Responsible Gambling Week 2019
OPERATORS UNITE TO TRIGGER A NATIONAL CONVERSATION ABOUT SAFER GAMBLING
The gambling industry is coming together to stage the biggest ever campaign to promote safer gambling in Ireland and the UK.
Responsible Gambling Week 2019 (RGWeek19), which takes place from November 7th-November 13th, is the public face of the industry’s year-round commitment to safer gambling. More than 120,000 staff at thousands of gambling venues and online sites are taking part.
The campaign is led by the the Irish Bookmakers Association and in the UK by the Industry Group For Responsible Gambling, comprised of all the gambling trade associations The objective is to stimulate a national conversation about safer gambling, highlighting the tools, advice and help available to customers, and the initiatives being taken by operators to promote social responsibility.
A summit ‘Building a safer gambling industry’, hosted by ERG in association with Responsible Gambling Week, will take place on November 7th at Twickenham Rugby Stadium, UK, bringing together leading online gaming operators, affiliates, regulators and the wider gaming community to discuss safer gambling strategies. Speakers include Tim Miller, executive director of the Gambling Commission.
During Responsible Gambling Week, staff from across the entire industry, including arcades, bingo clubs, bookmakers, and racetracks will be empowered to initiate conversations with customers about safer gambling and messaging will be prominently displayed at venues. Some operators will have dedicated responsible gambling areas where experts will be available to speak to customers and others are organizing special events, including ‘take a break sessions’, and sponsored fundraising initiatives by staff. Operators will document their staff’s involvement in the campaign and have made an on-going commitment to invest in staff training, equipping them with the tools to advise customers about safer gambling. A mystery shop audit campaign will also take place throughout the week, where inspectors will visit random betting shops across the country. They will be checking shop window messaging, internal shop information displays and staff knowledge about the week.
Online websites will promote responsible gambling messages to their customers through pop-ups and banner ads. All operators will post responsible gambling content and information about advice and help for customers on their own social channels.
A new website, www.responsiblegamblinguk.org will act as an information hub, providing a comprehensive one-stop service for consumers all year round, educating them about all aspects of responsible gambling. Operators can also download assets and resources from the website to use during Responsible Gambling Week.
The responsible gambling information hub has been developed in conjunction with campaign partner GamCare.
Other key supporters of Responsible Gambling Week include:
- The English Football League and sponsors SkyBet, who are offering advertising space at football grounds across the country and in matchday programmes; gambling operators, including Kindred and Betway, who sponsor Premier League, EFL and Scottish Premier League clubs, which will display responsible gambling messages on their team kit;
- The Racecourse Association and the British Horseracing Authority, Irish Greyhound Board and Horse Racing Ireland which will display responsible gambling messages at racecourses across the UK and Ireland during Responsible Gambling Week
Last year, the #RGWeek18 hashtag generated nearly 20 million impressions and safer gambling content is already being posted on Responsible Gambling Week social channels: Twitter: @RGWeek19; Facebook: facebook.com/RGweek19; and, for the first time on Instagram: Instagram.com/rgweek19.
Sharon Byrne, chairman of the IBA, said:
“We are really looking forward to our 3rd National Responsible Gambling week and increasing the coverage and awareness of safer gambling, what it means and where to get help for those that need it. Having such a broad range of operators participate ensures the message about safer gambling spreads even further. It give operators and staff a greater opportunity to share the message directly with customers during the week, in a relaxed and casual manner.”
John Hagan, chairman of the IGRG, said:
“We are confident that Responsible Gambling Week, now in its third year, will be our biggest campaign yet, but this is not just about one week in the year, it is about promoting safer gambling all year round. We want to make this an open and inclusive conversation, connecting with the widest possible audience, including those who do not think messages about responsible gambling are aimed at them. We want to take the message about safer gambling even further this year, through our own social channels, with the support of our partners inside the industry and beyond”.
Neil McArthur, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, said:
“The week’s strapline, ‘Let’s talk about safer gambling’, is an important message not only for customers but also for the staff and industry leaders whose role is to look out for their customers. It provides an opportunity for people across the gambling industry, no matter what their role is, to focus on what part they can play to make gambling safer and reduce gambling harms”.