SBC Insights Report Spotlights Player Education as Essential to Reducing Gambling Harm
TL;DR — SBC Insights’ ‘Shaping the Future of Player Education’ report, commissioned by 1xCare, critiques limit-focused policies and urges meaningful education drawn from crypto, prediction markets and forex. It flags 60% player apathy, stresses staff training and reviews tightening rules in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Leaders call for outcomes over process and cross-stakeholder accountability.
SCCG Take — Operators must treat education as core infrastructure, not compliance theater. Proactive regulator cooperation on side effects and evidence standards marks the structural shift that will separate sustainable operators from the rest.
Safer gambling policies have long emphasized deposit limits, loss limits and time limits. This approach can imply the core issue lies with the player rather than the operator or broader ecosystem. A new SBC Insights report challenges that framing by placing education at the center of meaningful player protection.
The report, titled ‘Shaping the Future of Player Education’ and commissioned by 1xCare, examines current industry measures globally. It asks what steps come next to ensure players understand risks and product mechanics before they gamble. Without that knowledge, informed choices remain out of reach.
Simon Westbury, Chair of 1xCare, told SBC News: “Outcomes outweigh process. The true measure of successful player protection regulation should be whether harm decreases, not how many compliance steps it introduces.” He added that better information sharing among stakeholders could create a much safer environment.
Lessons from Other High-Risk Sectors and Current Industry Gaps
The snapshot compares gambling communications with those used by cryptocurrency exchanges, prediction markets and foreign exchange trading platforms. It identifies opportunities for operators to close gaps in how they inform players.
One key data point stands out: 60% of players show apathy toward existing education tools. The report stresses the need for approaches that drive genuine engagement rather than checkbox compliance. It also underscores the importance of well-trained customer-facing staff and reviews regulatory changes across Europe, Latin America and Africa over the last five years. Those shifts have grown more stringent, directly affecting operator strategies for player protection.
Quirino Mancini, a 1xCare advisory board member, warned that “Regulation has side effects.” He urged operators to cooperate with regulators ahead of implementation to spot unintended consequences. Mancini listed regular audits, risk management and clear compliance rules as essential ingredients for sound regimes.
Where the Risk Lies in Marketing and Evidence
Stringent rules increasingly target marketing, with curfews, sponsorship caps and celebrity restrictions. Yet the report notes that legal operators need marketing to reach audiences in ways the black market avoids. Chris Bird, also on the 1xCare board, stated that “Marketing should be part of the answer, not part of the problem.” He called for shared responsibility across game design, KYC systems, payment providers and the full supply chain.
Sissel Weitzhändler, another advisory board member, emphasized that not all evidence is equal. She advocated for common definitions, robust datasets and integrated pathways addressing addiction, mental health, debt and domestic violence. Privacy concerns received attention too: data requests must be necessary rather than intrusive.
In my three decades advising operators, investors and regulators on gaming compliance, an outcomes-focused lens paired with genuine education feels like an inflection point. The risk lies in treating education as an afterthought. Operators and regulators who invest here now, grounded in shared evidence, will likely see more sustainable harm reduction than limit-setting alone can deliver.
Reporting: SBC News
Education is infrastructure, not compliance theater — operators who treat it that way will outlast those who don't.
We've advised operators in 30-plus markets, and every regulator now asks the same question: does your program actually change behavior? Limit-focused policies miss the point when 60% of players ignore the tools. The operators building education into onboarding, staff training and product design — not burying it in PDFs — are the ones regulators will trust and players will stay with.
- 60% of players show apathy toward current education tools — engagement, not compliance boxes, is the gap
- Report draws lessons from crypto, forex and prediction markets to inform better gambling education
- Regulators in Europe, LatAm and Africa tightening rules; proactive cooperation prevents unintended consequences
SCCG angle: SCCG works with regulators and education platform providers across Europe and emerging markets. When a client needs to redesign player protection for a new jurisdiction or prove outcomes to a regulator, we connect them to the partners who have built and tested these systems — and help structure the stakeholder dialogue before the rules lock in.