The survey was carried out online and interviewed 2,500 people in five countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru – with the aim of assessing the behavior of bettors and discovering their preferences when it comes to protection messages.
As the gaming industry in most of Latin America and Brazil is still not regulated, many players can be exposed to gambling without a 'safety net', with the risk of developing some kind of addiction or compulsion. In this way, safety messages alert players to their risky behavior and provide a means to seek necessary help.
Playtech has a technology called BetBuddy which, through Artificial Intelligence, can anonymously monitor players in real time, using algorithms that evaluate their spending, number of games and more than 50 other variables. With this anonymous data, the technology is able to identify risky behavior patterns and send protection messages for players to reduce the risk or seek help.
According to the research carried out by Playtech, 52% of Brazilians admit having already received some warning about how much they were playing. Among respondents, 37% say they have changed their behavior by taking a break from betting, 20% say they have not changed their behavior, 15% are not sure, but believe that receiving the warning has had some effect; 10% stopped playing immediately and in only 2% of cases did warnings make players bet more.
When asked how they feel when receiving these messages while playing, 44% of Brazilians respect the method, as they know they are for their own good, 28% like and feel safe with the messages, 15% want to know more about their own gaming behavior, 8% reveal that they feel irritated, but do not see the messages as something that affects the gaming experience and only 5%, in addition to not liking receiving them, would like to get rid of them.
Regarding preferences on how to receive these protection messages while betting, 42% of Brazilians opt for WhatsApp or text message; 40% by email; 28% for pop-up messages on the page or application; messaging via chat is the best option for 18% of respondents; 14% prefer game screen freezes and 8% would not like to receive them at all.
Safe entertainment
Doctors and other scholars of human behavior estimate that around 5% of gamblers may develop some form of addiction or compulsion related to gambling globally. According to Francesco Rodano, Playtech's Chief Policy Officer, the company's objective is to work with Brazilian authorities to promote long-term safe and responsible entertainment through betting sites.
“Our responsibility is essentially twofold. On the one hand, we want to develop safer gaming solutions that actually work, backed by evidence and extensively tested, focused on the individual player's well-being and not generically on the entire player base, as we are all different. On the other hand, we need to educate both policymakers and industry peers about the potential of this approach,” he explains.
Source: GMB
