Facing up to Problem Gambling: Tracing the Emergence of Facial Recognition Technology as a means of Enforcing Voluntary Self-Exclusion.

Computer technology has long been touted as a means of increasing the effectiveness of voluntary self-exclusion schemes - especially in terms of relieving gaming venue staff of the task of manually identifying and verifying the status of new customers. This paper reports on the government-led implementation of facial recognition technology as part of an automated self-exclusion program in the city of Adelaide in South Australia-one of the first jurisdiction-wide enforcements of this controversial technology in small venue gambling. Drawing on stakeholder interviews, site visits and documentary analysis over a two year period, the paper contrasts initial claims that facial recognition offered a straightforward and benign improvement to the efficiency of the city's long-running self-excluded gambler program, with subsequent concerns that the new technology was associated with heightened inconsistencies, inefficiencies and uncertainties.