The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has welcomed the publication of a new voluntary European standard on gambling harm markers, describing it as an important step towards strengthening player protection across the industry.
Published through the national standardisation bodies of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the EN 18144 standard aims to provide a common framework for identifying patterns of potentially harmful gambling behaviour.
The standard identifies nine core behavioural markers that operators can use for early identification of risky gambling patterns.
These include changes in staking volume or frequency, the speed and intensity of play, failed deposits, cancelled withdrawals, player-initiated contact, gambling session duration, the use of multiple products, net losses or loss trajectories over time and changes to safer gambling tools such as deposit limits.
As a voluntary framework, the standard is designed to complement existing national gambling regulations across Europe, although some markers may not apply in jurisdictions where they conflict with local laws.
Most EGBA members already monitor all nine behavioural indicators, with many having incorporated them across all areas of their operations.
Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of EGBA, stated: “Our members are ahead of the curve on implementation – they are already applying many aspects of the standard and are committed to alignment across their European operations. We encourage other operators to adopt the standard and help raise the bar on player protection across Europe.“
Proposed by EGBA in 2022, the standard was developed with operators, regulators, academics and harm prevention stakeholders, becoming the industry's first European standard on harm markers.
The harm markers standard is grounded in the latest research and received approval from national standardisation bodies in October 2025
