Spreading the Wealth: The Case for Sharing Data

Responsible Gaming Education Month provides an opportunity for all the players in the responsible gaming field to do something that is truly responsible, says Keith Whyte, the former executive director of the National Center for Problem Gambling. By sharing the data each RG organization has gathered, the field will move forward at a much more rapid pace.

Responsible Gaming Education Month is an opportunity to look beyond what we know about gambling harms—and consider what we could learn if we made better use of the information already available.

Gambling operators and, to some extent, state regulators collect enormous amounts of data about how people gamble. That data could help researchers answer some of the field’s most persistent questions, including one of the most important: Why do most people who gamble never develop a gambling problem, even when they may share many of the same risk factors as someone who does? 

Unfortunately, much of the available data remains siloed within individual companies, jurisdictions, or organizations. As a result, researchers often have an incomplete picture of gambling behavior. Without broader data sets, it is difficult to identify meaningful patterns, test assumptions, and develop more effective approaches to prevention and responsible gambling. Especially when it comes to online financial risk-taking behavior, which includes but certainly isn’t limited to regulated gambling.

We should continue to encourage gambling operators to work together to responsibly share data with qualified researchers. State legislators and regulators have a number of avenues to request, require and even incentivize operators to participate. De-identified data can help protect individual privacy while allowing researchers to study gambling behavior at a scale that would otherwise be impossible.

Greater data sharing will require trust, appropriate safeguards, clear standards, and collaboration among operators, regulators, researchers, and other stakeholders. It won’t be easy, but the potential benefits are significant.

If we want responsible gaming strategies grounded in evidence, we need the evidence to be as comprehensive as possible. Sharing data responsibly could help move the field beyond longstanding assumptions and toward a deeper understanding of what keeps people safe.

Keith Whyte is the former executive director of the National Center for Problem Gambling and the founder and president of Safer Gambling Strategies. Safer Gambling Strategies partners with corporations, NGOs, government and regulatory agencies in the U.S. and abroad to provide expert guidance on preventing gambling addiction and promoting safer gambling.