Survey: A Majority Of Bettors Consider Responsible Gambling Important

Responsible gambling is a topic that has come to the forefront in US gambling conversations after the repeal of PASPA and the rapid expansion of legal sports betting that followed in 2018.

The industry is hoping to head off European-style crackdowns on gambling advertisements and responsible gambling policies. Still, according to a recent survey conducted by Toluna, Harris Interactive, and Kurundata, it’s the customer that is pining for a more robust responsible gaming environment.

According to the survey, 81% of US respondents said the responsible gaming environment is quite or very important when choosing a provider. Just 4% said it was not important. And as we reported in a previous article on this survey, 24% of US bettors self-identified as concerned they are gambling too much.

The responsible gambling worries range from internal measures like deposit and time limits to VIP schemes to concerns about external marketing.

RG Options Currently on Offer

According to the survey, two-thirds of bettors are aware of the existence of responsible gaming measures offered by betting sites. Unfortunately, nearly 40% of Bettors aren’t aware of any specific responsible gaming measures.

If bettors want these policies in place, it will make sense for operators to make them more prominent and accessible during the registration process or even make these policies opt-out instead of opt-in.

Give Bettors What They Want

A majority of US respondents, 54%, feel warning messages to frequent players would have a positive impact, and nearly 50% favor compulsory deposit messages. Interestingly, only 38% think providing contact information for gambling addiction services (something already mandated) would reduce gambling harm.  

Of note, UK respondents were asked about VIP schemes, and it appears this is an area where player concerns are quite high.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents feel bookmakers should proactively remind their high-volume bettors about responsible gambling, and roughly half (49%) believe bookmakers shouldn’t incentivize customers with rewards and gifts.

Is the US Already Fed Up with Marketing?

The era of legal sports betting in the US is still in its infancy, but it appears bettors are already done with gambling advertisements, and the way gambling is being sold.

Roughly two-thirds of respondents very or somewhat agreed with the following two statements:

• Adverts shouldn’t be shown to children as they have a negative impact on them (67%)
• Adverts play a part in encouraging people to gamble excessively (64%)

If you’re a US sports betting operator, several of the responses in the picture below should give you pause when considering a long-term strategy. In particular, the attitudes towards partnerships between sports betting sites and professional leagues and teams and the use of celebrities in advertising.

Considering the results in the more mature UK market (from the picture and below), these attitudes are unlikely to change for the better over time. Instead,they could quickly grow more negative as sports fans are inundated with advertisements as more and more new US sports betting markets open (particularly big states like Florida, New York, and California) and the NFL season kicks into high gear.

These advertising findings were the only ones Toluna decided to breakout by demographic, which hints at the results’ importance (or perhaps unexpectedness).