🔒 🔒 Gambling’s technology arms race creates new challenge for industry watchdog

Victoria’s gambling regulator will harness technology, data and intelligence to identify emerging risks earlier in a bid to combat increasingly sophisticated betting products and platforms that present new challenges for harm minimisation.

The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission has made the issue a central focus of its three-year Strategy 2029, setting out a regulatory approach designed to keep pace with developments across the sector.

VGCCC chief executive Suzy Neilan said the Commission needed to strengthen its capacity as wagering operators adopted new methods to attract and retain customers.

“In response we will leverage technology, data, research and intelligence to allow us to identify risks earlier and act sooner,” Neilan said.

The strategy comes as digital betting continues to expand, with developments across products, promotions and payment systems changing the way consumers interact with gambling.

Neilan said those shifts were creating a more difficult regulatory environment, particularly as gambling became available through a growing number of channels.

“New online products, promotions and payment options are making gambling more accessible and easier to engage with,” she said

“ … technology and shifts in the market are reshaping how gambling operates and how people experience it.”

The Commission intends to combine information gathered through its regulatory work with research and external partnerships to build a clearer picture of emerging threats.

“Combining intelligence, research and partnerships, allows the VGCCC to identify the issue early, understand its potential impacts and take proportionate action,” Neilan said.

The approach is designed to allow the regulator to direct its resources towards areas where intervention can have the greatest effect, rather than treating all activity in the sector in the same way.

Engagement, education, harm-minimisation measures and enforcement will form part of that response, depending on the nature and seriousness of the concerns identified.

Neilan said Strategy 2029 would build on the foundation established since the commission’s inception while allowing it to adapt more quickly to developments across the market.

“We will be proactive and adapt our regulatory approach to strengthen harm minimisation and improve our effectiveness,” she said.

The emphasis on technology also reflects a wider challenge for regulators, with digital betting platforms providing operators with increasingly detailed information about customer behaviour and engagement.

The VGCCC will seek to use its own capabilities to recognise warning signs and inform decisions about where regulatory attention is needed.

Neilan said the Commission’s wider objective remained reducing the potential consequences of gambling for the Victorian community.

“Gambling is an inherently risky activity. Minimising the risk of harm to the community underpins everything we do,” she said.

The strategy also commits the regulator to using the tools available to promote a gambling environment that is safe and fair, while maintaining expectations around the conduct of operators.

“The VGCCC will use every tool available so that gambling in Victoria is as safe and fair as possible, and the industry operates safely, fairly and with integrity,” Neilan said.