PLAYing it Safe: The Importance of Safer Gambling Week

Why do you feel Safer Gambling Week is important?

There really can’t be ‘enough’ attention on promoting awareness around safer gambling, and it’s good to see more and more focus being put on responsible gambling with different initiatives, like Safer Gambling Week.

People inside and outside of the industry need to be made aware of all the measures that are being taken to make gambling safer. The work that goes towards this is not always highlighted, and initiatives like this must be given a spotlight.

Safer Gambling week provides an excellent platform for experts and any interested parties to enter into a dialogue, teach, and learn, more about the latest trends in research on problem gambling. Most importantly, it helps the industry keep working towards making gambling safer.

What sort of features does Play’n GO include in their games to support safer gambling?

We are, first and foremost, entertainers in an entertainment industry. We design our games to be entertaining and are mindful of the fact that irresponsible gambling can cause harm to players. We reflect the possibility of this issue in our game design.

Our games are thoroughly tested in line with regulatory requirements, and we are under regulatory supervision in more than 15 jurisdictions.

As part of our dedication to promoting responsible gambling, we have features in all of our games that our operating partners can use to help make sure players are experiencing games safely.

This includes features like play limits, clocks and in-play timer; all designed to help players enjoy gambling safely.

What can players do if they feel their gambling is becoming unsafe?

There are many options players have at their disposal in these situations. Anyone seeking help is able to access information on where to find help, and how to use the available tools to manage their gambling.

Licensed operators will have these on their websites. In addition, we provide players with self-assessment tools like GamCare and national helplines in multiple languages on our own website

How do you work with operators to ensure safer gambling? Is it more of a partnership, or do you each have your own methods?

As a supplier, we don’t have a direct relationship with the player, so we can’t track changes in gaming behaviours in the way that operators can. This obviously limits what we can do for individual players, but we are working very closely with operators to provide the most effective tools and improve our industry’s approach towards responsible gaming continually.

Play’n GO take compliance very seriously. As one of the leading suppliers in the industry, do you feel a duty to lead the way when it comes to responsible gambling?

Yes, we do. We aim to be the number one supplier in regulated markets and, our positioning in the industry places an onus on us to help protect this industry and the people that take part in it, especially players.

Together with others in the industry, we have taken a very active role in the discussions now that regulators are allowing us to contribute to these discussions more and more, e.g. the UK’s recent game design discussions.

We welcome UKGC’s approach and hope to see more regulators engage with us about responsible gaming.

Safer Gambling Week takes place from the 19^th-25^th November, visit www.safergamblinguk.org for more information.