Aristocrat’s “Empowering Safer Play” program aims to educate everyone from new players and customers to company staff in understanding RG principles and tools to support them.
The multi-year ESP initiative, launched in 2024, addresses responsible play as the company’s most material sustainability matter, said Anastasios “Tasos” Dagkos, group general manager of responsible gameplay for Aristocrat. The multi-pronged initiative specifies goals and benchmarks, including:
Educating players about the benefits of understanding how much time and money they spend on gambling, with targeted messaging for those exhibiting low-risk, medium-risk, and high-risk behavior.
Providing technology that enables players to monitor their session times, move some winnings from the credits total to a separate “bank,” and apply other responsible-gaming principles.
Helping to fund research and treatment of problem gambling. Linking RG priorities to executive incentives through a sustainability condition approved by the company’s board of directors.
“We have top-down support for our program and there’s enterprise-wide training, so all our employees receive training aligned to our RG standards,” Dagkos said.
The U.S. National Council on Problem Gambling recognizes March as Problem Gambling Awareness Month, with this year’s efforts focusing on community-driven approaches to problem-gambling awareness and support. Aristocrat is a platinum member of the council.
In addition, Aristocrat is in the second year of a three-year research partnership with the International Center for Responsible Gaming, with the study focusing on methods to improve treatment retention and outcomes. The company also sponsors workshops for counselors of problem gamblers, offering practical information on how gaming machines are designed and work. Aristocrat also was a founding partner of the Artificial Intelligence Research Hub (AiR Hub) at the International Gaming Institute of the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Air Hub co-founder Simo Dragicevic moderated a NEXT: NYC panel, “The AI Gamble: Can Technology Protect Players?” on March 11.
Dagkos said the company’s ESP initiative accelerated deployment of Aristocrat’s Flexi Play feature on many of its land-based slot machines in Australia. “It provides support in two ways,” he explained. One allows players to move all or part of their winnings to a “bank” that can be accessed when they end a session. The other is a self-set timer that notifies them when their targeted session time has elapsed. Flexi Play is available in most Australian jurisdictions, with a recently updated version included in all eligible machines.
An independent evaluation of players’ response to Flexi Play will be completed by the end of this fiscal year. “We are still evolving, pushing it forward,” Dagkos said. “It is something we’re doing voluntarily, (more) than what’s required under the regulations.” When Flexi Play is ready for the broader market, regulatory approval will be required in each jurisdiction where it is to be deployed.
The company also has added RG attributes to its MyPLAY app in Australia, including self-set spending limits, access to real-time summaries of wins, losses, and playing time, and videos explaining how gaming machines work. The app gives players an option to set a self-imposed break of 24 hours or longer. MyPLAY is awaiting regulatory approval.
All players, even first-time casino visitors, can benefit from RG messaging, Dagkos said, but the content will vary according to a player’s behavior. “It’s about the tone, the way you’re delivering that message,” he explained. For purely recreational players, “make it part of the experience so it doesn’t look alien or foreign to them, so it’s easier to adopt.” If players exceed personal time or spending limits, messages can specify what tools are available to help and how they have benefited others. For players experiencing harm, “You need to be a bit more direct, where you encourage them to reach out for support.”
In the United States, Aristocrat continues to advance its “Know Your Max” positive-play campaign, which includes a website and short-form video content designed to support informed choice and practical understanding of how games work. The initiative aims to make RG messaging accessible to a broad player audience.
Dagkos sees Responsible Gaming as a key tenet for ensuring the gaming industry’s continued success.
“The long-term sustainability of the industry depends on trust,” he said, noting that regulators, host communities, and company investors have their own expectations. While the majority of players gamble for fun, some are bound to exhibit risky behavior and a few will experience harm over time.
“We need to have a proactive, spectrum-based approach, (so) we’re supporting the entire player base,” Dagkos said. “Taking action early supports sustainable growth and strengthens our social license to operate as a business.”
