A new study shows that safer gambling messages could increase user intentions to use protective gambling tools.
Research from the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), which was originally set up in 2010 within the UK Cabinet Office, revealed that safer gambling messages that normalize the use of safer gambling tools increased the chance that users would take protective actions from 21.1% to 24.5%. The study saw 4,532 adults in the UK tested with different safer gambling messages, each designed to be placed on gambling operator websites.
Those taking part in the studies were randomly assigned to see either no message or one of three safer gambling messages as part of a simulated gambling platform. The first offered details about support available, the second used a roller coaster analogy to normalize protective actions, and the third was a similarly normalizing message that also included a self-reflection prompt.
While the normalizing tone of the message and the self-reflection prompt had little impact, the presence of safer gambling messages in general resulted in a significant impact. BIT concluded that such messages would be most effective as a preventative or educational tool.
Safer gambling messages in the UK
Messaging encouraging safer gambling is already required under the Betting and Gaming Council code in the UK, with gambling businesses mandated with ensuring “that Safer Gambling information is prominent, visible, and easily accessible to all customers within the areas of their venue where gambling can occur.” The BGC accounts for around 90% of the UK’s gambling industry, with all its members required to uphold the code in order to continue membership.
There are extended guidelines about making sure that such information is available within a 360-degree view of where gambling is taking place, in discreet locations (like toilets or walkways), and via takeaway materials that people can take home with them after leaving a gambling location.
Despite such efforts, the UK’s leading gambling harm treatment and prevention charity GambleAware raised concern that gambling harm figures have doubled in the last five years.
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