Voluntary self-exclusion (VSE) allows people to remove their access to an online gambling account for a certain period of time. Past research studies have used VSE as an indirect way to measure problem gambling. However, some studies found that not all people who use VSE have a gambling problem. This study investigated if VSE is a good proxy measure for problem gambling. Data were provided by Unibet, an online gambling company with customers in the UK. The researchers compared between 7732 customers who chose VSE for six months and 141 customers who closed their account because of a gambling addiction.
The results showed that half of the customers who used VSE did so within the first seven days of opening their account. Customers who used VSE spent less money than customers who closed an account because of a gambling addiction. There were large differences in the number of days gambling and amount of money spent prior to VSE. The researchers concluded that VSE is not a reliable way to determine if a customer has problem gambling.
