Online casino engagement is breaking down faster than operators anticipated, according to new research by CasinoRank. The analysis tracked player behaviour across 847 slot, crash and live dealer titles over 18 months and shows that while players are logging into casinos more frequently, their willingness to stay and engage is declining. Session frequency rose 23% year over year, while median session duration fell 18%, pointing to a shift towards shorter, faster interactions rather than sustained play.

The research draws on aggregated session data from 40 operators across Europe, Latin America and Asia between Q2 2024 and December 2025. Across markets, a consistent pattern emerged: platforms that introduced additional layers between app open and first gameplay experienced higher early-session abandonment, even when traffic increased. Personalisation layers, lobby restructuring, promotional overlays and navigation changes that delayed the first meaningful interaction were repeatedly linked to players exiting before placing a bet.

Key patterns:

• Players opening casino apps more often but exiting earlier

• Higher abandonment when friction appears before first gameplay

• Steeper retention declines as response times reach double-digit seconds

• A growing share of session losses occurring before gameplay begins.

The findings suggest the window to earn engagement has collapsed to seconds. Mobile-first behaviour has reduced tolerance for slow loading, unclear navigation or delayed gameplay. Retention declines steadily as response times increase, with the sharpest drop once delays extend into double-digit seconds.

Game performance data reflects the same shift. Titles built around immediately understandable mechanics consistently maintain top-ranking visibility longer than feature-heavy games with layered bonus structures or complex progression systems. As engagement windows shorten, complexity is increasingly perceived as friction rather than innovation.

Dylan Thomas, credibility lead at CasinoRank, said the findings point to a structural change rather than a temporary fluctuation. “Engagement is not falling. It is fracturing. Players are returning more often, but committing less time per visit,” Thomas said.

“Platforms now have seconds, not minutes, to earn the first meaningful action.”

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GambleAware has revealed the impact of its groundbreaking three-year marketing campaign to reduce gambling stigma and encourage people to seek support for gambling harms. The charity’s campaign drove significant behaviour change, with over 90% of the target audience reached taking action, including seeking advice and using digital tools for support.

Despite these achievements, GambleAware warns that urgent action is needed to curb gambling advertising, as operators spend up to £2 billion annually – far outweighing the amount spent on public health messaging. The charity is calling for more public health campaigns to reduce gambling harms in 2026 and stronger restrictions to ensure people are aware of the risks.

GambleAware’s campaign, “Let’s Open Up About Gambling”, was the first public health campaign of its kind designed to reduce the stigma people face, which can stop people asking for help when experiencing gambling harm.

The campaign ran across three phases between April 2023 and May 2025, and featured advertising, media campaigns and partnerships with other organisations, with creative assets co-created with individuals with lived experience of gambling harms. The campaign followed a strategy to use the real stories and feelings of real people to ensure its messages truly resonated, and aimed to raise awareness of gambling harm, stigma and the support available for anyone who may be struggling.

The campaign has been independently evaluated by Ipsos, who produced the new report. It found that the campaign led to change, including increasing people’s awareness and understanding of gambling harms. As well as the 90% of the target audience who saw the campaign and said they had taken action as a result, such as searching GambleAware online for more advice, two in five of the target audience also said they had a conversation about gambling as a result of the campaign. The campaign also increased uptake of support and digital tools on GambleAware’s website, such as its Service Finder tool and Self-Assessment tool.

The report also contains learnings and recommendations gained from the campaign, which are being shared by GambleAware to help inspire and inform future campaigns to reduce gambling harms. Recommendations include that future campaigns should be co-created with people who have lived experience, who can share their personal stories to build trust and connection and reduce stigma by showing how anyone can be affected.

GambleAware is calling for similar campaigns to reduce gambling harms to be run in 2026 – following the introduction of the new statutory gambling harms system – any future public health campaigns will be carried out by the new prevention commissioner. GambleAware is also calling for more restrictions on gambling advertising including for health warnings to be put on all gambling advertising and for them to signpost to where people can get help3.

Emma Munro-Faure, GambleAware Director of Marketing, said: “We’re proud that this campaign helped thousands of people to seek support for gambling harms. But stigma remains a major barrier, and with gambling companies spending £2 billion a year on advertising, we need stronger restrictions and clearer signposting to the free help and support available.”

Matt Gainsford from Lucky Generals, the lead creative agency that worked to produce the campaign, said: This was one of the most important briefs we’ve worked on. We’re incredibly proud of the impact the campaign has had, particularly when you look at it in the context of what the gambling industry spend on advertising. However, breaking down stigma is more than a three year job and we hope this is the beginning of a long-term, sustained effort to get millions more across Great Britain to open up about gambling.”

Maxine Ames, Strategic Planning Business Director at Manning Gottlieb, added: “Working on GambleAware’s ‘Let’s Open Up About Gambling’ campaign was one of the most fulfilling and impactful projects I’ve had the privilege of working on. The media strategy we developed was built around three carefully orchestrated phases – Educate, Reassure, and Enable – each designed to meet people where they are in their journey and guide them toward support. What made this campaign so special was how we used behavioural signals and contextual targeting to intercept people at moments of risk, while leveraging trusted environments to model help-seeking behaviour. Seeing our strategic approach achieve 98% reach across our target audience was incredibly rewarding but this wasn’t just about reach and frequency; it was about using our craft to genuinely help people and reduce stigma around gambling harms.

Tracy Madlin, who shared her lived experience of gambling harm as part of GambleAware’s campaign, supporting its installation featuring 85,000 poker chips at Westfield London, said: “Throughout my life I felt stigma on occasions, especially in my teens and later in life due to being female. Being part of the stigma campaign was amazing and I felt so very proud to be part of such an amazing campaign to help prevent gambling harm, the campaign I believe is saving lives and shows there is nothing to be ashamed of.”

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The Dutch Gambling Regulator (KSA) has announced that it will place a greater focus on combating illegality and player protection in its oversight in 2026. The regulator outlined its priorities for 2026 in five key themes.

In 2026, the KSA will pay extra attention to the following topics:

• Combating illegal gambling offers

• Protection of vulnerable groups: minors and young adults

• Supervision of the duty of care

• Supervision of advertising

• Supervision of compliance with the Wwft

Additional capacity is being freed up to combat illegal gambling, primarily to frustrate and disable the infrastructure of illegal parties. This could include closer collaboration with payment service providers, hosting providers and social media companies.

The increased priority on protecting vulnerable groups and enhanced oversight of advertising and duty of care aligns with the Ministry’s renewed vision, which places a greater emphasis on player protection. A separate player protection department has been established for this purpose within the KSA’s new organisational structure, effective from January 2026.

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