Campaigners have questioned the success of ‘self-exclusion’ after a spike in people stopping themselves from gambling was revealed in last week’s UK Gambling Commission industry statistics report.
Self-exclusions, where customers ask licensed premises not to let them gamble, rose to 24,417 between April 2013 and March 2014, compared to a reported 16,312 in 2009-2010.
The figures now come from the bookmakers rather than local authorities as previously.
However, while people seem to be stopping themselves from gambling in big numbers, the report also showed that there were 19,589 known incidences of self-excluded customers either gambling or attempting to gamble during the period, which has led to some questioning its effectiveness.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Matt Zarb-Cousin, of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, said: “Self-exclusion only occurs after gambling has turned into a huge problem for someone. The betting industry should address the cause of problem gambling rather than the outcome.”
The Association of British Bookmakers said the figures were “good news for staff and customers” as they showed an increase in staff preventing gambling by self-excluders.
A Gambling Commission source, speaking to igamingbusiness, said: “It is difficult to attribute a single cause for an increase in the number of new self-exclusions as there could be a variety of reasons for this rise.
“Also, it is not possible to calculate the ratio of breaches to exclusions, as the published data does not detail the total number of exclusions currently active in the betting sector.”
Referring to self-exclusion, the Gambling Commission’s website says: “Once you have self-excluded you should be refused service with the operator for an agreed period of time – the minimum is six months.
“Responsibility for sticking with this lies with you but you can expect the operator to do all they reasonably can to help you.
“When requesting self-exclusion you will usually be refused service from the betting shop, arcade, bingo hall or casino at which you requested it.
“Some operators have systems in place which will exclude you from all of their premises or a number of their premises in an area.
“You should make sure you exclude yourself from all the places where you may be tempted to gamble.
“Offering self exclusion is a requirement for each individual operator and it is not possible to be prevented from gambling in, for instance, all casinos or all licensed bookmakers.”
