Key points:
- Cohen spoke at the London Tech Leaders event in London on Thursday 13 February
- He spoke of how tech compliance teams are treated like 'mushrooms,' left in the dark and expected to thrive
- He suggested change in culture and attitude as key across the gaming industry
Aviation House, just opposite Holborn station in London, played host to a session titled ‘Responsibility in gaming and gambling technology’ on Thursday 13 February 2025. Hosted by London Tech Leaders, the evening consisted of a keynote speech and panel, comprised of leaders in the tech and gambling space.
Charles Cohen, Founder of the Department of Trust, was the evening’s keynote speaker. His presentation began in a somewhat unorthodox fashion, with a picture of a mushroom. This, Cohen explained, is a metaphor for many of the compliance tech teams in major gambling businesses. “I was asking one of them, how do you feel? What's it like? She said, we are the mushrooms. They keep us in the dark, and occasionally they open the door and throw in some stuff, and we are expected to flourish.”
In Cohen’s eyes, these members of a gambling company team, the ‘mushrooms,’ are sorely undervalued, and hold the answer to the challenges of tech, compliance and working with, not against, regulators.
You can't code your way out of some places
“Player protection, as it’s politely known, has a bit of an image problem,” he said. Operators, in his mind, will always be drawn to revenue, as opposed to regulation. “They would like to give all their attention to revenue-generating activities, but they see responsible gaming holding them back. We can't be naughty”
Meanwhile, technology teams “want to spend all of their time building great products, plugging in new things because that generates revenue. Player protection is seen as this anchor that's holding everything back. This is a problem.”
Cohen noted that there are “big operators who make a big deal about how they are committed to responsible gambling, who have reduced the size of their player protection teams in the last six months.” In his opinion, this is a cultural issue within the gaming industry: One that sorely needs addressing.
Limited funds lead to limited technology for these teams, said Cohen. “Compliance is where automation goes to die,” he said, recounting how some major operators in the UK are still using Excel spreadsheets to gather data, doing so manually despite the scale of their operations. “Excel is not reg-tech,” he clarified.
Cohen compared the situation of tech and regulation to crash games. As more and more regulations are placed upon these teams, there will come a point where the system collapses. There are mandatory breaks, then affordability checks, then stake limits. But, how much more can these systems take? “You can't code your way out of some places,” he said.
In May 2024, the Gambling Commission (GC) and Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) announced a list of new rulings and standards for gambling companies in the UK. By the end of the month, these will be going live, including a £150 light-touch vulnerability check system. Players won’t be aware these checks are happening, Cohen explained, as data comes from public places, but operators are “required to review the outcome and make a decision what they need to do about it... in real-time.” This is something an Excel spreadsheet, where results must be sent to a vendor, reviewed and looked at manually, simply cannot be used for.
Still, it seems operators are not doing enough to bolster their systems in preparation for this change. 20% of players will trigger this check, Cohen said. This 20% of players account for 96% of operator revenue... “and they don't think it's a problem.”
A change of mindset, of attitude towards compliance, is the solution.
Cohen went on to give an example of how in-depth player data can effectively tell a problem gambler from other players. One factor, like the amount they play with, is one factor, but what about how many operators they play with, or how often their bank account is overdrawn? Having access to this data and having systems that can extrapolate from it in real-time could be a game-changer for spotting warning signs.
“As we move into this new era where there's much more data, there’s a whole new challenge to be met about how to invoke this information,” he said. “This is where the compliance people becomes so important, because it is going to meet their skill and understanding. To actually have a conversation with customers, to understand what's going on, because you can see everything but can't necessarily understand.”
Wrapping up his presentation, Cohen left a final message for attendees. “This is the message that I want to leave you with. I hope it’s a useful change of perspective. But, compliance is the enabler of good business. Bad compliance can get you a fine, can get you shut down, but good compliance can make your business really fly. Because it can make you sustainable. The problem is that [compliance], the point of most friction with the customer, seems to get the least investment and attention from the business. That's been going on for a long time and it needs to change.
“Ultimately, what companies need to do is set a target for investment in compliance. A good percentage of budget. And make sure that gets the attention that it needs. Give them their own budget so they can make their own investments in technology, in people. Then they can really contribute to the business."
