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Keywords

Gambling advertising; financial incentives; betting; betting advertising; education

Disciplines

Gaming and Casino Operations Management | Gaming Law

Document Type

Original Review Article (Essays, Opinion Pieces, and/or Book Reviews)

Abstract

Financial inducements such as free bets are frequently-used gambling marketing offers which temporarily improve a gambler’s usual pattern of risk and potential return. Previous research has shown that there are up to 15 distinct types of financial inducements in common use, and that gamblers frequently misunderstand inducements’ play-through requirements and other complex terms and conditions. The Australian government has therefore recently banned play-through requirements for inducements shown to new customers, and the Great British regulator the Gambling Commission has recently announced a maximum play-through requirement of 10 times. The present work describes an alternative and yet potentially complementary approach based on disclosing financial inducements’ true economic value to gamblers. This approach can be motivated by the fact that financial inducements are not intrinsically harmful, and an understanding of their value has been exploited for profit by some gamblers via techniques called “bonus hunting” and “matched betting”. Disclosure-based approaches can be designed to reflect the average losses implied by any play-through requirements, as well as any other terms and conditions which affect their economic value. Disclosure-based approaches for protecting consumers from the potential harms of financial inducements should be subject to further research and policy consideration.

Funding Sources

No funding was received for this research.

Competing Interests

Philip Newall is a member of the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling – an advisory group of the Gambling Commission in Great Britain. In the last three years, Philip Newall has contributed to research projects funded by the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling, Alberta Gambling Research Institute, BA/Leverhulme, Canadian Institute for Health Research, Clean Up Gambling, Gambling Research Australia, and the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. Philip Newall has received honoraria for reviewing from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling and the Belgium Ministry of Justice, travel and accommodation funding from the Alberta Gambling Research Institute and the Economic and Social Research Institute, and open access fee funding from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling and Greo Evidence Insights. Dominic Cortis has no competing interests to declare. Jamie Torrance has received, in the last three years: (1) Open access publication funding from Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO), (2) Conference travel and accommodation funding from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling (AFSG), (3) A minor exploratory research grant from the ASFG and GREO.

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