It’s no surprise to Mindway AI CEO Rasmus Kjaergaard that efforts to advance responsible gambling in the United States sometimes lag.
“We tend to forget that the American online market is actually still a young market, less than 10 years old,” he tells CDC Gaming during an interview. “And if you look into how these market openings or market developments are elsewhere in the world, the regulation, the monitoring of gambling behavior, which is the key regulation that drives these assistance programs, is not in place.
In other words, problem gambling programs – and Kjaergaard prefers that designation so as not to be confused with video gaming – are tracking more or less as expected.
That’s not to say more can’t be done. “Beyond the Month: Sustained Policy Impact on Problem Gambling,” a webinar sponsored by Mindway AI, is scheduled for Thursday May 1, 2025 at 12pm EDT / 9am PDT and will discuss the need for attention to problem gambling year-round (register for free here).
Scheduled to appear are Kjaergaard; Mark Vander Linden, Massachusetts Gaming Commission Director of Research & Responsible Gaming; Vixio Regulatory Intelligence Principal Analyst Thomas Simcock; and moderator Brianne Doura-Schawohl, founder and CEO of Doura-Schawohl Consulting.
Legislators and regulators might be expected to play a key role in protecting consumer interests. And they do just that, but Kjaergaard cautions that they also have to serve the operators. Last year, Kjaergaard attended the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States’ summer meeting at Rivers Casino Pittsburgh. It would be easy, Kjaergaard says, to insist that legislators try to do more.
But part of their role is to ensure that operators have an opportunity to make money without placing onerous restrictions on them.
“I will say that trying to help the few percentages of a population in any state that needs help because they are at risk of problem gambling is not yet on the radar sufficiently, in my view, with most regulators, nor with legislators,” Kjaergaard says, adding that because Europe is a more mature market, it has a better grasp of the issue.
“You have another view of many things over here. But I do think the human element, that you can’t have a situation where people spin out of control, where there are high suicide rates, and the whole poverty situation, they are aware.”
One issue that Kjaergaard thinks needs to be examined more thoroughly in the U.S. is how success and failure are perceived. When a player wins in the U.S., they have created their own success. But when players lose, they are often obligated to work their way out of the situation.
“It’s first and foremost, the player’s own issue (in the U.S.),” Kjaergaard says. “However, there is much more obligation on the gambling operators, who are commercial companies, to help the small percentage of their customers who show signs of at-risk and problem gambling. To start, it could be just some sort of customer awareness like with any other provider you have, and then later on, potentially move into, let’s say, more severe actions related to more severe problem behaviors.”
There are occasions when operators seek out Mindway AI not because they want to, but because it is mandated. Kjaergaard thinks more regulation in this area, as there is in Europe, would be beneficial.
“I’m not saying that we’re doing it right in Europe. I’m just saying that Europe is ahead, and I can see that we have significantly more conversations around what we do with gambling operators,” he says.
“It also involves quite a lot of education, and that’s why we are very active also in the American marketplace,” Kjaergaard added, noting he was calling from Vancouver, B.C., at the IMGL 2025 Spring Conference and after speaking to regulators the prior week in Las Vegas at the GLI Regulators Roundtable.
“I think that’s a need, and then for us also to prove that such systems are not necessarily taking away revenue or VIPs, without giving something back. What the system solution will give back is a lower risk of the total customer database, where the customers could stay for longer. We need to improve on that also as background information to convince operators that it’s not necessarily stealing revenue but giving you other benefits.”
