The Gambling Commission has reported that 4.3% of active customer accounts in the UK have been restricted in some form following significant data collation from sports betting operators.
The regulator requested information from some of the largest licensed firms in the market, with authority seeking data on active customer accounts that had had commercial restrictions applied to them in the last calendar year.
The request covered almost 15 million customer accounts, with the findings showing 4.3%, or 643,779 accounts, were restricted in some manner.
The Gambling Commission noted the reasons and forms of restrictions would vary from operator to operator, and it stressed the fact punters could have more than one account, forewarning against extrapolating the data.
Of the active accounts, 2.7% were subject to stake factor restrictions. Within the 4.3% cohort of restricted accounts, 62.2% were beholden to stake factor restrictions.
“The data shows some operators use stake factor restrictions as their sole or overwhelmingly most common form of restriction,” Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes wrote.
In terms of factor restrictions, the majority of restricted accounts were in the 1% to 9% band, followed by the 10% to 49% band.
The second most common form of restriction was account closures. The Gambling Commission found that 2.2% of all active accounts had been closed, with 51.7% of restricted accounts being closed.
Rhodes added: “Given the overlap in the figures, a large proportion of accounts will be subject to stake factoring prior to being permanently closed. Several operators report not using account closures for commercial reasons at all.”
Other restrictions including withdrawing betting facilities, essentially placing a stake factor restriction of 0.00 on accounts. This method impacted 19.2% of all restricted accounts.
Restrictions on bettors placing wagers on specific markets, such as horseracing, was also found to be used. However, this was less common, with just 5.7% of restricted accounts having this implemented.
The Gambling Commission also requested some information on the profitability of restricted customer accounts versus non-restricted ones.
It was established that 25.4% of all active accounts are in profit versus 46.8% of restricted accounts. Furthermore, 72.5% of all accounts are in loss, compared to 51.3% of restricted ones.
Rhodes mentioned that commercial restrictions needed to be monitored in their relation to pushing customers to the black market and forcing customers to open multiple accounts.
He said: “This data request should not be seen as a change in our position regarding the role of regulation in determining how businesses manage their commercial liabilities.
“As noted in the white paper, there is no universal service obligation applied to gambling. Businesses may take commercial decisions providing they do not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics. Being a successful bettor is not a protected characteristic in discrimination law.
“We are exploring the scope for improvements in the communication and transparency from operators to consumers about how, when and why an account might be restricted.
“While we recognise such transparency does not alleviate the frustration of those subject to severe restrictions, if this is a feature of an operator’s business model then it is something that they should inform consumers about.”
The post Gambling Commission reports that 4.3% of active accounts are restricted first appeared on EGR Intel.
Regulator data request reveals stake factor restrictions and account closures are the most common form of restrictions, with potential impact of pushing consumers to the black market to be explored
The post Gambling Commission reports that 4.3% of active accounts are restricted first appeared on EGR Intel.