Newly formed Gambling Policy & Research Unit starts work today  

The Gambling Policy & Research Unit has been launched today by the Behavioural Insight Teams (BIT) with a mandate to develop and meticulously test methods and approaches designed to specifically reduce the negative impact of the UK’s £14bn gambling market.

The newly established unit will be housed within the BIT’s economic policy team, which is headed up by Aisling Ní Chonaire, head of consumer and business markets.

The BIT is one of the world’s most advanced and significant behavioural science and research units. It was established by the UK government in 2010, later becoming an independent social purpose company in 2014. The team has worked with partners such as HSBC, Monzo, bet365 and GambleAware to show how behavioural insights can play a critical role in reducing gambling-related harms. This includes improving the uptake of the currently available gambling management tools by identifying and reducing the friction typically associated with accessing them, demonstrating that removing high anchors often found with deposit limits leads customers to set lower limits, and testing whether using commitment devices can help individuals set more realistic goals that better align with their personal circumstances

This initiative comes at a very appropriate time given the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport is currently reviewing the Gambling Act 2005.

The UK gambling industry has grown significantly over the last two decades, from being worth £816m in 2008/09 to £14bn in 2019/20. That makes it the largest regulated gambling market in the world and one that annually contributes £3bn in tax.

Recent figures show that the popularity of gambling is on the rise and that those engaging in it are increasingly starting at a younger age. Close to 47% of the population has gambled in the past four weeks and estimates put the percentage of 17-year-olds who gambled in the past 12 months at 54%. That number rises to 68% for those who have reached the age of 20.

The Gambling Policy & Research Unit is looking to form partnerships with interested stakeholders across the whole spectrum of those connected to gambling, whether directly or indirectly. That includes gambling operators but also banks, advertisers, video game producers, consumer advocacy groups and treatment organisations.

Research shows that someone experiencing problem gambling on average negatively affects six other people. Estimates of the costs to the public purse range from £260m to £1.16bn per year. That includes anything from mental health care provision to in-patient services and homelessness assistance.

In the past the BIT has led the way with its partners when it comes to analysing bank data to understand gambling behaviour better than it did using the existing data. That data was often limited to self-reporting from gamblers and betting companies. The new use of data is believed to provide far greater insight into harmful gambling behaviour.

Another objective is the collecting of evidence for policy and regulatory advice and changes through a database of ‘what works’ that can be replicated and iterated globally.

Nida Broughton, BIT’s director of economic policy, said: “The new Gambling Policy & Research Unit will allow us to develop and test brand new ideas to reduce the psychological, social and financial impacts of problem gambling on families so we can help make the UK not only the largest regulated gambling market in the world but also the most safely regulated.”