Conscious Gaming and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board are jointly announcing the deployment tomorrow of PlayPause, a self-exclusion tool for internet-based gambling created to modernize and strengthen the effectiveness of the U.S. gaming industry’s responsible-gaming programs.
This is the first deployment of PlayPause in the United States, made available at no cost to operators and regulators via Conscious Gaming, a new non-profit organization established by GeoComply.
The system is designed for regulators and licensed gaming operators in one state to securely identify self-excluded patrons who have chosen to participate in the program with other participating U.S. licensed gaming operators and regulators.
“Pennsylvania is pleased to be the first jurisdiction to join the PlayPause program,” said Elizabeth Lanza, Director of the Office of Compulsive and Problem Gambling of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. “By integrating with this solution, the industry and regulators can increase well-being efforts and advance the effectiveness of self-exclusion.”
Lanza said individuals who sign up for the self-exclusion program in Pennsylvania will be provided the option of participating in PlayPause to assist them in extending the self-exclusion to other jurisdictions as they deploy the tool.
Powered by GeoComply, which provides the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board licensees with a geolocation service that effectively blocks participation in internet-based gaming when the player is not within the Commonwealth’s borders, the PlayPause solution will:
- Expand the protective self-exclusion bubble, so as players move from state to state, the protection they have asked for can also move with them.
- Enable consumers to self-exclude across multiple states to prevent the incidence of simply crossing a state line and continuing to gamble.
- Empower operators to strengthen responsible-gaming programs, and make more data-driven decisions, with greater insights into players that have already self-excluded in one state but need to be recognized and protected if/when they seek to play in another jurisdiction.
- Streamline the administrative burden and eliminate the silos associated with maintaining numerous separate state-operated self-exclusion databases.
