
Oli Adcock
Associate Advisor
Social media has become a platform for novel gambling and gambling-like products to emerge, potentially posing risk to consumers. Many of these products and promotions are linked to unregulated gambling – gambling facilitated by an operator or person who would require a licence to legally operate within Great Britain (GB), but does not have one. Additionally, access to gambling-like products through social media – products that exhibit similar features, but are not considered gambling for the purpose of regulation – might be less restricted than to regulated gambling.
This report presents our research findings on gambling through social media. We interviewed 15 individuals who had gambled this way to understand their motivations and to explore their experiences.
Based on what we learned from participants, we developed three personas that demonstrate typical motivations and experiences:
All three user personas are motivated to explore gambling on social media by curiosity and seeking a sense of community.
Our research demonstrates that social media has heightened exposure to both regulated and unregulated gambling, as well as gambling-like products. Compared to traditional gambling platforms and venues, social media often offers weaker consumer protections, increasing the risk of gambling-related harm, fraud, and data misuse for its users. To address these risks we propose that:
Read the full report for more insights or get in touch to see how our deep understanding of human behaviour and evidence-led problem solving can help you.
Associate Advisor
Senior Advisor
Associate Advisor
Associate Advisor
Principal Advisor
Principal Research Advisor (Head of Qualitative Research)
Design and development by Soapbox.