Document outlining technical speciﬁcations andimplementation of a global gambling self-exclusion
system, as well as the reasoning behind the proposed
implementation and its beneﬁts for players.

Executive summary
The goal of this document is to describe the vision of what a functioning Global Self-Exclusion System (GSES)
could look like and how it could function in the global gambling industry.
Based on the identiﬁed functional and non-functional requirements and the team’s solutions to the discovered
problematic areas, which are described in-depth in the blue paper document, the proposed functionality can besummarized by these core characteristics:. Players who wish to block their access to online gambling register in the GSES and conﬁgure their self-exclusion
period.

. Participating operators are connected to the system using an API connection.
. The system checks whether an individual is registered in the system only during the registration process at aparticipating operator.
. The system relies on the combination of full name and date of birth when checking whether an individual isregistered in the system.
. To protect the privacy of self-excluded players, the GSES’s database will also contain individuals who joined it forother reasons, apart from individuals who used it to block their access to gambling.

This document contains the reasoning behind these characteristics, a detailed description of the interactions
between the system and individual stakeholders, the system’s organizational and technical characteristics, andexample use cases that illustrate how the system will be used by players and operators.

2

Table of concents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
What is self-exclusion? ................................................................................................................................................................................

5

Why is there a need for a global self-exclusion system? ................................................................................................................................ 5
How can such system function in a global gambling environment?

.............................................................................................................. 6

Functional and non-functional requirements ...................................................................................................................... 7
Requirements from the side of players....................................................................................................................................................... 7

Requirements from the side of gambling operators................................................................................................................................... 8

Other requirements ...................................................................................................................................................................................

8

Discovered problematic areas and proposed solutions .................................................................................................... 9
Checking for matches with the GSES........................................................................................................................................................... 9

Identifying personal details and handling false positives............................................................................................................................. 10

Privacy – Ensuring third parties cannot conﬁrm individuals are self-excluded ............................................................................................... 11

Proposed implementation ............................................................................................................................................................. 13
Brief description of functionality and core characteristics of the system ......................................................................................................
Brief description of the self-exclusion process13............................................................................................................................................ 14

Detailed processes and interactions on the side of players and other individuals
Detailed processes and interactions on the side of operators
Other organizational and technical characteristics........................................................................................ 15..................................................................................................................... 16...................................................................................................................................... 18

Example use-cases ............................................................................................................................................................................ 20
Example #1: James Smith, who is not registered in the system, attempts to open an account at a participating operator ............................... 20
Example #2: James Smith, who has used the system to block his access to gambling, attempts to open an account at aparticipating operator ................................................................................................................................................................................ 20
Example #3: James Smith, who is registered in the system for other reasons and has a password, attempts to open an account at aparticipating operator ...............................................................................................................................................................................

21

Example #4: James Smith is not registered in the system, but the system ﬁnds a match when he attempts to open an
account at a participating operator .............................................................................................................................................................

21

Example #5: A bad actor, who knows James Smith’s personal information, attempts to ﬁgure out whether he has used the system
to block his access to gambling ...................................................................................................................................................................

223

Additional tools and help for vulnerable players ................................................................................................................. 22
International self-exclusion standards........................................................................................................................................................ 22

Global Self-Exclusion Assistance Tool (GSEAT) ..............................................................................................................................................
Connection to problem gambling help organizations

23................................................................................................................................... 23

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Introduction
The goal of the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative is to create a Global Self-Exclusion System (GSES), which will allow
individuals to block their access to virtually all legitimate online gambling opportunities worldwide.
The proposed technical solution will be outlined later in this document. This introductory section contains thereasoning behind the Initiative’s decision to work towards such system.

What is self-exclusion?
Self-exclusion is a responsible gambling tool oﬀered by gambling operators, which allows players to blockthemselves from gambling for a set amount of time or indeﬁnitely.
Certain self-exclusion solutions are available at land-based gambling operators, but the proposed Global
Self-Exclusion System described in this document focuses on self-exclusion in online gambling.
Currently available online gambling self-exclusion or blocking solutions include:
Self-exclusion at a single operator – When a player self-excludes at one gambling operator, they should not
be allowed to gamble there but are free to use the services of any other gambling operator, subject to local
rules and regulations. Some groups of related operators apply self-exclusion over the entire group, whichmeans that players who self-excluded at one operator cannot gamble at any operators that are part of thegroup.
National or license-wide self-exclusion systems – Some countries or licensing authorities operate
self-exclusion systems with a wider scope. These allow players to self-exclude from all gambling operators withthe given license. Examples of these systems include UK’s GAMSTOP or Sweden’s Spelpaus.
Blocking software – Although not a type of self-exclusion per se, there are software solutions designed toblock access to gambling operators on the user’s devices, such as Gamban or Betblocker.
After self-excluding, players should not be allowed to gamble at the operators they self-excluded from until
the predetermined period of time passes. However, in some cases, players may be allowed to end
self-exclusion prematurely.

Why is there a need for a global self-exclusion system?
Self-exclusion is used for many reasons by players, but the most crucial use case from the perspective of responsible
gambling consists in vulnerable or addicted players using self-exclusion to stop themselves from gambling and createa barrier that helps them minimize further gambling-related harm.

5Because of their limited scope, currently available self-exclusion solutions do not create an eﬀective barrierthat suﬃciently blocks vulnerable or addicted players from continuing to gamble:
Players who self-exclude at a single operator can easily create an account with another gambling operator.
National or license-wide self-exclusion systems can be circumvented by gambling at foreign operators thatare not part of the speciﬁc self-exclusion system and generally cannot participate in it even if they wanted to.
The Global Self-Exclusion System discussed in this document is the proposed solution to this issue. Such system could
help problem gamblers block themselves from gambling at virtually all legitimate gambling operators and therefore
help minimize further gambling harm done to themselves or aﬀected others.

How can such system function in a global gambling environment?
The global reach of the proposed self-exclusion system poses challenges related to the disjointed nature of the
global gambling market. With thousands of gambling operators licensed by tens of diﬀerent regulators and oﬀering
services to customers from most of the world’s countries, getting a self-exclusion system to work on a global level
represents a range of complex challenges.
Most gambling regulators have certain rules governing self-exclusion and other responsible gambling tools oﬀered bytheir licensees, and many also operate multi-operator self-exclusion schemes that include all license holders.
However, authorities tend to focus solely on their jurisdictions and do not put suﬃcient emphasis on protecting
players who play at foreign operators.
Therefore, there is no single global authority that could force operators to join an international self-exclusion system, while local authorities are hesitant to work with third party organizations or systems.
That said, the team behind the Initiative believes that it is viable to gradually push such a system through via
self-regulation – not by persuading the regulators to require it, but by getting enough operators to understand the
beneﬁts of a functional Global Self-Exclusion System and become part of it, which will persuade others to join as well.
Once the “critical mass” is achieved, operators not participating in the system could risk damaging their reputation by
doing so, motivating them to join. Thanks to this, being part of a global self-exclusion system could become anindustry standard adhered to by the majority of operators globally.
Additionally, the system should be operated and managed by an independent organization to ensure its
impartialness. This fact will also increase the trust of operators, regulators, and players toward the system, as direct
operational ties to speciﬁc operators or other entities in the gambling market could discourage some people from
implementing the GSES or using it.

6

Functional and non-functional requirements
Before describing the speciﬁcs of the proposed implementation of the global self-exclusion system, necessary
qualities and features ensuring the system’s eﬀectiveness and eﬃciency need to be discussed. This part ofthe document describes the system’s basic functional and non-functional requirements.

Requirements from the side of players
The proposed global self-exclusion system should ﬁrst and foremost serve people participating in online gamblingor wishing to block their access to it. To be as helpful for them as possible, it should meet these requirements:
Eﬀective blocking of online gambling opportunities – The system’s core functional requirement has to dowith its main objective. The system should create an eﬀective barrier that prevents players from creating an
account with gambling operators.
Exceptional user experience – The registration and veriﬁcation process must be user-friendly and simple
enough for any individual to be able to complete it without signiﬁcant issues. Also, the registered person mustbe suﬃciently informed about the consequences of self-excluding on a global level.
Well-designed self-exclusion options – The system should oﬀer a variety of self-exclusion plans anddurations for players to choose from, ranging from self-exclusion for a set period of time to permanent
self-exclusion. The implemented procedures should reﬂect the international self-exclusion standards,
development of which is also a part of the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative’s agenda and described later in thisdocument.
Strong connection to problem gambling help organizations – According to most experts, self-exclusion
by itself is not a cure for problem gambling. It does help by limiting access to gambling and minimizing further
harm, but it does not address the underlying causes that may be behind a player’s problematic gamblinghabits, which may lead to relapses once the self-exclusion period is over. Therefore, the GSES must facilitate aconnection between vulnerable players and problem gambling help organizations that can help them get backon the right track.
Helpful and available customer support – Regardless of how well-designed the GSES is, individuals
interacting with it are bound to run into issues that require help from customer support representatives.
Therefore, the system must oﬀer skilled multilingual support agents who can eﬀectively deal with registrationdiﬃculties, false positive identiﬁcation, KYC procedures, etc.
Privacy – There should not be an easy way for third parties to ﬁnd out whether any speciﬁc person isself-excluded using the system. Therefore, the system should be conﬁgured in a way that does not allow forthis to happen.

7

Requirements from the side of gambling operators
To maximize its eﬀectiveness, the global self-exclusion system must be joined by as many gambling operators
as possible. To make sure operators are not discouraged from becoming part of the system, it should meetthese requirements:
Easy to implement – Like most online businesses, online gambling operators have notoriously overloaded
software development departments. Therefore, the software development eﬀort needed from the side ofoperators should be as low as possible. The GSES should oﬀer integration options suﬃcient to cover allcommon systems and scenarios.
Non-intrusive – Operating a gambling business includes a number of standardized processes, like player
registrations and logins, veriﬁcation checks, and many others. The GSES should not disrupt these processes.
For example, if operators perform veriﬁcation KYC checks whenever a player requests their ﬁrst withdrawal, thesystem cannot force operators to do these checks immediately after registration.
High availability and low response times – The proposed solution relies on participating gambling
operators connecting to the system during certain actions that are critical to their business model, mostimportantly the registration process. Any downtime or excessive delays may cause signiﬁcant ﬁnancial losses tothem. Consequently, technical issues of this nature may signiﬁcantly decrease the acceptance of the system
and give operators a reason not to participate. Therefore, the GSES should be reliable and not disrupt any ofoperators’ critical processes.

Other requirements
There are also other functional requirements, which cannot be attributed to either operators or players:
Independent organization – The GSES will contain sensitive information and, once it becomes widely used, it
will become a vital part of the global gambling ecosystem. Therefore, it must be operated and governed by areliable independent organization, which will ensure that no single entity operating in the gambling industry
has a strong inﬂuence over it.
Security and data protection – The system will deal with private information of registered individuals, so it
must be secure and protected against data leaks and attacks. A database of self-excluded individuals may be
an attractive target for hackers and other bad actors, which further emphasizes the importance of adhering tostrongest security standards and best practices.
Reliability of self-exclusion – Self-excluded players must not be able to create an account at participating
operators using their own and truthful personal details. The system must recognize that these players are
self-excluded and deny their access to gambling opportunities oﬀered by online casinos and bookmakers thatare part of the system.

8

Discovered problematic areas and proposed solutions
After considering the functional and non-functional requirements and analyzing other self-exclusion solutions
oﬀered by operators and regulators, some problematic areas were discovered. This section of the document
discusses these areas, introduces the proposed solutions to the issues at hand and explains the reasoning

Checking for matches with the GSES
The core functionality of the GSES is to check whether a player attempting to play at a participating operator isregistered in the system. These checks can happen each time a player attempts to log in to their account at aparticipating gambling operator and/or each time a new player attempts to create an account.
Each of these options has its beneﬁts and drawbacks:
Checks during login – Checking whether a player is self-excluded during every login at participating casinos
has the advantage that it can exclude players from their existing accounts as well. However, it is much moredemanding, as checks need to be performed at every login and many edge cases need to be considered. Also,
possible availability issues could have signiﬁcant ﬁnancial consequences on operators, as any downtime of thesystem could cause all players to be unable to play, including those that have not self-excluded.
Checks during registration – This approach has the downside of not being able to exclude players fromtheir existing accounts. However, it is easier to implement, and checks need to be performed much less often –only once per player account, when it is being created. Also, any possible downtimes of the system would have
far less signiﬁcant consequences on the business of participating operators.

Proposed solution: Checks during registration
After considering these options, the team behind the Initiative believes that checking the self-exclusion
status of players only during the registration process is the better option. The team considers checks during
login suboptimal, because operators may not be willing to join a system whose possible technical issues can cause
them huge ﬁnancial losses because of their customers not being able to access their services.
Therefore, the GSES will not prevent players who use it to self-exclude from using their existing gamblingaccounts. However, it will block them from creating new accounts at participating operators, as long as they use theirown and correct personal information when creating these accounts, which is already required by the vast majority ofoperators in order for players to be able to withdraw any funds from their accounts.
Using this approach, players who wish to block their access to all gambling opportunities will have toself-exclude from their existing accounts separately. However, there will be a separate system that will help
them with this task. This system will be described later in this document.

9

Identifying personal details and handling false positives
When individuals register in the system and when operators use the system to check whether any individual is listed in
the system, these actions should be based on personal information that does not tend to change over time,nor cannot easily be changed on purpose to circumvent self-exclusion.
For example, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, or physical addresses are often used in this context. However, a new
e-mail address can be created in a matter of seconds, people can easily change their phone number, and they also
often move to diﬀerent streets, regions, or even countries.
That is why the proposed solution relies on a person’s full name and date of birth in these operations. These
pieces of information rarely change (except for marriage-associated name changes), and most online gambling
operators already require players to provide them during the registration process and verify them during KYC
processes.
However, that creates a potential problem, at least in some countries. Considering that there are more than 49,000
US citizens called James Smith, many of them deﬁnitely share the same date of birth. Therefore, the GSES must beable to deal with collisions involving individuals with the same full name and date of birth.

Proposed solution: Full name, date of birth, and a password-driven system
The proposed solution of this issue relies on a password-driven system. Whenever a new person is creating an
account with a participating gambling operator and there is an individual with the same or very similar identifying
information in the database of the GSES, the new person also needs to register in the GSES to get their password.
They will then use the password for any new registration at participating operators. This situation is described in moredetail as one of the example use-cases listed later in this document.
Despite these small complications caused to few unlucky people that share the full name and date of birth withsomebody else registered in the system, the overall negative impact on user experience will be relatively low.

10

Privacy – Ensuring third parties cannot conﬁrm individuals are
self-excluded
Ensuring the privacy of individuals who use the system is one of the core requirements, but it creates a fundamental
problem that has to do with somewhat contradictory requirements:
The fact that any individual has self-excluded using the system should be kept private.
Any participating operator should have the possibility to use the system to check whether an individual creating an
account has self-excluded using the system.
Whenever an individual is mistakenly identiﬁed as self-excluded because of having identical personal information
as another player registered in the GSES, they should be able to ﬁgure out why the system is blocking their accessto gambling and what to do about it.
If all participating operators can use the system to check the self-exclusion status of an individual, there is always apossibility of someone abusing this access, especially when dealing with high-proﬁle individuals. The morewidespread GSES becomes, the higher the chance that somebody abuses their access to the system in some way.
Even without operators’ access to the system’s API, anyone who knows the personal information of a person
may try to check whether the person has self-excluded in the system by using their personal data to create an
account at participating operators. This can theoretically be done by future employers, journalists, relatives, ﬁnancial
institutions, etc.
When it comes to existing self-exclusion solutions, in most markets with a national self-exclusion scheme, operators
check whether a registering individual is self-excluded before they check their identity through a KYC process. These
conditions create an opportunity for this kind of social engineering, as potential bad actors are able to ﬁnd out about aperson’s self-exclusion status before having to prove their identity in the registration process.
This kind of social engineering can be done with existing self-exclusion tools because the registration ofself-excluded individuals is handled diﬀerently:
When bad actors attempt to create an account using the data of a person who has not self-excluded, the operator
will most likely allow them to ﬁnish the registration, make a deposit, and gamble.
When they attempt to do the same using the data of a person self-excluded using a national scheme, theoperators will not allow them to proceed. They may directly display that the person is self-excluded and cannot beallowed to gamble, ask them to complete a KYC process, or trigger other processes that are not standard forplayers who are not self-excluded.

11

Observing how operators handle the individual’s registration process allows bad actors who know thepersonal information of a person to reveal – with a relatively high level of conﬁdence – whether that person
has self-excluded using a national self-exclusion scheme or the speciﬁc operator’s responsible gambling tools.

Proposed solution: Lost in the crowd
Because it is not possible to eﬀectively hide whether or not an individual is registered in the GSES, the proposedsolution relies on extending what it means to be registered in the system instead.
The system will contain a mix of self-excluded players and other individuals. Then, even if bad actors manage
to ﬁgure out that a person is registered in the system as described above, they will not be able to conclusively say thatthe person has used the system to block their access to gambling.
This solution relies on the presence of people other than those that wish to block their access to gambling in thesystem. Therefore, the organization running the GSES will need to motivate these people to join the system,so that they outnumber the self-excluded individuals.
Individuals who join the system for other reasons will also make use of the password-driven system mentioned earlier.
They will create a password, which will allow them to gamble at participating gambling operators despite being
registered in the system. Then, whenever someone registered in the system tries to create an account with aparticipating operator, the system will ask for the password to proceed, instead of stating that the individualis self-excluded. Self-excluded individuals will not have that password, so they will not be allowed to register andplay, but people who joined the system for other reasons will be able to proceed.
In the ideal case, the number of people who joined the system for other reasons should be at least 5-times higher
than the number of individuals who used it to self-exclude. Potential incentives to join the system include a lottery with
non-monetary wins or the desire to protect the privacy of individuals who used the system to self-exclude.
Also, while the system is referred to as the Global Self-Exclusion System in this document and when communicating
the Initiative to the world, the ﬁnal system may have a diﬀerent name, for example “Global Player Protection System”.
This way, it will not be immediately obvious that the system is used for self-excluding.

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Proposed implementation
With the abovementioned functional and non-functional requirements, as well as the discovered problematic
areas and their proposed solutions in mind, the following section of this document contains a proposed
implementation of the system.

Brief description of functionality and core characteristics of thesystemThe proposed functionality of the GSES can be described by three core characteristics:
The system checks whether an individual is registered in the system only during the registration process at aparticipating operator.
The system relies on the combination of full name and date of birth when checking whether an individual isregistered in the system.
Apart from individuals who use the system to block their access to gambling, the system’s database will also
contain individuals who joined it for other reasons.

Checking the system’s database for matches during the registration
process at participating operators
To protect the privacy of self-excluded players, the GSES will not proactively share information about them withparticipating operators. Instead, participating operators will be connected to the system using an API,
which will be used to check whether a player is registered in the system.
These checks will happen whenever a player attempts to create an account at participating operators.

Identiﬁcation using the combination of full name and date of birth
These characteristics have been selected because of their mostly unchanging nature. Because the date of birth of
an individual always remains the same and their name changes only in limited instances, the team behind theInitiative considers them to be the best option to reliably identify self-excluded players with an acceptable rate offalse positives.

13

As explained in the section of this document discussing discovered problematic areas and their proposedsolutions, the GSES will be joined not only by players who wish to block their access to online gambling
opportunities, but also by other individuals.
Individuals who register in the system but do not wish to self-exclude from gambling will create a password, which
can be used to circumvent the blocking introduced by the global self-exclusion system during registration atparticipating gambling operators. Individuals who use the system to block their access to gambling will not receive
such password, therefore they will not be able to gamble.
With this addition to the system, third parties may be able to ﬁgure out that a speciﬁc person is registered in thesystem, but they will not be able to conclusively say that the person used the system to self-exclude fromgambling.

Brief description of the self-exclusion process system
Individuals who wish to block their access to gambling using the GSES can do so by completing these steps:
1. A person who wishes to self-exclude from all gambling opportunities registers in the system and enters theirpersonal information, which includes their full name, date of birth, and contact information.
2. The person chooses from the selection of self-exclusion measures, specifying the duration and otherimportant characteristics of their self-exclusion.
3. The person goes through veriﬁcation procedures (KYC) to conﬁrm their identity and ﬁnalize the registration
process.

14

Participating online gambling operators are connected to the system through an API, which is used to check
whether any individual signing up for an account with them is registered in the GSES.
Whenever the information entered during registration at participating gambling operators matches personal
details of a person registered in the GSES, the person creating an account is displayed a message and asked toenter a password. The system allows the person to complete the registration at the gambling operator only if they
enter the correct password of a person registered in the GSES for other reasons. Because individuals self-excluded
using the system do not have a password, they will not be allowed to proceed.
This functionality is supplemented by a separate tool, which helps players self-exclude from their existingaccounts at gambling websites and apps. This tool works with a database of online gambling operators andguides individuals through the process of self-excluding at operators at which they previously created an accountand gambled.

Detailed processes and interactions on the side of players and otherindividuals
There are two types of individuals interacting with the system – players who wish to block their access to gamblingand individuals who register in the system for other reasons. Because these two use-cases are completely
diﬀerent, they need to be discussed separately.

Players who wish to self-exclude
The core functionality of the system is to allow gamblers to block themselves from playing at participating gambling
operators. Here is a detailed proposal of what the process of self-excluding may look like:
1. An individual who wishes to self-exclude from gambling using the GSES visits a dedicated website and initiates
the process.
2. They are guided by the system through the registration process, during which they enter their personal
information, including their full name, date of birth, and contact information, such as e-mail address andphone number.

15

3. After providing all the required information, the next step consists in specifying the duration and othercharacteristics of self-exclusion. The individual is thoroughly explained what the options mean, as well as theconsequences of self-excluding on a global level.
4. The registration cannot be fully completed without a KYC procedure handled by the organization operating
the GSES. Each self-excluding individual needs to prove their identity for the self-exclusion to take place.
5. Once the KYC procedure is over, the player is not able to create an account with any gambling operator
participating in the system.
6. On top of that, they can use a separate tool, which will guide them through self-excluding from their existing
online gambling accounts.
Throughout the entire process, players who wish to self-exclude will be provided helpful information clarifying what
self-exclusion is, why it is helpful, and how to self-exclude using the system. Additionally, they will also have accessto customer support representatives that can provide further assistance if needed.
Besides self-exclusion itself, players are also given access to educational content and sources of additional
help, such as helplines, support groups, or specialized problem gambling help organizations.

Individuals who register for other reasons
Because of the diﬀerent nature of this use-case, individuals who are registering in the GSES for reasons other thanself-exclusion itself will access the system using a dedicated website separate from the one used by
self-excluding players.
The registration process of these individuals will involve entering their personal information, going through a KYC
procedure, and conﬁguring a password which can then be used to circumvent the protection introduced by the
global self-exclusion system at participating gambling operators.

Detailed processes and interactions on the side of operators
To ensure easy execution for operators and minimize possible friction, the information system of participating
operators will only check whether any player is self-excluded using the GSES during the registration
process.
Participating in the system requires operators to implement an API connection, which is used to check whether
any individual creating their account is registered in GSES. The registration process cannot be completed without
performing this check, which can be integrated in one of two ways:

16

1. Simple web-based integration – This implementation relies on a background JavaScript veriﬁcation check.
The registration form of participating operators will contain a JavaScript code provided by the GSES, which willhandle the check and all possible edge cases in the registration form (such as the popup that prompts
password entry). After a successful frontend check, the script will generate a unique veriﬁcation code and add
it as a hidden ﬁeld to registration form. The backend system will subsequently only have to do a simple API callto check that the veriﬁcation code is valid. This is the easiest option to implement for participating operators
because it requires very little eﬀort from their side.
2. Custom integration – If simple web-based integration is not possible or preferred, participating operators
will have to develop their own connection to the system, including its backend and frontend. They will need tohandle all possible outcomes and edge cases in registration form themselves, resulting in more complex
implementation eﬀorts from the side of operators.
If the system ﬁnds a match, it stops the registration process and prompts the person creating theiraccount to enter a password. The interface of the system includes instructions, which will guide individuals
through the possible following steps of the process. These are described in more detail in a section with example
use-cases later in this document.
Other speciﬁcations of the system important for operators include:
Personal information used to perform the check consists of the individual’s full name and date of birth, asthese are diﬃcult to oﬃcially change.
Automatic veriﬁcation checks performed during the registration process are conducted almost immediately toensure quick and frictionless operation.
If the system stops a player from creating an account with a participating gambling operator, the following
options and actions of the player are taken care of by the GSES.
Participating in the system does not require operators to perform KYC checks during the registration process
or before players’ ﬁrst deposits. The system is designed in this way to make sure it does not overly burden
participating operators, nor create obstacles that negatively inﬂuence their business.

17

Other organizational and technical characteristics
The GSES will be run by an independent organization with a committee of reputable industry
professionals. This organization oversees all aspects of the system and ensures its integrity and reliable operation.
Responsibilities of the independent organization running the system include:
Ensuring accessibility of the system and its database for new registrations, changes to existing registrations, andproviding support to registering players and participating operators.
Safeguarding the database of self-excluded players using reliable data protection technologies and following
high security standards.
Conducting KYC checks to verify the identity of registering players and the truthfulness of all entered information.
Ensuring availability of customer support in various languages.
Actively working on increasing the number of participating gambling operators and making participation in thesystem an industry standard.
Creating and maintaining a database of problem gambling help organization and making it available toself-excluded players, as well as establishing relationships with these organizations and allowing them to provide
support and professional help to self-excluded players.
Creating, maintaining, and operating a separate tool, which guides players through the process of self-excludingfrom their existing online gambling accounts.
The organization should also ensure the reliability of GSES, i.e., making sure that players cannot register at participating gambling operators. However, this requires cooperation from the side of operators and players:
The organization cannot force operators to participate in the system. Therefore, they need to do their part, join thesystem, and take care of the required implementation steps.
Players need to use their own, truthful, and correct personal information when creating accounts with gambling
operators. Most of these only run KYC processes when players request their ﬁrst withdrawal, so, until that point,
individuals can gamble even if they entered incorrect information during registration (although they will not beallowed to withdraw their funds).

18

The organization should also ensure the reliability of GSES, i.e., making sure that players cannot register at participating gambling operators. However, this requires cooperation from the side of operators and players:
The organization cannot force operators to participate in the system. Therefore, they need to do their part, join
the system, and take care of the required implementation steps.
Players need to use their own, truthful, and correct personal information when creating accounts with gambling
operators. Most of these only run KYC processes when players request their ﬁrst withdrawal, so, until that point,
individuals can gamble even if they entered incorrect information during registration (although they will not beallowed to withdraw their funds).

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Example use-cases
Example #1: James Smith, who is not registered in the system,
attempts to open an account at a participating operator
In this case, James will be able to go through the registration process at a participating operator without any
interruptions. During the process, his personal details will be used to check for matches in the system’s database.
As long as his details do not match any individual registered in the system, he will be able to successfully complete the registration without any direct interactions with the system.

Example #2: James Smith, who has used the system to block his accessto gambling, attempts to open an account at a participating operator
In this case, James attempts to open an account and start playing at a participating gambling website at some point
after using the global self-exclusion system to block his access to gambling.
During the registration process, his personal details will be used to check for matches in the system’s database. Aslong as he used his own and exact personal details during the registration, the system’s database will ﬁnd a matchand not let James proceed with the registration. The following pop-up window will appear:

James does not have a password, as he used the system to block his access to gambling. Therefore, he will not beallowed to proceed.

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Example #3: James Smith, who is registered in the system for otherreasons and has a password, attempts to open an account at a participating operator
In this case, James has previously registered in the system because he wanted to support the Initiative and help
minimize overall gambling harm. He has not used it to block his access to gambling. Therefore, he has a password hecan use to circumvent the blocking introduced by the system when registering at a participating gambling operator.
During the registration process, his personal details will be used to check for matches in the system’s database. Aslong as he used his own and exact personal details during the registration, the system’s database will ﬁnd a matchand not let James proceed with the registration. The same pop-up window will appear.
In this case, James has a password he can use to proceed, because he is not registered in the system for the purposeof blocking his access to gambling. Therefore, he will enter the password and continue with the registration.

Example #4: James Smith is not registered in the system, but thesystem ﬁnds a match when he attempts to open an account at a participating operator
In this case, James has never registered in the global self-exclusion system and wants to create an account at aparticipating gambling website. During the registration process, his personal details are used to check for matches inthe system’s database. The system ﬁnds another James Smith with the same date of birth in its database, so it stops
the registration process and displays the same pop-up window.
To proceed, James will have to register in GSES, go through its KYC procedures, and set up a password, which will
diﬀerentiate him from other James Smiths in the system’s database and therefore allow him to create an accountwith any participating gambling operator. He can access the registration by clicking the ‘I do not have a password’ linkin the pop-up window.

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Example #5: A bad actor, who knows James Smith’s personal information, attempts to ﬁgure out whether he has used the system to block his
access to gambling
In this case, somebody who has access to James Smith’s personal information tries to use it to create an account at aparticipating gambling website in James’s name. During the registration process, his personal details will be used tocheck for matches in the system’s database. One of two things can happen:
1. If James Smith is not registered in the system, the bad actor is allowed to proceed with the registration.
2. If James Smith is registered in the system, the bad actor sees the same pop-up window as in the previous
use-cases.
This means the bad actor will ﬁnd out that James Smith is registered in the system, but they will not know whether heused the system to block his access to gambling or not.

Additional tools and help for vulnerable players
On top of blocking self-excluded players’ access to registering at new gambling websites and apps, the Initiative
also aims to help vulnerable players in other ways. This section of the document describes three ways ofhelping vulnerable players, minimizing gambling harm, and making online gambling more fair, safe, and sustainable.

International self-exclusion standards
Self-exclusion tools oﬀered by operators and regulators vary greatly around the world when it comes tothe duration of self-exclusion, ways of self-excluding, ability to cancel self-exclusion prematurely, blocking marketing
communication, and other related processes or conditions. These diﬀerences are caused by diﬀering views ofself-exclusions from the side of individual regulators, as well as cultural diﬀerences and customs in individual
countries.
Taking all of this into account and considering the scope of the proposed GSES, it probably will not be possible to
conﬁgure its processes in a way that makes them ideal for everyone. However, we strongly assume that methodologies and processes can be developed that will be applicable to most situations and acceptable formost users.
The GSES and its self-exclusion processes should be based on industry best practices and research conductedby professionals. We plan to work with experts to ﬁgure out how to conﬁgure self-exclusion options for them to be
as eﬀective as possible. Additionally, to further help the global gambling market, this may lead to the creation ofinternational self-exclusion standards that can also be used by operators and regulators to improve theirself-exclusion tools and better protect vulnerable players.

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Global Self-Exclusion Assistance Tool (GSEAT)As described throughout this document, the proposed solution is based on not allowing self-excluded players tocreate accounts with participating gambling operators. This approach means that individuals who wish to block
their access to all gambling opportunities need to self-exclude from their existing gambling accounts
separately.
For this reason, we will launch a separate tool, the Global Self-exclusion Assistance Tool, which will guide players
through the process of self-excluding and make it as easy for them as possible. This tool can work completely separately; therefore, it can be launched even before the GSES.
This tool will work with the biggest database of online gambling operators that covers information about responsible
gambling tools, including available ways of self-excluding. Additionally, it will include educational content, bestpractices for successful self-exclusion, and ways of improving one’s gambling habits or overcoming gambling
addiction.

Connection to problem gambling help organizations
According to scientiﬁc research, self-exclusion by itself is often not suﬃcient to completely stop problematic
gambling habits. Untreated problem gambling tends to cause relapses after the self-exclusion period is over.
Because of this, a strong connection to problem gambling help organizations is a vital part of a functional andeﬀective global self-exclusion scheme that aims to reduce gambling harm as much as possible.
We aim to connect self-excluded problem gamblers with one of the dedicated organizations that can help
them overcome their addiction. We believe this is best done right at the moment of self-excluding, as that is likely
to be the moment at which the player realizes that their habits are problematic and are more likely to take action.
We are currently working on creating and making available a comprehensive global database of problem
gambling help organizations to provide anyone who seeks help with locally appropriate sources of help. This
database will then be used to connect self-excluded players to the most suitable additional help options.

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