Self-exclusions are an important tool to help fight addiction in online casino lovers, giving a vital safety net to all players, but the impact has apparently become increasingly extreme, with William Hill predicting a full-year financial impact in the region of £25 million according to Chief Executive James Henderson:“Currently around 3,000 accounts a week are affected which means the effect on today’s numbers is small at approximately £2m for the year to date, but the accumulative effect will be more significant according to the extensive modelling we have carried out.”
Surprising numbers
Although exclusion affect all gaming companies, the numbers stated by William Hill suggest that they are disproportionately affected.In an interviews with eGaming Review, several companies said that William Hills numbers seem high, with one major operator saying:“While we are expecting some impact from the self-exclusions, we were surprised to see the scale of the impact Hills is already predicting,”
High rollers
According to Mr Henderson, the majority of those opting for self-exclusion or a cooling off period were valued at four times the average punter, with 60% being primarily gaming clients.He stated that there were no real trends appearing in the amount of people opting for such choices, with the lowest level being in weeks six and seven of the year, and the highest spike being in week ten.With a costly Cheltenham Festival and many European football results favouring the punter in recent weeks, the amount of customers choosing to enter cooling off or self-exclusion periods promises to exacerbate an expensive period for William Hill.