The International Center for Responsible Gaming on Thursday announced it will be in attendance at ICE Barcelona 2026, stating it will be “contributing to the thought leadership and innovation agendas that are shaping the future of responsible gambling,” according to a news release.
The organization will participate in the ICE Innovators Challenge January 20 at 10:15 CET. ICRG was selected from more than 50 submissions to be one of five finalists.
Delivered in partnership with Microsoft, the Innovators Challenge showcases solutions across AI, data, player protection, automation, and operational performance. Finalists will pitch live before senior industry judges who assess scalability, real-world effect, and commercial potential.
At the challenge, ICRG Director of Research & Education Travis Sztainert, President Michael Soll and Michael Wohl, a professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, will present a new concept designed to close one of the field’s most persistent gaps – the distance between what research shows and what gets built into products and policy.
Sztainert also will join Wohl for a session exploring how behavioral science and design can transform responsible gambling interventions. Prevention Through Empathy Engineering: Humanizing Digital Interventions sits at the intersection of behavioral insights, UX design, and data-driven messaging. The session will examine how linguistic tone, visual hierarchy, and timing influence whether responsible gambling messages help players stay in control. Through live examples and message-mapping exercises, the discussion will focus on turning automated prompts and frontline interactions into emotionally intelligent communications that support, rather than alienate, players.
