Report

ABSG Progress Report on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms – Year Two

ABSG - Year two Progress Report on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms

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Published
7 July 2021

Last updated
17 July 2025 - Changes

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Contents

• ABSG Progress Report on the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms – Year Two

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• Executive summary
• Recommendations
• Introduction
• • Introduction
  • Background
  • Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on partnership working
  • Trends in gambling
  • Gambling Act Review
  • Online harms
• Delivery and governance
• • Delivery and governance
  • Progress involving people with lived experience of gambling harms.
  • Mixed picture of national strategic co-ordination of implementation
  • Metrics for measuring harm
  • Evaluation of policy
  • Funding
  • Research
• Prevention and education
• • Prevention and education
  • Improved regulatory protections
  • Suicide and gambling
  • Improved profile of gambling harms as a public health issue
  • Increased engagement from the financial services sector
  • Gambling is not yet fully integrated with local public health activity
  • Increased education and awareness raising activity
• Treatment and support
• • Treatment and support
  • Expansion of treatment and support services in new areas
  • The evidence base for treatment is developing but incomplete
  • Need for more integrated treatment services
  • Clarification of referral pathways required
  • Triage and completed treatments
  • Lack of independent quality assurance
  • Follow-up support
• Conclusions
• Annex 1: Priority Metrics for measurement of National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms

Casework analysis

Through the process detailed in the methodology section, there were 46 cases with one or more of the 8 keywords that were assessed by the researchers as having VIP or High Value Customer (HVC) schemes as alleged contributory factors to the reported gambling behaviour of the consumer. The cases identified are shown in Table 6:

Table 6: Casework with VIP or HVC schemes as a potential contributory factor

Casework with VIP or HVC schemes as a potential contributory factor

Year considered	Cases identified
2018	11
2019	33
2022	1
2023	1
Total	46

As outlined in the limitations section, there is a potential time-lag between the commencement of gambling activity of interest and the date that the casework is considered by the Gambling Commission. The earliest activity within these 46 cases occurred in 2011 (but was not reported until 2018), and some of the reported gambling interaction histories spanned multiple years. The 2 cases considered in 2022 and 2023 do relate to gambling behaviour that occurred in 2021 and 2022 respectively, a time period following the regulatory change.

Due to the confidential nature of casework, no further details about these incidents can be disclosed as to whether any allegations were upheld, and no updates about the progression of any investigations can be provided as this may be prejudicial to any ongoing investigations into the same.

It is clear that there has been a significant decrease in casework where HVC or VIP schemes are reported as potential contributory factors since the introduction of the new policies. Even permitting for a skew to pre-implementation cases caused by the time-lag, there is a significant decrease in allegations relating to HVC or VIP schemes within the casework pre-implementation (n=44) to the 2 years considered post-implementation (n=2). It is recommended that this source of information is monitored on an ongoing basis as a valuable resource to detect trends.

Additionally, the Commission's ongoing assessment of operators' compliance with regulatory requirements has not identified HVC or VIP schemes as an issue requiring specific thematic focus.

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Last updated: 17 July 2025

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