The threat posed by problem gambling cannot be emphasized enough, and as an initiative, GAMSTOP offers self-exclusion service to UK residents desirous of avoiding gambling for a specific period. However, information to individuals about the treatment of data collected is necessary in order to avoid liability under the data protection legislation, especially by an organisation processing a large volume of data.

Reasons For Data Collection

It is no gainsaying that in order to actualise the goal of the self-exclusion scheme improvised by the UK commission through GAMSTOP, and to lessen the odds of breach of contract with users under the terms of use, there's a necessity for identification of participants and users of the scheme.

This identification prerequisite, achieved through the collection of gamers' personal data is also utilized by the GAMSTOP services to amplify the functionality of the service, and they are also collected to comply with a legal directive. Personal data to further the aforementioned objectives is also gotten from persons yet to register for GAMSTOP through personal interaction, interaction with family and friends of a gamer etc.

Personal data mandatory from users of GAMSTOP in order to self-exclude themselves, and without which the service may not effectively function, comprise:

·Complete full name and Title

·Correct date of birth

·Correct mobile number(s) intended to form part of the self-exclusion

·Correct email address(es) intended to form part of the self-exclusion.

Importantly, these data are secured by GAMSTOP through sophisticated technical measures, such as hashing personal data received as well as exchanging them with service partners through a secure API link. Unfortunately, GamStop cannot get the data, if players access brand new casino sites not on GamStop that are based overseas. They're not linked to the National scheme and don't follow UKGC rules.

Mode Of Data Collection

The aforementioned data are obtained by GAMSTOP during the registration of users, through the following modes:

• Recording of calls with users to GAMSTOP's contact centre for personnel training, service accuracy, performance monitoring, etc. However, this is done authoritatively, as a message is usually sent to users at the beginning of the call informing them that calls are recorded.

• Verification during online registration. This is carried out in concert with Transunion to determine whether data provided by users are genuine. As a result of support from gambling operators, GAMSTOP is able to obtain data of a large representation of gamers which it sends to Transunion database. Transunion asks certain questions during registration, and upon checking the correspondence of reply given by the user with data stored in its database, GAMSTOP informs the users of the match and proceeds with registering the user for self-exclusion.

• Customers' data, sent by iGaming companies to GAMSTOP matching service, which is compared with personal data held of people who have registered for self-exclusion. Operators participating under the scheme are required to carry out this exercise in order to restrain any user, who has registered to self-exclude, from their services.

It is noteworthy that due to the large volume of data processed by GAMSTOP under the scheme, its service is automated, except for rare instances requiring human intervention. This works as GAMSTOP stores users data in its database, and where a particular gamer uses the same data to register with any of the online gambling operators (who are all mandated to participate in the scheme), the operator sends such data to GAMSTOP's matching service. Where the two sets of information correspond (i.e data stored by GAMSTOP and data obtained by gambling operator), the operator will bar the user from registering for its services.

Incorrect Match of data

As obtainable in any other system, there is a probability of incorrectly processing data of persons who did not sign up for the services being offered, GAMSTOP is not an exception to the conundrum. To minimize fails, GAMSTOP partnered with DataShed which is the most popular data management software in the United Kingdom.

However, GAMSTOP has devised a strategy to circumvent incorrectly matching individuals who have not registered for self-exclusion. This it does by storing and retaining personal data of individuals with such compliance in its system, to prevent future exclusion of such individuals by gambling operators.

Data Retention Period

The period with which personal data of users who have submitted their data to GAMSTOP at any point in time vary, depending on the purpose of collection of such data.

For gamers whose data are transmitted to GAMSTOP matching services from a gambling operator, all information about them are immediately expunged, immediately it is discovered not to match data of any self-excluded individual.

The personal data of individuals who were unsuccessful in completing registration for self-exclusion, and information concerning an Individual's I.D, provided to GAMSTOP are kept for 30 days, but in exceptional cases, they are kept for 7 years where they are added to GAMSTOP'S case management system.

The personal data of gamers who registered for self-exclusion are retained for 7 years after the duration of the period of exclusion. After the said 7 years, it is archived for a further 7 years after which it is deleted.

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