Social Responsibility, New Technologies, and Problem Gambling in Bingo

Abstract

Chapter 9 traces the impact, on bingo, of recent laws, policies, and procedures related to problematic gambling, by exploring the risks associated with the game and the perceived vulnerability of its distinctive players. By linking problem gambling studies to critical regulation scholarship, it seeks a deeper understanding of the limits, and risks, of algorithmic approaches to consumer protection. The chapter outlines a novel analytic approach to responsible gambling debates, one that pays attention to workers as well as players, and that centres the nexus between profit-making and risk-monitoring. The chapter then charts the emergence of social responsibility as a regulatory priority within UK gambling in general, and bingo in particular. Companies now use a standardized responsible gambling approach, involving increasingly formalized interactions between staff and players. This standardized approach has intensified reliance on technologies borrowed from electronic gambling machines and online gambling formats to identify, and manage, risky play. These technologies are, in turn, reliant on moving customers to cashless play in order that they can be tracked. The chapter focuses on two key consequences of these changes: their impact on workers, and their impact on cash players. Specifically, it shows that standardized responsible gambling measures have resulted in the responsibilization of staff, and have reshaped the relationship between workers and players. Because cash use helps players to limit spending, account-based play is likely to be of dubious effectiveness as a harm reduction measure, and may even be counterproductive.