Player protection is a core principle embroiled into the fabric of the regulated gaming industry to ensure that it remains sustainable in the long-term. This is not only true in Europe, but also across the pond, and across betting, gaming and lotteries.
To discuss this in detail, Lottery Daily sat down with Ryan McCarthy, Director of Player Health at the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), who will also be speaking at the upcoming Canadian Gaming Summit.
Lottery Daily: Can you tell us a bit more about what player protection means for the BCLC?
Ryan McCarthy: At BCLC, player protection is embedded in our DNA. Our vision is that our players demonstrate the safest gambling behaviours in the world. We want to ensure our players enjoy gambling as entertainment and we aim to do this in several different ways.
Our strategy for player health has three key goals: 1) better understanding our players so that we understand what drives them and their gambling behaviours; 2) meeting them where they are at so we can help them keep gambling fun; and 3) building a culture both within BCLC and across the industry to promote safer gambling.
Education plays a big role in keeping players safe. The BCLC has its own GameSense programme in this regard. What impact has it had on British Columbia and its players?
GameSense is our flagship player health programme. It’s designed to be friendly, accessible and meet players where they are at. We do a lot of work to better understand our players and, based on that understanding, design ‘edutainment’ (educational entertainment) activities to help players better understand key gambling concepts so they can keep games fun.
For example, we have done targeted programming around financial literacy as we know that players who don’t understand key financial concepts might be at higher risk. Recently, we launched a campaign that focused on player health issues related to older adults. For us, GameSense is about providing education to our players – across the risk spectrum – to help keep their gambling fun and safe.
There have been talks in Canada about limiting gambling advertisements. In what way could that be a positive step towards player protection, and wouldn’t it lead to more black market exposure?
We know that increased exposure to advertising can lead to an increase in gambling participation, which can lead to an increase in gambling harms. It’s important that we balance this increased exposure to promotional gambling advertisements with clear information for players about the legal landscape in which they gamble and clear information about safer gambling habits. Additionally, it’s important that we all do our part to ensure that gambling advertisements do not target or entice minors to gamble. This helps build and sustain a strong, healthy player base.
It’s also important to recognise that media reaches across a broad landscape now: people are exposed to gambling across different mediums, including social media and streaming channels, the use of influencers, television, radio, etc.
Advertisements that inform players about keeping their gambling safe need to be developed to reach people where they are at. Taking this approach, BCLC’s player health team does work in tandem with our marketing and communications teams to develop and push out these informational player health messages through the same channels.
Finally, the industry needs more tools for enforcement to counter marketing from illegal operators in our respective jurisdictions. Reducing the amount of advertising people are exposed to and focusing more on player protection helps our players make more informed choices about their gambling. Players who access legal, regulated sites have this player protection embedded in their offerings.
Why is it important to attend the Canadian Gaming Summit?
Player protection is something that needs to be embedded within our business to keep gambling fun. For BCLC, our player health vision is to have players who demonstrate the safest gambling behaviours in the world. To support this vision, networking with industry leaders, understanding the latest trends and innovations in the industry and understanding key industry changes is paramount to help us achieve this vision.
BCLC is proud of its work in the player protection area and has been recognised internationally for the work it does to keep our players safe. The Canadian Gaming Business Summit is a great opportunity for us to share our expertise and learn from the great work others in the industry are doing in player protection.
