The European Betting and Gaming Association has published its annual sustainability report.

Belgium.- The European Betting and Gaming Association has published its latest sustainability report, reporting that 65 per cent of members’ European customers (amounting to 21 million people) used safer gambling tools last year. That’s a rise of 14 per cent year-on-year. 

More than half of players used the tools voluntarily. Deposit limits were the most popular tool, used by 70 per cent of customers who use tools voluntarily.

The EGBA said members “significantly stepped up their efforts to implement and promote safer gambling in 2023”. It said operators sent a record 67.6 million messages to their customers to promote safer play, up 49 per cent year-on-year. Over 23 million messages were personalised based on a customer’s actual playing behaviour. Personalised messages were mainly delivered via on-screen pop-ups (70 per cent) and email (25 per cent).

Some 65 per cent of the customers who displayed potentially problematic play either improved or stabilised their play following safety messages: 45 per cent improved their play, 10 per cent refrained from playing and 10 per cent stabilised their play.

This came amid a 4 per cent rise in the number of customer accounts to a record 32.5 million. Some 72 per cent of customers were male, down from 74 per cent in 2022. The largest customer segments were those aged 26-35 and 36-50, collectively accounting for 59 per cent of customers.

Members allocated €61.2m to problem gambling research, education and treatment (RET) services and donated €151.4m to charities and community initiatives.

Safer gambling training for employees

As for employment, members had 58,633 employees across land-based and online operations: 57 per cent male and 43 per cent female. The report details that 80 per cent of members’ employees received dedicated safer gambling training. This accounted for over 45,000 employees in both online and land-based operations.

Regarding the environment, total energy consumption was 253.4 GWh across online and land-based operations, with 71.8 per cent sourced from renewable energy. Greenhouse gas emissions amounted to 0.93 million tonnes CO2e.

The annual ESG report aims to track yearly progress, support transparency and reinforce a culture of social responsibility among European gaming operators. This year’s report includes key sustainability highlights from EGBA and its members during the past year, as well as data points collected from its members related to customers, safer gambling tools and promotion, social contributions, employment and diversity and energy and environment.

EGBA secretary general Maarten Haijer said: “We’re pleased to publish our latest sustainability report, highlighting significant progress by our members in many areas of safer gambling, particularly in the roll-out of safety tools and their direct interactions with players about their playing behaviour. This demonstrates their collective efforts to embed a sustainable approach to gambling at the heart of what they do. In the report, our CEOs also quite rightly flag their concerns about the growing black market in Europe and the risks it poses to players and the progress made in safer gambling. We’re pleased to expand our reporting this year with specific new metrics about the use of safety tools and messages to promote safer play.”

The EGBA has confirmed the dates for European Safer Gambling Week 2024, which will take place from 18-24 November. The annual collaborative initiative aims to raise awareness about safer gambling in Europe and promote discussions about player protection among gambling operators, regulators, support organisations and experts-by-experience.

This year will be the fourth edition of the initiative. There will be a social media campaign and an array of workshops to raise awareness about safer gambling, share best practices and tips and signpost resources and services. Meanwhile, the identity verification provider Sumsub has joined the EGBA as an associate member. The EGBA said the move would help its efforts to create a safer and more secure gambling market in Europe.