East Riding gambling operators will soon share players' spending data
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Betting shops, casinos and gambling websites will find out how much customers are spending
Betting shops, casinos and gambling websites will soon be able to find out how much customers are spending, East Riding councillors have heard.
East Riding councillors heard a recent data protection ruling had cleared the way for the sharing system to go ahead.
Rob Burkitt, of the Gambling Commission, told councillors the ‘Single Customer View’ would be a big step forward for the industry.
He added it would mean a casino in one city would know if one of their customers had spent all their money at a betting shop or online before visiting.
It comes as East Riding Council’s Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee also heard local online gambling rates peaked from November 2020 to April 2021, but the amount of those betting overall did not.
Melanie McKee, a council public health officer, said the trend was largely down to people going online while being unable to visit betting shops or casinos due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
She added local online gambling rates were currently falling but had not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Mr Burkitt said work on the Gambling Commission’s new customer spending data sharing system was still ongoing.
He added the Information Commissioner’s Office had ruled the system would not break General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
Mr Burkitt said: “The single customer view is a massive step forward.
“Under the current system, a casino in Leeds say would have a regular whose typical spending they knew about, but a casino in Sheffield run by a different operator would not.
“The new system would allow operators to share data about that customer’s spending both on and offline.
“So let’s say I went and spent all my wages in a Ladbrokes here and then went down to a casino in Birmingham, the two would be capable of sharing that data.”
It comes as the number of online bets made increased by 5 per cent nationally in July, according to the latest figures from the Gambling Commission.
But gross gambling yield (GGY), the amount companies kept after paying out winnings before spending on operating costs, fell by 8 per cent.
The number of online slot sessions lasting longer than an hour rose by 4 per cent to more than 2.4m but their average length stayed at 19 minutes.
The Commission stated activity in the online gambling market stayed relatively stable in July.
Ms McKee told the council’s Safer and Stronger Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee online gambling rates were spread evenly across different areas, regardless of deprivation.
The officer added overall gambling rates in the East Riding were lower than national averages.
Ms McKee said: “There wasn’t an increase in those who started gambling, people who gambled already were going online more.
“There was a move from gambling in premises to online gambling and we’ve since seen a decline.”
