Why Online Casino Players Should Play It Safe

Independent responsible gambling body, Playing Safe, has praised online casino operators for promoting responsible initiatives amongst online casino players.
Last month, Playing Safe presented its annual report to the UK’s House of Commons, the gambling body emphasised its attempts at instilling a culture of evaluation and collaboration with the casino sector.

Online Casino Players and Responsible Gameplay

The report, which was co-written by Professor Yvonne Guerrier and Dr Guy Bohane, stated that the willingness of online casino operators to collaborate as well as learn from one another continues to be encouraging.
The report went on to highlight that the casino industry in the UK needs to continue inspiring itself to keep pushing limits and getting both sophisticated and creative in its approach to responsible online casino gaming. Playing Safe reports that it can indeed see evidence of this happening within the industry.
Dr Bohane, speaking at the UK parliamentary gathering, outlined five big projects that Playing Safe has undertaken in the past year. The first project was a thorough evaluation of SENSE, based on surveys of players and managers along with an analysis of self-exclusion scheme date. The evaluation shows that over 10,000 players have enrolled on the self-exclusion scheme since it launched with just below 50% of online casino players who enrolled having not returned to casino gaming in two years.
Playing Safe also provided backing for a large research project led by Focal Research, a Canadian firm and involving several casino operators to introduce an alert system that identifies gamers of interest and possible risky play on online slot machines.
The third project involves research into young players and casinos and has been based on interviews and focus groups of payers between 18 and 30 years. The aim was to understand how to communicate responsible gameplay messages more effectively.
The fourth project involves the ACE accreditation process for casino operators, with over 80% of operators now being accredited. The criteria for assessment are still being updated to include money lending and also vulnerable players and further to ensure ethical principles in an operator’s corporate governance procedures.
Finally, the committee carried out a workshop for casino managers to develop best practice when it comes to dealing with players. The outcome of the workshop is to produce a concise guide for all managers.

Where to From Here?

Playing Safe seems to be an important part of the casino industry’s commitment to encouraging socially responsible online casino gaming and is defining the way in which operators should conduct business.
At a time when the betting industry is bracing itself for regulatory change in terms of FOBT stake reductions and the way in which online operators advertise elements like Free Spins, Bonuses and Sign Up Bonuses, we think it is encouraging to see the sector being praised by an external body for its contributions to responsible gaming. It is these types of collaborative initiatives that must be encouraged and acknowledged as being incredibly beneficial to both operators and players alike.