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The UK-based self-exclusion scheme for online gambling GAMSTOP says half a million people have now signed up to the platform, just six years after it first launched.
The program is a free tool that allows people to self-exclude themselves from all GB-licensed gambling websites for a period of time, ranging from six months to five years.
GAMSTOP says “half a million vulnerable consumers have registered” since 2018. The announcement comes after their record month in April which saw 8,686 people throughout the UK register to seek support from gambling.
The CEO of the UK scheme, Fiona Palmer, said: We have come a very long way since our launch in April 2018, and GAMSTOP is now widely recognized as an important tool to help vulnerable consumers take a break from their gambling.
“We are proud to have been able to help hundreds of thousands of people take back control of their lives through self-exclusion, and we hope to help many more in the years to come.
“It is right that we regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the service through independent research, and we will shortly be announcing the results of a comprehensive listening exercise conducted by Ipsos, who have surveyed thousands of GAMSTOP’s users.”
Young men are more likely to have problem gambling worries, study finds
The UK-focused Gambling Commission looked into the behavior around gambling in Britain over the last few months, with the first annual report being published at the end of July.
In their sample, they found that “male participants were more likely than female participants to have higher Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores and those aged 19 to 34 had higher PGSI scores than other age groups.”
Almost half of their participants (48%) who were aged 18 and over said they had participated in some form of gambling in the last four weeks.
The most common reasons for choosing to gamble included the “chance of winning big money (86%), because gambling is fun (70%), to make money (58%) [and] because it was exciting [55%].
Featured Image: Via Ideogram
