Industry leadership has been warned that UK gambling faces an ‘affordability crisis’ as the rising cost of living causes active customers to reduce their spending.  

The warning has been delivered by new affordability solutions provider Department of Trust (DoTrust), which in March appointed YouGov to conduct a poll on gambling affordability in light of a drastically changing economic backdrop.

Conducting research on a representative sample of 700 active UK gamblers, the YouGov poll found that “32% of respondents said they will spend less on gambling in the coming months”.

Of direct concern, 59% of respondents cited that their spend reductions were due to mounting pressures on their day-to-day finances.

43% of respondents cited that they were consciously cutting back on non-essentials, whilst 38% said they were watching what they spend without making any changes as yet.

Mirroring wider UK consumer feedback, 11% of respondents admitted that they were already struggling to meet even essential bills and expenses.

According to DoTrust founder Charles Cohen, YouGov findings should be an alarm bell for a gambling sector already under increasing pressure to ensure players are able to afford their gambling.

“Inflation is at levels not seen for decades and this is translating into a fast-moving affordability crisis for the gambling industry. Wait-and-see is not an option: operators need real time financial data more than ever,” Cohen warned. 

A former IGT Plc executive, Cohen founded DoTrust to remove all friction points between operator data requests with customers – to ensure operators can deliver the safest of gambling environments.  

Developing consumer-centric affordability solutions, Cohen told SBC that DOTrust is “coming out of stealth mode with the launch of BetBudget, our personal finance app for gamblers”.

BetBudget offers free, independent personal budgeting tools designed specifically for people who gamble. It is available from Google Play and Apple App Store as well as in the browser.

Of significance, DoTrust uses FCA regulated Open Banking to facilitate frictionless affordability checks through the BetBudget personal finance App.

Instead of requesting full bank statements, operators can make targeted requests through the App for specific information such as disposable income that players review and approve with one tap.

The app aims to become the comprehensive solution for customer personal data requests that are typically refused by up to 80% of players.