Analysing the online gambling industry, big data and addiction using the lens of epistemic injustice

Background

Online gambling has ushered in a significant change in what gambling looks like for industry, players, and regulators. Online gambling operators’ use of big data leads to hyper-personalised advertising, data-informed deployment of harmful behavioural economics techniques to increase gambling, and the creation of ultra-addictive environments. Through these techniques, both the online gambling industry and problem gambling are growing rapidly internationally.

Methods

This research involved qualitative thematic analysis of industry documentation. ‘Epistemic injustice’ was used as an analytical framework for analysing how gambling companies use big data. Application of this framework is a novel way of analysing the commercial determinants of health, and in particular the underexplored relationship between the commercial determinants of health and big data.

Results

The analysis of industry documentation shows that gambling companies’ use of big data intentionally both shapes gamblers’ behaviour and obfuscates gambling companies’ roles in creating addiction. This constitutes significant ‘epistemic injustice’ within contemporary online gambling. This epistemic injustice is seen in two ways; ‘opaque institutions’ (industry’s use of proprietary customer data to influence behaviour), and intentional epistemic noise (such as ubiquitous positive-affect gambling content). These combine to create knowledge and power imbalances greatly in favour of industry over gamblers.

Conclusions

This research highlights how big data helps drive the commercial determinants of health, in particular gambling. As it demonstrates how industry intentionally influences and determines behaviour, it also highlights the importance of developing policies that tackle the structural drivers of gambling addiction, rather than relying on ‘responsibility’; which this research shows in a problematic approach to gambling policy given how industry is able to override agency and shape behaviour.

Key messages

• Analysis of gambling industry documentation shows that big data is being used to shape behaviour, override individuals’ autonomy, and drive addiction.

• Using ‘epistemic injustice’ as a framework not only helps uncover how industry shapes behaviour, but also shows how industry obfuscates its own role in creating addiction.