Tracking Internet Gambling

Sweden's state-owned internet gambling operator Svenska Spel makes available a responsible gambling tool named Playscan. Players who are part of Svenska Spel's loyalty program have the option of downloading Playscan at no charge. Playscan tracks the time and money that players spend gambling and continuously informs players of their situation. The software allows players to partially or fully self-exclude: partially, by setting time or money limits, and fully, by precommitting to not gambling with Svenska Spel for a period of time chosen by the gambler among four options: a day, a week, a month, and permanently. Playscan employs a forecasting system that predicts a player's future gambling. A traffic-light system displays Playscan's view of someone's gambling: green means gambling is controlled, yellow means signs of problem gambling are developing, and red means that problem gambling behaviors are detected. (The light system is based on changes from past behavior.) Those gamblers who are red-lighted automatically are removed from marketing initiatives. A 2009 article by Griffiths, Wood, and Parke indicates that many gamblers find Playscan to be useful, and a significant percentage have made use of the self-exclusion options.

As internet gambling sites more-or-less automatically track a player's behavior, even for those players who are not part of a loyalty program, the inclusion of responsible gambling tools, including self-exclusion, into the gambling environment, can be implemented with relative ease.