A UK survey by pollsters iD Factor has found that 45.7 percent of people questioned don’t trust gambling firms with protecting their identity.  Gambling firms came higher than even the government in the questionnaire which was answered by 1,000 people.

Despite the recent security breaches of data going missing in Whitehall, only 23.7 percent of those surveyed felt the central government couldn’t be trusted with protecting people’s personal details, over 20 points less than people who don’t trust gambling firms the most.

Some of the other sectors that that the survey participants were given the choice of deciding the question of who they mistrust the most with their personal data were: local government, retailers, travel companies and banks.  Local government were in third place behind gambling firms and central government with 19.1 percent.  Retailers were next with 17 percent and 16.2 percent answered travel firms.  Surprisingly banks and building societies were only in tenth place with 10.7 percent.

Commenting on the public’s mistrust of gambling companies, Karyn Bright of identity management firm, GB Group, said, “This is a broad brush customer survey with a broad range of the population.  We asked who they trust with their personal information the processes around it in terms of data information.  There is a perception out there about the gaming industry that is not backed up by reality.  There has been no breach in gaming, unlike other sectors.  I think the gaming industry needs to shout more about its processes.  It needs a PR campaign on behalf of the industry.  It does understand the importance of protecting data and the processes needed partly because it is very much a technology driven industry, particularly in the remote gaming area.  The gaming industry is locked down from payment processing to the platforms.  It is genuinely difficult to get to customer data.  It has got the most robust social responsibility approach of anybody.”

Her views were backed up by Richard Law, the CEO of the GB Group who added, “These results show a real need for gaming businesses to shout much more loudly about the strong stance they have taken on issues of social responsibility such as preventing underage gambling.  Those of us who work in the industry know that it is one of the most rigorous in this respect, yet the playing public still perceives it to be the least trustworthy of all the major sectors reviewed.”   

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