Is there a need for personal gambling licences?

Abstract

Licensing is currently the most popular option among regulators for controlling gambling operations. However, approximately 20% of operators are still public monopolies. Many forms of gambling (especially lotteries) are government operated even in countries with a licensing system. This creates an inherent conflict of interest, given that government is supposed to protect the wellbeing of its citizenry and to reap the benefits of gambling at the same time. At least in the gambling monopoly, however, addressing the unavoidable harm that results from gambling should be a priority. Industry self-regulation and reliance on "responsible gambling" rely too much on individuals to control their own gambling. It is suggested in this contribution that it is possible to provide more comprehensive consumer protection, recognising both the duty of governments to take care of their own citizens and the fact that industry self-regulation is not enough. Precommitment cards have been tested in various contexts, and have shown promise in terms of providing tools for individuals to restrict their own gambling. However, given the known shortcomings such as allowing the use of other cards that are not one's own, and other venues, it is clear that in themselves they do not guarantee effective prevention. Personal licensing is therefore explored as a move forward in this literature-based discussion. Although the system may be applicable to other contexts, the focus is on the Nordic countries. Given that the underlying justification for gambling monopolies is to control gambling-related harm, in the cases of Finland and Norway licensing could be combined with loyalty cards introduced by monopoly operators. This would provide a feasible alternative to current practices of responsible gambling.

On the efficiency of Nordic state-controlled gambling companies

“…In such a situation, issuing personal gambling licences (cf. driving licences and permits to carry weapons) might be a better option than responsible gambling campaigns in terms of further enhancing player protection ( Nikkinen, 2019 ).…”

Does Gambling Harm or Benefit Other Industries? A Systematic Review

“…Unfortunately, limited resources are currently available to achieve this. If players are not registered, their transactions cannot be followed (also Nikkinen, 2019). For the time being, researchers have to rely on self-reporting and interviews, which do not always provide accurate information about consumption patterns, especially if they are not conducted in gambling venues.…”

How Do State Gambling Monopolies Affect Levels of Gambling Harm?

“…1 Prisma flow chart population level harms, such as exposure and availability in related fields, like in alcohol studies [25], but also increasingly in gambling [1••, 26, 27]. The appearance of conflicts of interest was also considered in the previous reviews by Williams et al [20] and Planzer and Wardle [19] and was considered a justifiable measure of systemic-level harms caused by gambling: Gambling is lucrative business for governments and private operators, which has been argued to have an impact on regulatory choices [28][29][30][31][32]. The three harm indicators differ profoundly as outcome measures.…”