Summary
- BGC ran a Take Time to Think campaign to encourage responsible gambling
- University of Warwick carried out a live study on the effectiveness of said campaign
- Results show that BGC’s campaign had zero impact!
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) which is the industry body for gambling and betting operators in the UK placed a huge emphasis on their ‘Take Time to Think’ campaign which was launched in Oct 2021.
The BGC launched this campaign to replace its earlier “When the Fun Stops Stop” campaign that was promoted throughout the UK. The objective of the ‘Take Time to Think’ campaign was to encourage responsible gambling at all times.
Live Research Study Shows Campaign Had No Impact
The University of Warwick had earlier tested the effectiveness of the “When the Fun Stops Stop” campaign and claimed that it was ineffective. They carried out another live research study for the ‘Take Time to Think’ campaign and concluded that once again the BGC’s campaign was ineffective based on their results.
The University of Warwick decided to take a group of 1500 gamblers and split them into three sections to test the effectiveness of the ‘Take Time to Think’ campaign. All 1500 participants were given an equivalent of £5 in real money and asked to play a game of roulette or withdraw their money right away.
The first group had the ‘Take Time to Think’ message played repeatedly in the background while they played, the second group had to close a pop-up of the ‘Take Time to Think’ message before they could play their game of roulette while the third group did not have the ‘Take Time to Think’ message.
The objective was to measure how each group responded and whether the ‘Take Time to Think’ message would have an impact on their gambling behaviour. The conclusion of the live research experiment showed that the ‘Take Time to Think’ message had no impact and at best very little impact on the gambling behaviour of these 1500 people who were part of the experiment.
BGC Must Test and Then Use Slogans
The ‘Take Time to Think’ message did not reduce the amount of time or money spent gambling. The University of Warwick says that for the BGC’s campaign to be effective they must first test their messaging in a live environment and should look to use stronger slogans similar to the tobacco and alcohol industries.
