Vixio releases Player Protection Outlook 2024

(PRESS RELEASE) -- During this week's Safer Gambling Week, Vixio, a leading provider of regulatory intelligence solutions, has released its Player Protection Outlook, reviewing the key regulatory updates, insights and trends in player protection and responsible gambling.

With increasing pressure from regulators and other policymakers to address gambling-related social harms, player protection has come to the forefront of regulatory initiatives in the global online gambling industry. Furthermore, technological advancements and AI-powered tools have enabled new options for player monitoring. The report comes during Safer Gambling Week, an industry initiative that promotes safer gambling in the U.K. and Ireland.

"The sharpening policy focus on issues of player protection unites major jurisdictions worldwide, with lawmakers, regulators and the industry alike seeking to mitigate negative impacts of gambling and leverage new technologies but not always agreeing on the most appropriate ways of doing so," said James Kilsby, Chief Analyst, Vixio GamblingCompliance. "Through 2025 and beyond, we expect to see policy approaches to affordability, operators' duty of care and other concepts continue to evolve in Europe, North America and in other global markets."

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic for player protection as it offers the ability to help monitor and rapidly analyze player behavior, and could be used for chat assistance through large language models (LLMs). For more information on the use of AI in gambling regulation, see the Vixio Artificial Intelligence Outlook, which covers the key global regulatory developments regarding AI and applications for consumer protection.

Another area of policy attention in player protection is around affordability checks, also known as financial risk or vulnerability checks, which involves operators checking players’ financial information to understand if they can afford their gambling.

As highlighted by the report, jurisdictions with significant pending legislation around player protection include Australia, Argentina, Colombia, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Spain, the UK, and the U.S. In Europe, countries like the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and Norway already have wide ranging player protection provisions within their established regulations.