Innovation Framing, Regulation, and User Adaptation Online

Abstract Chapter 8 explores the role of regulation in shaping the interface between online and land-based bingo. It locates discussion of online bingo within debates about whether regulation by code is replacing the rule of law, and whether virtual life undermines sociality and community, including through its role in monetizing social networks and exploiting users’ participation. The chapter also seeks to add an online component to existing accounts of place competition and gambling—focused mostly on casino resorts—by showing that the where of play remained a crucial element of the UK debate about online gambling. The remainder of the chapter narrows the focus to online bingo regulation, to better flesh out the distinctive lessons it holds for a study of rule-making, game standardization, and technology. It outlines the current regulatory system for online bingo, before turning to the role of users (workers, players, and land-based bingo operators seeking an online presence) in game adaptation. The chapter shows that the agency of workers and players to adapt products and practices varies significantly between online and offline forms of bingo. Because workers have limited connection to players in online bingo games, and the infrastructures upon which the bingo relies allow for so little user adaptation, the capacity to ‘re-playify’ the game is far more restricted, and the designers of the technology have significantly more power. Moreover, software providers are able to capture far more profit from instrumentalizing players’ social ties than is possible for land-based operators. The chapter concludes with a call to revisit the enthusiasm for straightforwardly pluralistic approaches to categorization and definition.