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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Do No Evil
Corporate social responsibility is more than a buzzword. The drive to
consider the human and environmental impact of business – as well
as the bottom line – is changing the way that casinos are managed,
writes Barnaby Page
is so not good. Long before the rather than reality – that they are morally dubious,
Problem gambling: spectacular financial crises leading to borderline-criminal organisations rather than
a war with many the current economic downturn gave the responsible modern corporations.
fronts image of rapacious business a further So the casino industry – and related sectors like
Dealing with problem G
reed
battering, public sentiment in most of bingo, lotteries and sports betting – is very publicly
gambling is one of the biggest the world was rejecting the notion that profit-making embracing CSR. And this means more than a few
CSR challenges facing the enterprises were responsible only to their empty words on a mission statement, or
casino sector, and most shareholders. “greenwashing” with spurious environmentally-
operators – encouraged in And for some time that public sentiment has been friendly claims: it translates into real changes in the
many cases by regulators – echoed in boardrooms too. To an extent that might ways that casinos are developed and operated, and
have adopted a range of surprise cynics, many corporations – including the work that their staff perform.
measures. casino operators and their suppliers – have been
For example, Century replacing blind loyalty to the bottom line with a more Here, there, everywhere
Casinos, which has three complex philosophy of corporate social responsibility As UK online casino operator Betfair puts it, a CSR
locations in the U.S. and (CSR), sometimes succinctly summed up as “profit, strategy “addresses the key business-related social,
Canada, others on ships, and a people, planet”. environmental and economic impacts in a way that
controlling stake in Casinos For these corporations, making money and builds stakeholder and share value, thereby
Poland, tackles problem delivering shareholder value is of course still a improving commercial sustainability. This includes
gambling on several fronts. priority. But corporate plans and policies also relations with employees, suppliers, partners and
It makes information take account of their potential effects, contractors, and its impact on the environment
available throughout its positive and negative, on people – and on society more generally.”
casinos and associated hotel employees, customers, local communities – In practice, for Betfair this means not only the
rooms; it works with local, and on the environment. obvious casino-specific issues of addressing
regional and national CSR has been adopted as a result of a problem gambling and keeping children out.
programmes, as well as social number of pressures: rapidly- The company also donates to
agencies; it trains employees in increasing green charities, many of them not related to
recognising problem gamblers; consciousness, ethical the gaming sector – in 2008 it gave
it establishes committees on consumerism, investor more than £350,000 ($570,000) to
responsible gambling at each pressure, legal requirements, a range of causes – and supports
casino location to manage the and a preference among community sport. A payroll-giving
issue locally; it offers voluntary many employees to work for a scheme allows employees to donate
self-exclusion programmes; and company that, as Google to charity directly from their wages,
it provides treatment for famously puts it in with Betfair matching the amount.
employees and their encapsulating its own corporate It also has a volunteering programme
dependents when necessary. approach, “does no evil”. under which employees can be released
But new research from Casino operators, and their suppliers, from their duties for two days a year to work
Britain suggests that the are affected by CSR like any big with charities and similar ventures. It funds
factors leading to problem business: they employ and serve large local projects near its offices, provides
gambling may originate far numbers, they eat electricity like it’s work-experience placements for students,
from the gaming floor, and going out of fashion, and so on. But and has participated in a national clean-
even begin in childhood – they also have to contend with mixed up campaign by encouraging employees
highlighting the breadth of the public and governmental feelings to help and by sponsoring litter bins.
challenge. For example, about gaming and those who participate in it, On the environmental front, Betfair has a
exposure to online gambling the issue of problem gambling, and a residual range of programmes to put its CSR philosophy into
may play a major role. perception – now the stuff of history and Hollywood action. It aims to reduce its carbon footprint –
cont on p36
34 OCTOBER 2009
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