When I started gambling, I was the poster child of responsible gambling (RG). I had a front-row seat watching the development of gambling addiction in a close friend and with this awareness, I followed every RG suggestion with extreme care.
I knew it was critical.
Unfortunately, what I knew about RG best practice was incomplete advice. There were key elements that I simply wasn’t aware of, increasing my risk of following my friend’s path.
Fast forward 20 years and the RG advice hasn’t changed much. We have new names like responsible gaming or safer gambling, but those key elements are still missing or incomplete. Without change, I can’t help but believe we are opening the door for others to know and follow all of the responsible gaming advice, yet still develop issues with gambling.
The one thing that has changed is that we have many more organizations, people, weeks, advertisements, and websites championing this incomplete set of advice. While on one hand, this shows great progress, on the other hand, it’s simply amplifying the same incomplete story.
There’s a shakeup needed in RG messaging.
There’s testing/research needed in RG messaging.
There’s creativity needed in RG messaging.
There’s discussion needed in RG messaging.
Additional funding for responsible gambling campaigns is a great step forward, but we need the money to work towards improving it, not just amplifying it.
