eCOGRA Advocate A Panellist At Conference

ex Rees, the Fair Gaming Advocate at the London-based player protection and standards body eCOGRA, will be one of a panel of experts discussing Responsible Gambling at the Asian Gambling Briefing starting in Singapore on the 21st October.
 
Organiser Beacon Events has invited Ms. Rees, who routinely mediates hundreds of player disputes every year, to join the high-powered panel, which will be moderated by Panos Makridis, Responsible Gaming & Compliance Manager for Galaxy Entertainment Group.
 
Other members of the panel will be Macau-based Francisco Gaivao, Senior Legal Counsel, Melco Crown Gaming and Prof Hao Zhidong, Associate Professor & Head of Department of Sociology, University of Macau.
 
The discussion will embrace the importance of CSR and Responsible Gambling programs and their relevance to social responsibility; how Asia compares with other regions in the implementation of responsible gambling policies; the relationship between CSR and public policy and the appropriate level of government involvement; best practice for exclusion problems and how to increase operator accountability.
 
Rees established eCOGRA’s Responsible Gambling Requirements, and continues to ensure they are correctly implemented across well over 100 leading online gambling websites and mobile operations. She has organised and hosted various underage and responsible gambling training programs for eCOGRA certified operators, and has also been responsible for coordinating and motivating industry efforts which ultimately resulted in the International Responsible Gambling Code, adopted by industry trade organisations RGA, EGBA, IGC and leading online gambling jurisdictions.
 
She joined eCOGRA in 2003 with over 15 years of management and customer relations experience in both land-based and online gaming businesses.
 
Her experience includes managing customer relations for software developer LiveBet Online, where she was the primary point of contact for clients regarding development and operational issues. Responsibilities included interpreting client needs to develop a software solution and overseeing the installation, testing and training of the platform.
 
Prior to that, Rees managed a staff of 40 administrative and call centre employees for SuperBet, which ultimately became South Africa’s first online gambling operation. While there, she managed customer dispute resolution, established a customer care protocol and oversaw its implementation. Rees also assisted in wagering software development and testing for SuperBet and served as a liaison to the S.A. Gambling Board regarding compliance issues.

Gambling Clinic opens with funding problems

A new national clinic for gamblers with problems is set to open in Soho, London and will be accepting referrals from 15 September. A survey conducted in 2007 showed that one in five problem gamblers become addicted, which brings increased risk of debt-ridden addicts or in extreme cases, suicide.

The gambling industry, including online bingo, casinos and sportsbooks, has donated £250,000 to the clinic to date. The clinic has secure funding for one year, but after that its fate is uncertain. The British Medical Association is looking for an annual figure of £10 million to run the clinic.

Funding for projects such as the clinic is at the centre of a huge row within the industry, and the question on everyone’s lips is how much should casinos, bookmakers, online casino operators, online bingo sites and arcades contribute? The £55 billion industry has already donated £3.5 million for a treatment and research fund last year.

Embroiled in the furious debate are Gamcare, an industry funded self-help group, the RIGT which is the distribution body, and the gambling industry which is hovering in the background, all groups at loggerheads.

However everyone agrees on one solitary issue, that the industry is already paying its fair share. In accordance with the Gambling Act 2005 the industry pays billions in taxes to the Treasury, plus an additional £16 million towards the running costs of the Gambling Commission, the government appointed regulator.

The government is not much help, having passed the Gambling Act into law and introducing a much higher tax rate than expected together with stringent regulations, the Gambling Commission is struggling to consolidate its position.

The overall result has meant serious delays in funding for projects such as the new clinic. With shortfalls coming up almost every year, only last minute donations from the UK’s biggest gambling firms such as Gala Bingo and Ladbrokes have helped save the day. Even with the extra help, the over-riding factor of uncertainty simply increases the difficulties in fund distribution.

The much publicised super-casino saga attracted major funding from US operators fighting to open Las Vegas style casinos in the UK, but this source of funding was killed off with the scrapping of the super-casino plan by Gordon Brown as soon as he took office.

Gambling Commission figures estimate about 250,000 problem gamblers in the UK, but Gamblers Anonymous estimates a figure closer to 600,000. The BMA wants gambling to be recognised as an addiction, with care offered on the NHS.

RIGT funding appeal to Bingo industry

The Responsibility In Gambling Trust (RIGT) an independent charity which tackles problem gambling in the UK, including bricks and mortar casinos and bingo halls, and the online sector with online bingo, poker, casinos and sportsbetting sites concerned with the latest upsurge in problem cases and is working hard to address the situation. In its latest efforts towards this objective, the charity has initiated a study to gather the required data to try and resolve the issues faced by the public engaged in varieties of gambling, bingo halls and online bingo games.

The figures derived out of the study, which is focusing on problem gambling prevailing in UK, will be of great use in motivating further funding for the various purposes of research, education programs and treatment in dealing with the issue.

Problem Gambling is what happens when an individual no longer is able to control their habit, spending more money than he/she can afford and basically unable to stop and lead a normal life. Extreme cases can lead to adverse consequences for the individual, their families or even the community at large. Although this is comparatively rare in online bingo, a recent news article highlighted the case of a woman who stole £62,000 from her employer in order to fund her out of control online bingo habit.

The report is awaited by the online bingo and bingo industry circles anxiously, even though playing bingo at online bingo sites or at traditional bingo halls is not a major contributor to the “impulse control disorder” prevalent in the gambling populace in the UK. RIGT is requesting funding contributions of up to £10 million per annum from land-based Bingo Halls as well as online bingo sites to tackle this social problem.

RIGT has ambitious plans to combat problem gambling, and aims not only to make treatment available for the affected person, which is not a cure, but also wants to take prevention measures by pre-empting the problem with appropriate education and counseling. This way, it is hoped that gamblers can be encouraged to gamble responsibly, making wise and informed choices, while indulging in their favourite pasttime – be it poker or online bingo.

According to the Chairman of RIGT, simply providing treatment for existing sufferers is too little and too late. and the most important and effective approach is that of prevention, to ensure that people are educated and well aware of the early warning signs and costly consequences of problem gambling.

Extracted from Bingo Street.com