BETTER CHANGE
Who is responsible for responsible gambling?
Rob Mabbett, engagement director at Better Change, suggests that to expect the industry to be able to reduce harm by simply limiting, blocking, banning, restricting and stigmatising is naïve at best, reckless at worse.
T
here is a real fervour in our industry around Safer Gambling as we reach the autumn months. Conference season is upon us and I’m sure that many of you reading this will be planning trips to various parts of the world to network with colleagues, exhibit your wares and chew the fat over the key topics that affect our industry. You may even be reading this article on a plane or a train on your way to an event.
Today almost without exception all events have some focus on safer gambling, usually consisting of a designated area with the key providers present as well as a series of talks or panel discussions involving stakeholders across our industry, all contributing to the melting pot of opinion around how we make gambling safer, protect our players and keep our industry sustainable.
I am a huge advocate of these events and I try to get to as many as I can, I love to listen to
18 OCTOBER 2024
people’s opinions on our industry and how challenges in other parts of the world as well across different verticals are met. From time to time I also weigh in on the debate myself and have spoken at a number of events on various aspects of player safety. I think they are of great importance to our industry and provide a space for collective learning that you cannot get elsewhere, but there is one re-occurring aspect of these public safer gambling forums that frustrate me slightly and that is the conversation is often, for want of a better word, a bit safe. Panel discussions are usually very amicable with everyone agreeing with each other and speeches are often carefully worded to avoid anything that may attract challenge or draw unwanted attention to you, your organisation or God forbid from any regulators that are in the room.
I accept that it is very hard to challenge the loud voices of a minority who feel gambling is
the root of all evil and it is especially hard to challenge the viewpoint of someone who’s life has been devastated as a result of their gambling or even more so by the gambling of a loved one. This however has led to a situation where if I go back to my original question of “who is responsible for responsible gambling” the answer would be the industry, purely because that is where everyone is pointing their fingers and that is not correct.
At this time of year as well as the various conferences we also see safer gambling awareness campaigns where a week or a month is dedicated to activities and content that raise awareness of safer gambling. Four years ago in the UK, the title was changed from “Responsible gambling week” to “Safer Gambling Week” in a bid to highlight a duel responsibility between the industry and its customers towards safer gambling. Messages
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