Stakeholders cannot simply wait for the gambling evidence-base to develop: We must all help to build it

Our opinion article, outlining how player-tracking technologies could enhance stakeholders’ ability to understand and reduce gambling-related harm [1], led to four thought-provoking commentaries from leading academics in the field. Gambling policymakers often say that they will not hesitate to act on the latest evidence [2, 3]. However, any harm-prevention approach as bold in scope as our proposed universal and independent player-tracking system would require a coalition of stakeholders to initiate, develop and assess its effectiveness for reducing gambling-related harm. We were therefore pleased that the Australian state of Queensland recently announced the introduction of a player-tracking system with many of our proposed features for land-based casino gambling [4, 5]. In time, this development could help to provide evidence to test our opinions against. For now, we respond to the important points raised within the commentaries, which help to define the key overarching features of a well-developed player-tracking system.