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- Over two thirds of sites sent identifiable data to third parties before users gave consent and a quarter offering no way to refuse tracking.
- An experiment with 615 UK gamblers found the most common banner design made people three to four times more likely to accept tracking than a neutral one-click option.
- Those who accepted rated the choice as a poor match for their real preferences.
UK casino sites are falling badly short of the law when it comes to protecting the personal data they collect from visitors, it has emerged.
New research from Swansea University's Gambling Research, Education and Treatment Centre found that 86% of the UK's 624 licensed gambling websites are breaching data protection law.
The study, published in Computers in Human Behaviour Reports, audited the cookie consent banners and network traffic of every casino and sports betting site holding a UK Gambling Commission licence.
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Two-thirds of sites sent unique user identifiers to third-party marketing platforms before visitors had given any consent.
Almost a quarter gave users no way to refuse tracking at all, and 2% displayed no consent banner whatsoever.
Only 29% of banners let players reject tracking as easily as they could accept it.
On some sites, refusing tracking took as many as 15 clicks.
Researchers also ran an experiment with 615 UK gamblers, testing how six different banner designs affected real decisions on a simulated betting site.
The most commonly used design across the industry made participants three to four times more likely to accept tracking than a neutral, one-click alternative.
Those who accepted rated their choice as a far poorer match for their real privacy preferences than those who refused.
| What the study found | Why it matters for casino sites |
|---|---|
| 67% of sites collected identifiable data before consent | Unique identifiers were sent to third-party marketing platforms before visitors had made a choice |
| 24% gave no way to refuse tracking | Includes the 2% of sites that showed no consent banner at all |
| Only 29% of banners were equally easy to reject | Some sites required up to 15 clicks just to say no |
| Common banner designs boosted acceptance 3-4x | Tested on 615 UK gamblers using a simulated betting site |
The researchers argue the data harvested this way feeds personalised marketing and cross-web tracking, and that the same signals used to identify high-value players overlap with recognised markers of gambling harm.
Studies like this really highlight the importance of playing at legit, trusted UK casino sites.
OLBG's Casino Content Manager David Coleman believes the findings underline why a casino site's privacy settings matter just as much as its game selection or bonus terms.
He said: "This isn't a minor technical issue buried in a privacy policy nobody reads.
"When a site is built to make you click through a maze just to say no to tracking, that's a design choice, not an accident.
"The data collected this way can end up shaping the marketing a player sees for months afterwards, and the researchers make a fair point that some of those signals overlap with markers of harm.
"Members who want more control should look for casino sites that make privacy choices genuinely equal, not just technically compliant."
