The Guardian newspaper has carried a few anti-gambling articles this week after the government’s decision to chop FOBT maximum stakes to GBP 2, but it took a different tack Friday at a narrative which questioned the effectiveness of the Gamstop participant self-exclusion system initiated by the Gambling Commission and the Remote Gaming Association.
The paper claims to have had sight of a letter from Commission executive director Tim Miller to the RGA expressing concerns about “improper” flaws in Gamstop that include a lack of synchronisation with all the promotional and marketing lists of online gambling operators, which has meant that self-excluded gamblers may still receive promotional inducements via direct electronic mail systems.
Miller reportedly told the RGA it was “improper that currently GamStop doesn’t interact with marketing lists in that way” and the Commission has been ready to demand that companies don’t send marketing messages to people who have signed up to either GamStop or another self-exclusion scheme, on pain of losing their licence.
The paper reports that it carried out evaluations of Gamstop itself Friday which “disclosed what appeared to be flaws in the tech” in it proved simple to enroll with several gambling websites after a self-exclusion filing by simply altering the surname on the account, even when details such as mobile phone number, email and home address remained the same.
A Gamstop spokesperson responded to the paper by explaining the system was still being fine-tuned and could be assessed to see whether user details might be safely linked to marketing lists without compromising personal data.
