Isle of Man Stops 3K Underage Users from Gambling

The regulatory body responsible for the governance of all gambling activities on the Isle of Man and recognizable international regulator in remote gambling, the Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC), released the results of a new study.

The survey report was administered to the country’s 35 license holders offering services under the Online Gambling Regulation Act 2001. The Commission was pleased to announce that the engagement with the survey was high, considering it received responses from 33 operators.

Licensees Effectively Prevent Underage Gambling

Notably, the study shares insights regarding the dedication of operators to combat underage gambling, the usage of responsible gambling tools and the usage of self-exclusion. The responses of the 33 license holders cover a period between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023.

A key take from the newly released survey is the number of refused or canceled registrations to underage individuals. In 2023, license holders canceled or refused the registration of a total of 2,972 underage gamblers.

Analyzing their policies, internal controls and mechanisms used to identify underage customers, the operators deemed those tools as “effective” and “very effective.” All 33 respondents highlighted the effectiveness of the existing tools that help prevent underage customers from accessing their gambling platforms.

Besides effectively preventing underage gamblers from registering or accessing their services, a majority of the operators admitted that they didn’t record a single attempt for underage registration. Such was the response of 79% of the respondents.

“31 respondents confirmed they had an ethical marketing policy that sought to ensure advertising was not targeted at underage people, 27 had contractual restrictions in place with their affiliates and other third-party marketing providers, and 20 respondents reported they had social media policies in place to ensure adverts were not targeted at underage customers,“

reads the Gambling Supervision Commission’s recent report

Customers Used Self-Exclusion, Responsible Gambling Tools

Further highlights of the recent report revealed that all respondents admitted to offering at least one responsible gambling tool such as spending, deposit or loss limit. This result doesn’t come as a surprise considering that the offering of a minimum of one spending tool is part of the license conditions for each operator.

Per the report, an estimated 2.5% of all registered customers used some form of transaction-limiting control. This percentage translates to 67,907 customers who used a responsible gambling tool during 2023.

On the other hand, some 0.8% of the registered customers used a self-exclusion option. The aforementioned figure represents 21,999 players who engaged in self-exclusion throughout 2023.

Despite registering, some consumers attempted to circumvent the self-exclusion they agreed to. A total of 5,134 such cases were recorded in 2023, a number that represents 23% of all self-exclusion cases recorded by licensed gambling operators.