In the United Kingdom and the organization behind the BeGambleAware.org responsible gambling resource has publicized research from The Behavioural Insights Team surrounding the ongoing use of iGaming deposit limit tools.

The GambleAware charity used an official Thursday press release (pdf) to publicize the global behavioral science organization’s findings that the development of deposit limit tools for online casino and sportsbetting has not kept pace with innovations in other areas of product development. The revelation comes as the British government is conducting a wide-ranging review into the current state of the nation’s gambling market and followed the completion of a study involving 861 iGaming aficionados.

Analyzed approach:

Rosanna Barry serves as the Consumer Markets and Business Principal Advisor for The Behavioural Insights Team and she pronounced that the investigation (pdf) conducted by her group had seen these participants invited to set deposit limits using either the ‘business as usual’ model or via one of two new ways encompassing the ‘self-persuasion’ or ‘personal commitment’ methods. The analyst explained that the first of these fresh techniques involved gamblers setting a threshold based on advice from another participant while the second comprised the unilateral establishment of a ceiling.

Clear conclusion:

For those participants who had utilized one of the fresh methods and Barry proclaimed that there had been ‘significantly fewer customers’ who had gone on to establish a deposit limit. She asserted that this had been ‘a useful finding for gambling research’ and emphasized that innovation in this area has not been of the same quality as other associated segments of the iGaming industry.

Operator obligation:

Barry stated that United Kingdom-licensed online casino and sportsbetting firms should now be challenged by government ‘to show growth in the year-on-year uptake or use of these tools’ or asked to use terms that sound less restrictive such ‘safety net’ so as to redefine deposit limits as a less restrictive-sounding option. The analyst finished by declaring that ongoing research of a robust nature remains necessary in order to ensure that future developments in this area ‘are meaningful in helping customers to gamble in a safer way.’

Read a statement from Barry…

“This report is the latest installment in a huge amount of detailed safer gambling research by the team at The Behavioural Insights Team. Deposit limit tools have the potential to deliver benefits to those who gamble and to society as a whole without constraining customer choice. But innovation and development has been lacking and our work has shown just some of the ways that behavioral research could be used to refine these tools and their function.”