Simon Vincze outlines Global Self-Exclusion journey as part of Ethical Gambling Forum

The recently concluded Ethical Gambling Forum 2024 held in Gibraltar and sponsored by the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative gathered some of the most prominent industry specialists who have dedicated their careers to addressing the pressing need to elevate the status of ethical and responsible gambling in the industry.

This year’s edition of the event, held on May 7-8, went under the theme of "Taking a Gamble? Avoiding Risk with ESG," in a bid to outline the strategies companies can use to strengthen their responsible gambling footprint and make meaningful changes towards the improvement of the industry for consumers.

Among the panellists was Casino Guru Head of Sustainable & Safer Gambling Šimon Vincze who highlighted the challenges faced by companies in the sector that are trying to embrace every aspect of ESG fully and drive meaningful values and that positive contributions rather than just "XYZ wash" their strategies.

The key to achieving this lies in "going deeper," Vincze explained, and it is rooted in promoting sustainable gambling as the answer to the challenges that the online gambling industry faces.

Vincze has acknowledged that the terminology has been overused, and it’s easy to construe it as trite or hollow, but regardless of what you call it – "safer gambling" or "positive play," what matters here is the underlying effort to achieve long-term and mutually beneficial relations between gambling companies and players, he argued.

Vincze used the Ethical Gambling Forum to deliver some hard truths about how this process can be achieved. "In the short term," Vincze reasoned, there will have to be concessions made on both the parts of consumers and businesses. These concessions may not always be palatable to the parties that acquiesce to them, and yet – they are important for achieving long-term meaningful results.

Yet, as Vincze astutely observed, "People do put on seatbelts with a smile these days."Vincze’s own involvement with the event specifically focused on the journey towards a "Global Self-Exclusion System," about which he joined an interactive presentation on Day Two during which he outlined the general framework of how this may happen in the long term.

Vincze has already worked extensively on the subject through the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative and has been raising awareness for what could be a universal system that transcends individual jurisdictional requirements to become a powerful tool that protects consumers but is also championed by operators.

As he told GBC News reporters during the Ethical Gambling Forum: "Operators need to be taking care of their players to a certain extent. Ideally, measuring or monitoring what players are doing and then approaching players when something bad is happening."

The onus is also on consumers up to a point, as gamblers need to have a better understanding of their own habits, and what is going on when they place a wager, understanding the risks and pitfalls.

Ultimately, however recent experience has shown that operators are reluctant to act when it comes to certain aspects of safer gambling, which is what drives the need for tougher regulation that is impacting both the player and the business.

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