From player choice to duty of care<\/p>\n
Bayliss, who started out at the UK Gambling Commission in 2006, before eventually joining Playtech in 2018, remembers when \u201cresponsible gambling was very much player choice. You either use tools or you don\u2019t.\u201d And operator responsibility back then was quite limited.<\/p>\n
He explains: \u201cThe regulations haven\u2019t changed massively, but the way they\u2019re interpreted has\u2026 You\u2019ve got to intervene much sooner. If a person is depositing \u00a310k a week, do you know why? What do you know about them?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/richardbayliss.jpg\")
Richard Bayliss, Playtech\u2019s director of product compliance and safer gambling<\/p>\n
The importance of safer gambling for operators can be seen through what the wider public focuses on. The way Bayliss puts it is \u201cthe stories that make the press and get on politicians\u2019 radars, they\u2019re not about whether products pay out 95% or 94%, they\u2019re about \u2018I gamble too much, I was allowed to gamble too much\u2019.\u201d And this is why regulators can be seen to have changed their focus.<\/p>\n
So, what hasn\u2019t worked so well traditionally?\u00a0As Bayliss explains: \u201cIf it becomes a tick box, you\u2019re applying pretty blunt rules, which might help you manage your risk\u2026[but could be seen as] risk management dressed up as safer gambling.\u201d He posits that in those cases, operators are really just trying to \u201ckeep the regulator from [their] door\u201d and avoid being fined.<\/p>\n
He continues: \u201cIt manages some of the risk, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily help people. That\u2019s my biggest issue with that approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody wants to think of themselves as a \u2018problem\u2019 anything. Even if you’re exhibiting markers of that problem \u2013 we’re all good at justifying to ourselves<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\u2014 Neil Burge, founder of Growth Exposed<\/p>\n
In the Netherlands, there are mandatory monthly deposit limits<\/a> (700 euros for players over 25, and 300 euros for those between 18 and 24), something which Bayliss feels is too blunt and less preferable than a tailored approach.<\/p>\n The former UKGC senior manager (remote gambling) says: \u201cYou can\u2019t just give players messages once a year, saying \u2018Here is your responsible gambling email. Here are our tools. They\u2019re there if you need them.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThat doesn\u2019t work because it\u2019s too late. You want it to be a bit more natural than that.\u201d<\/p>\n From the land-based angle, Douglas believes \u201cif you\u2019re taking a one-size-fits-all approach, then you\u2019re not dealing with the person who\u2019s with you \u2026 if you\u2019ve got thresholds that apply to everybody, then it\u2019s not bespoke to the player in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne size fits all\u201d clearly isn\u2019t the answer, so how can responsible gambling measures be successfully tailored to individuals?<\/p>\n \tAnatomy of a good intervention<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t1.\tSay why you\u2019re getting in touch. <\/p>\n Both Richard Bayliss and Sam Douglas cite the importance of telling players what you\u2019ve seen in terms of their behaviour.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t2.\tDescribe the behaviour, not the person. <\/p>\n As Douglas puts it, you don\u2019t want to come across as stigmatising or accusatory.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t3.\tAsk open questions. <\/p>\n Douglas believes these can help avoid conversations feeling accusatory. Relaying information about how long they\u2019ve been in a land-based casino or online for, or that they\u2019ve gambled a higher amount than usual, can be done in this way.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t4.\tUse plain language. <\/p>\n Neil Burge and Bayliss are wary of serious wording from compliance or legal types. You need to speak the language of the player, and come across more naturally.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t5.\tReach people in the moment. <\/p>\n It\u2019s no good getting an email at random, or a while after the time when a gambler was spending recklessly. Pop-ups are key, according to Bayliss.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t6.\tOffer a route to real help. <\/p>\n Letting the player choose an available option for genuine local support is something Olabimpe Akingba recommends for putting customers\u2019 welfare first<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t7.\tFollow up. <\/p>\n Douglas thinks it\u2019s great when people remember previous conversations, as it\u2019s a good sign something has sunk in. Bayliss believes a \u201clittle and often\u201d approach should be taken, with educating players and keeping responsible gambling at the forefront of their thoughts, rather than an annual email out of the blue.<\/p>\n Learning to read the signals<\/p>\n Figuring out whether to intervene relies on monitoring of activity and, according to Bayliss, the key metric to keep an eye on is \u201ceither time or spend\u201d, with others being a bit more difficult to see. He pinpoints escalating deposits as something that might indicate loss chasing, or a loss of control \u2013 but these things are nuanced and it is worth considering whether different conclusions can be drawn from the same pieces of data.<\/p>\n Research done for Playtech\u2019s well-established responsible gambling tool BetBuddy showed short timeouts that players were taking in the UK. These might flag to some as a negative, but as Bayliss explains \u201cin reality it was because people were saying, \u2018I\u2019ll do one day a week where I gamble, and I\u2019ll block myself for the rest of the week\u2019. So that was actually a positive. You\u2019re limiting. Friday night after you\u2019ve been out for a drink, you don\u2019t want to gamble, but Saturday afternoon you\u2019ll bet on football and play a bit of casino.\u201d<\/p>\n Risk of addiction or gambling harm is much more dynamic and, while trends can be spotted, it is different for everyone.<\/p>\n At the Hippodrome, Douglas and his colleagues have the advantage of being able to witness the behavioural patterns of gamblers themselves. \u201cOur best tool in terms of data points and interaction is the observation of customers,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause we can see what somebody\u2019s gambling looks like, rather than judging it from a set of numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n While Douglas says the Hippodrome does have thresholds for when players hit a certain number of visits or turnovers, which can be a trigger, that \u201ccan neglect the nuance of who that customer is\u201d. Therefore, data points are used for risk scoring, with occupations and age taken into account.\u00a0<\/p>\n Douglas explains that certain occupations are considered high-risk. \u201cSome backgrounds can carry added vulnerability, such as professional sport or leaving the forces, where people may have sudden large payouts and lose a support structure. They often don\u2019t have family around them. They can be relatively young and have come into a lot of money. They can be quite competitive in nature and they\u2019re used to a high-pressure, intense environment.\u201d<\/p>\n But Douglas also warns you can\u2019t rely too much on the categorisation of occupations, citing hospitality staff as an example of an occupation many would expect to be low-paid, but in central London \u201ccan earn \u00a3100,000 a year\u201d.<\/p>\n Research conducted by Playtech for BetBuddy back in 2021 looked at five different models for predicting harm, and while deposit activity and play frequency were most often key predictors, no single metric dominated across the models. This all reinforces the point that a blanket approach to harm thresholds risks misclassifying certain players.<\/p>\n What to say and how to say it<\/p>\n An effective intervention ultimately comes down to the ability to engage with a player and successfully communicate why you\u2019re getting in touch. As Bayliss puts it: \u201cIf you can explain why you\u2019re speaking to someone and give them indisputable evidence, say \u2018we\u2019re contacting you today because you\u2019ve deposited more than usual\u2019, \u2018here\u2019s your four-week average value of deposits\u2019, and \u2018in the most recent four weeks\u2026 you\u2019ve doubled it or trebled it\u2019, that gets hard to dispute for players.\u201d<\/p>\n Douglas adds: \u201cThe important thing whenever you\u2019re interacting with customers is that you explain the reason why. The first thing we\u2019ll do is tell the person what we\u2019ve seen and why we\u2019ve come to speak to them. Do it in as gentle a way as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Making sure the at-risk players aren\u2019t offended is key, and Bayliss adds: \u201cYou\u2019re not saying to them \u2018you\u2019ve done something bad\u2019, you\u2019re just feeding back behaviour, explaining why you\u2019ve got in touch [before pushing them towards] more effective tools.\u201d<\/p>\n We’re not unaware of the fact no one can completely eradicate gambling problems. All we can do is minimise harm<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\u2014 Olabimpe Akingba, head of responsible gambling at PawaTech<\/p>\n Of course, nobody likes being told what to do, and this is something even mentioned by the UK Gambling Commission in the 2019 edition of their formal guidance for remote gambling operators.<\/p>\n Douglas agrees with this sentiment and compares it to other things in life: \u201cNobody likes being told that they spend too much money on clothes or that they\u2019ve had too much to drink. It quite often triggers the exact opposite behaviour that you\u2019re trying to instil.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hippodrome director of safer gambling believes it is important to concentrate on the behaviours, rather than the person, and avoid coming across as accusatory. He elaborates: \u201cNobody wants to talk about problem gambling. They talk about the behaviours and not the diagnosis. But we must be wary of stigmatising people for behaviour or personality.\u201d<\/p>\n Neil Burge is the founder of Growth Exposed, a company that conducts iGaming player research to help figure out behavioural patterns. He says: \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to believe the label \u2018problem gambler\u2019. Nobody wants to think of themselves as a \u2018problem\u2019 anything. Even if you\u2019re exhibiting markers of that problem \u2013 we\u2019re all good at justifying to ourselves like \u2018I\u2019m not as bad as someone else\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Another expert voice on the topic is Olabimpe Akingba, the head of responsible gambling at PawaTech, that runs BetPawa, one of Africa\u2019s biggest online sportsbook operators. Speaking to iGB at iGB L!VE<\/a>, she makes the point that people with gambling problems often don\u2019t reach out \u201cwhether for social reasons or feeling ashamed\u201d. Instead, BetPawa partners with counsellors and asks players if they are open to being reached out to by them. Ultimately though, she admits \u201cyou cannot force people to take that route, but you can encourage them\u201d.<\/p>\n When messages backfire<\/p>\n Burge has a great example from his player research of a safer gambling message leading to the wrong result.<\/p>\n \u201cA lady explicitly rejected a message that was designed to help her,\u201d he recounts. \u201cIt said \u2018You\u2019ve been playing too long. Do you think it\u2019s time to take a break?\u2019 She just thought it was like those pictures on the back of cigarette packets \u2013 aimed at everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the next thing she did was close that site down and move to another site to continue playing. From the perspective of the operator it looks like she stopped playing that day. But she has popped up on somebody else\u2019s radar and she\u2019s somebody else\u2019s problem, and she\u2019s still got the problem herself. It\u2019s complex.\u201d<\/p>\n Burge wonders if it is possible for operators to see the world through the eyes of at-risk players and design a way of talking to them \u201cthat feels like a friend helping\u201d.<\/p>\n Wording is pivotal in all of this. The Growth Exposed founder adds: \u201cIf compliance teams are left to write the copy themselves, you\u2019re asking them to do two jobs\u2026The copy [operators display to players] could definitely be improved to sound more like the way a person would describe things and less like the description of an operator tool.\u201d<\/p>\n From Akingba\u2019s experience, she thinks the messaging needs to remind people that \u201cgambling is all about entertainment\u201d rather than a way of making money, and you \u201cshouldn\u2019t gamble with money that you cannot afford to lose\u201d. Those are simple messages, but clear ones that can get through to players.<\/p>\n But of course, it is not always as simple as sending a message or talking to a problem gambler. As Burge explains: \u201cThe thing that surprised me in safer gambling research is just how much people didn\u2019t want to stop\u2026 You\u2019ve got people there who are actually enjoying something, but it becomes too much. I overindulge in some things myself, and sometimes you need a hand to step back.\u201d<\/p>\n \tThe safer gambling tools that work best in Africa<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t The gambling industry is younger and less developed in Africa compared to Europe, with a different demographic of players. So how are responsible gambling tools best deployed there? PawaTech\u2019s head of responsible gambling Olabimpe Akingba takes us through it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deposit limit tool proves to be most effective, because people who are falling into problem gambling, have their finances affected directly. People can set a limit to how much they spend on your platform and once that limit is reached, it helps them take charge of their finances.<\/p>\n \u201cSelf-exclusion also proves to be useful for people who are not able to control their gambling activity. For people who may need treatment or counselling, the self-exclusion tool is a very effective way to keep them out, at least for a period until they get the required treatment and are able to come back and gamble in a responsible manner. Those are the top two tools as far as I\u2019m concerned.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe having too many tools could even be counter-productive. Let\u2019s focus on the ones we see as really productive. Make sure everyone has them, and then drive publicity and awareness around their usage for effectiveness.<\/p>\n \u201cWe try to keep the standard uniform across all markets in terms of self-exclusion. If we\u2019re opening a new market, you\u2019re going to find that on our platform, it does not matter which jurisdiction you\u2019re in, we are going to have a dedicated responsible gaming page, whether the local law mandates it or not.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3d09e52-scaled.jpg\")
The hippodrome casino in london<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bG9jYWw6Ly8vaWdhbWluZ2J1c2luZXNzLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNi8xMC9vbGFiaW1wZS1ha2luZ2JhLXNj.webp\")
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Sam Douglas, Director of Safer Gambling at the Hippodrome<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bG9jYWw6Ly8vaWdhbWluZ2J1c2luZXNzLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNi8xMC8zZTlyN2F5LXNjYWxlZC5qcGc..webp\")
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Neil Burge, founder of growth exposed<\/p>\n![\"Playtech\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bG9jYWw6Ly8vaWdhbWluZ2J1c2luZXNzLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNi8xMC9wbGF5dGVjaC1sb2dvLnBuZw.w.webp\")
<\/p>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bG9jYWw6Ly8vaWdhbWluZ2J1c2luZXNzLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNi8wMi9qYW1lcy1zd2Fubi1waGlsbGlw.webp\"){kind=avatar}
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