Casino Guru Awards judges evaluate the Prague session: “The level of transparency you’ve brought is remarkable”

Earlier this month, the judging panel of the Casino Guru Awards gathered in the beautiful city of Prague to interview and evaluate the shortlisted companies. The event brought together a team of experts from the responsible gambling field, and it marked the end of yet another successful year for Casino Guru’s mission of making the industry better and safer.

We’ve asked Gamban’s Vice President of Partnerships, Melissa Etherington, to tell us what made her say yes to becoming a part of the Casino Guru Awards: "I’ve always admired your ambitions for the Global Self-Exclusion Scheme, and I’ve been a big fan of the work that you guys do from the very beginning. From a personal perspective, as has been shown whilst we’ve been judging, I knew it was going to be a very transparent process, and not a tick box where I just went with the flow."

During the event, all six main categories were thoroughly assessed, and the judges are expected to make their final decisions by the end of the year. When asked about what sets the Casino Guru Awards apart from the rest of the industry, Jo Abergel, the founder of Rock Learning and the co-founder of the Ethical Gambling Forum, has also shared her thoughts:

"What I found to be different about these awards is the level of transparency you’ve brought. The fact that you’re really willing to bring everybody together and get everybody sitting around the table is amazing, and the benefits of that face-to-face interaction are huge. Not just for the actual judging, but so that we can critically judge the awards because we’re challenging each other."

"The other judges are putting things into our minds that we mind not have considered, and just having that opportunity has been so useful. I don’t think there are other awards in the industry that are currently doing that," Abergel concluded.

The session in Prague gave the judging panel ample opportunity to discuss all nominations face-to-face, allowing them to critically challenge each other’s viewpoints and opinions. The passion and desire to really make a difference is what has really shone through for all the judges, who have spent the whole day evaluating countless nomination forms and interviewing the shortlisted companies.

"Professional collaboration is something that really stands out to me when it comes to the Casino Guru Awards. We had a lot of diverse and very experienced people in the room, along with some quite difficult things to deal with. However, I think the ability to listen to others, to be able to voice your opinion, be heard, and ultimately respected for what you bring to the table is something that really stood out to me. It was a valuable learning experience, and I’m very happy I got to be a part of it," said Adrian Sladdin, Managing Director at Seventh Wave Corporate Training, when asked to name one thing that stood out to him the most from the event.

With the online awarding ceremony set to stream live on February 22nd, the inaugural year of Casino Guru Awards is slowly coming to an end. The shortlisted companies will surely be tuning in to see who takes home the trophy, and the ceremony also promises to bring several Casino Guru Awards judges to provide interesting and valuable insights into the judging process of each category.

Image credit: Casino Guru News