SBC Insights has released a new industry snapshot report examining the current state of player education across the global gambling sector.
The report, titled ‘Shaping the Future of Player Education’, was commissioned by 1xCare and explores what education measures operators currently have in place.
Safer gambling policy has long leaned heavily on restrictive tools such as deposit limits, loss limits, and time limits as the primary mechanisms for player protection.
This approach implicitly places the burden of responsibility on the player rather than the operator or the broader gambling ecosystem.
Without genuine awareness of how gambling products work and what risks they carry, players simply cannot make fully informed decisions about their habits.
The report argues that education is therefore a fundamental component of any meaningful player protection framework, not an optional add-on.
Simon Westbury, Chair of 1xCare, told SBC News: “Outcomes outweigh process. The true measure of successful player protection regulation should be whether harm decreases, not how many compliance steps it introduces.”
Westbury also noted that better information sharing between all stakeholders could meaningfully improve safety outcomes across the industry.
Marketing regulation has become a major flashpoint in safer gambling debates, with advertising restrictions, sponsorship limits, and celebrity bans increasingly common across jurisdictions.
Chris Bird, a member of the 1xCare board, argued that this framing misses an opportunity, saying: “Marketing should be part of the answer, not part of the problem.”
Bird added that operators and their marketing partners have “a real opportunity to educate customers, promote safer gambling, steer people towards lower risk products where appropriate, and keep players within [safe limits].”
The report also draws comparisons with how other high-risk industries, including cryptocurrency exchanges, prediction markets, and foreign exchange trading platforms, handle user education.
Sissel Weitzhändler, a member of the 1xCare advisory board, cautioned against overreliance on poorly defined research, stating: “Not all ‘evidence’ is equal. Regulators should work with academics and operators to establish common definitions and create key datasets to make research more useful.”
Weitzhändler also emphasised the need for holistic support systems, saying effective frameworks “must include clear pathways to independent support for issues such as addiction, mental health, debt management and domestic violence.”
She further stressed that data privacy must remain central to any regulatory approach, warning that “lawmakers and regulators must consider whether requests for data are necessary or represent unjustified intrusion.”
The full report and the complete International Player Safety Index series by SBC Insights, supported by 1xCare, are available to download via the SBC News website.
