In the opening remarks to the webinar “Powering Responsible Gaming Through Product Innovation,” American Gaming Association Senior Vice President Strategic Comms Joe Maloney said the ability to innovate around responsible gaming mirrors the gaming industry’s innovations.
For the next 45 minutes, panelists seem to agree that most advancements in responsible gaming are generated by renewed emphasis on RG by operators.
“I think the most significant shift has been the move from seeing responsible gaming as a compliance obligation,” said Aristocrat Group General Manager Responsible Gameplay Tasos Dagkos. “This is where we move into it actually as a core design principle for us at Aristocrat. We now start with a different type of question: how can this product empower safer play and sustainable play?”
September is Responsible Gaming Education Month.
Jess Feil, OpenBet’s Vice President Regulatory Affairs & Compliance, said her company has noticed that customers and operators alike are looking for a “full service, end-to-end solution that includes integration payments, KYC and RG.”
“When we sort of inspected the market and thought about where the industry was heading a few years ago, we looked up and really felt that player protection was going to be the center point for the entire industry around the world,” Feil said. “Going forward, with the rise of digital gaming, it’s become critical that we have not just compliant solutions around responsible gambling, but innovative and easy to use solutions.”
Dr. Jennifer Shatley, Executive Director for the Responsible Online Gaming Association, noted that responsible gaming initiatives have become increasingly integrated into products and platforms.
“I think what we’re seeing from an operator perspective is responsible gaming shouldn’t be a standalone, separate thing,” Shatley said. “It should actually be integrated into the play experience and into the player journey.”
There has been a sense that responsible gaming principles are in conflict, or a drag, on profitability. Tom Mace, Sportradar Senior Vice President Gambling Integrity and Regulation, noted that such concerns have abated, but remain a valid concern.
Mace said the positioning of Bettor Sense, Sportradar’s responsible gaming tool, is in concert with the company’s broader insight tech solution, a suite of API (application programming interface) driven AI models, alongside AI models for trading, risk management, and marketing operations.
“We designed it with an API first design so that the outputs cannot be consumed by user interface, by humans, but actually that the outputs are ingested directly into the systems of the operator,” Mace said. “And not only those RG teams, the outputs of player risk need to be consumed by the trading teams, by the marketing team, so it becomes completely integrated across the operators, commercial operations. Long term … the value of player protection investment in this area can be seen across the business.”
Maloney pointed out that Shatley is a regular speaker at gaming conferences and can take the pulse of operator’s commitments to responsible gaming practices. Shatley said the formation of ROGA – whose funding is dependent on companies including Bally’s Corporation, bet365, BetMGM, DraftKings, Fanatics Betting and Gaming, FanDuel, Hard Rock Digital, and Penn Entertainment – denotes an increased focus and commitment to RG.
“There are a lot of resources and a lot of, I would say, brain power, being put towards how do we evolve responsible gaming practices, and how do we come together and do this more collaboratively?” Shatley said. “Because I think we can do it better, do it collaboratively. And how do we utilize innovation in the space?
“We, as an industry, we’re very fast to develop new games, new products, new technology. How do we put that same excitement and push around responsible gaming as well.”
Feil noted that the education of regulators is of utmost importance. Also important is data and in what form it is provided.
“We really talk to them about the importance of them understanding the data that operators are taking in, and then how it’s analyzed and how it’s digested,” Feil said.
“We get asked can you tweak those metrics? Can you change them? And for us, the answer is no, we have set the thresholds, we have set the metrics, we have set the factors the way we have because it’s based in research and science. But what we can do is we can create a more bespoke product with you, around the reporting, around what flags are being raised, so your in-house responsible gambling teams can act when they need to.”
