Early detection of at-risk gambling to reduce harm

Player protection is very important in Swiss society, and few other countries have such stringent legal provisions for preventing problem gambling behaviour in casinos. In January 2019, Swiss law was amended to also permit online gambling. Opening the online gambling market, however, has proved to be challenging in terms of meeting player protection objectives. This chapter describes the process that preceded the development of appropriate Responsible Gambling (RG) measures and tools for early detection of people who gamble problematically in Swiss Casinos. On the one hand, those involved relied on their expertise, gained over almost two decades, in the field of early detection for land-based casinos. On the other hand, predictive models developed for detecting at-risk players at an early stage were taken into account. Lastly, best-practice models that online-gambling operators have gained through previous experience, were considered. This brief overview indicates that combining several early detection measures, such as analysing customer communication and the implementation of algorithms to predict upcoming risk events is a very promising harm-reduction strategy. Moreover, implementing effective safeguards for protecting people who gamble calls for constant evidence-based and systematic reevaluation.