibilities to set spending limits during the registration process, to get information alerts about winnings and losses whilst playing, and to take time out from gambling.
• Parents should be adequately trained in parenting skills and control to be better equiped with preventive measures in particular in addressing compulsive gambling among minors
• Players should have access to helplines they can call for assistance about their gambling behaviour, and they should be able to easily exclude themselves from gambling websites.
• Advertising and sponsorship of online gambling services should be more socially responsible and transparent
• Advertising  should not make unfounded statements about chances of winning, exert pressure to gamble, orsuggest that gambling resolves social, professional, personal or financial problems.
• Ensuring that training is provided to employees of online gambling operators interacting with players to ensure they understand problem gambling issues and are able to liaise with the players appropriately.
• Carrying out awareness-raising campaigns about gambling and related risks, as well as to collect data about the opening and closing of player accounts and breaches of commercial communication rules.
• Designate competent regulatory authorities (MCCAA) to help ensure, in an independent manner, effective monitoring of compliance with the Recommendation.

 More information:

The Recommendation is accompanied by an impact assessment and a behavioural study on online gambling and adequate measures for the protection of consumers. These are available on the Commission’s website:

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/gambling/initiatives/index_en.htm#recommendation