UK Players Don’t Believe in Responsible Gaming Tools

By Natasa Milojevic, Last updated May 14, 2025

Year after year, the UK Gambling Commission conducts its Gambling Survey of Great Britain (GSGB), scrutinizing the gambling habits of 20,000 players across the country. Then, they claim to use this information to make some industry and/or regulatory changes. Since the UKGC is one of the few licensors known for actually looking after players, we take their claim as read. 

But players don’t seem so convinced. 

This year’s research results point to players who raise an eyebrow over the whole point of responsible gaming tools. This is basically because players feel casinos have nothing to gain (meaning, no money in it) by giving them the option to restrict spending. On top of that, it turns out that some players don’t even know responsible gaming tools exist. Talk about something that doesn’t add up in the UKGC’s workings. 

What’s even more alarming is that a good deal of the surveyed players decided to slash their utilities and food budgets just to keep on gambling. 

The UKGC’s response to all this? They say they’ll do more research to understand this whole thing better. 

What will come out of it? The best-case scenario — players start making the most of responsible gambling tools, and we see no more UK-based people choosing to go without their dinner just because they’d rather spin a few reels. The worst case? Go figure. 

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