Duncan Garvie: “We need to fundamentally change the way we talk about safer gambling”

Duncan Garvie, a judge for the Casino Guru Awards in the RG Tools and ISRI categories, brings years of experience in responsible gambling advocacy. With the winners now selected and the official awards ceremony just weeks away, Garvie reflects on the evolution of the gambling industry, from its "Wild West" beginnings to growing accountability, and the ongoing challenges in making responsible gambling a genuine priority.

Q: Ducan, from your very beginning in the industry, you have been a force for good – first with the launch of ThePOGG, the first affiliate to be approved as an Alternative Dispute Resolution service, and most recently through your involvement with BetBlocker, a company spearheading a global effort to leverage responsible gambling tools to minimize gambling harm in the industry.

What has changed over the past 13 or so years in the industry with regard to player protection and have we reached a point in history where we can honestly talk about RG being a priority for companies?

Everything. When I started ThePOGG, we were coming to the end of the "Wild West" era of the industry. When the industry was still new, governments were lagging behind and didn’t know how to approach this new industry, and even the biggest gambling operators had minimal regulatory oversight.

ThePOGG was a response to a natural consumer demand. The need for some sort of independent push back against and unfettered industry who saw it’s word as law.

Things have change dramatically since that time. The regulated industry is subject to substantial oversight and scrutiny today. Far more than it was even a decade ago. The unregulated industry has become much worse, as the petulantly stamp their feet at the thought of regulation and insist that they should be able to treat consumers any way they see fit.

I don’t think we’re at the point where RG is a priority for companies. Not yet. Speak off the record to any Head of RG/equivalent role and you’ll hear the same stories about struggles to get their department properly resourced, about travel for conferences being declined, about their recommendations for management of cases being ignored. As much as every company now wants to promote themselves as an RG-focused company, there’s still a divergence between the outward-facing messaging and the internal culture.

That said, huge progress has been made. The dialogue surrounding protecting players has changed entirely for the better. So I’d say that we’re on the journey to the right place but we’re not there yet.

Q: What do you think has galvanized the most recent interest in responsible gambling and social responsibility initiatives? Is there a sort of "tick-boxing" going on in the iGaming industry, or do you believe a growing cohort of companies are actually addressing the problem head-on?

Growing public and press scrutiny of the sector, and of the real life consequences of severe gambling harm are forcing a change in narrative around social responsibility.

The press loves stories about the most extreme cases of gambling harm. These are shocking and act as click bait. This puts pressure on the politicians, who put pressure on the regulators which then forces change in the industry.

I believe that this dynamic can, and has in some instances has, gone too far, but I’m also unconvinced that the industry has yet reached the point where it would volunteer to deliver under their own steam.

So I’d say there’s still too much of a box ticking approach being taken. But, that said, I still strongly believe that the culture and ethos within the industry is steadily improving. There will always be a need for oversight to ensure no backsliding and that progress keeps being made, but broadly speaking I believe the willingness within businesses to do better is far higher even than it was at the start of the decade.

Q: The Casino Guru Awards celebrate efforts in responsible gambling and social responsibility. In your opinion, how can awards like these incentivize companies to go beyond compliance and truly prioritize player well-being?

Awards and social recognition of achievement in preventing harm are a way to incentivize the industry to engage fully with prevention of harm. The benefits to building a trusted and respected brand are substantial.

From a psychological perspective, it’s far more effective to reinforce positive behaviours with praise than it is to sanction negative behaviour.

But this is only true where the awards are based on merit rather than payment. Far too many of the awards in the sector are solely commercial in nature, going to the groups that sponsored the event, or who bought tables at the event, etc. Especially with regard to social responsibility, this practice actively undermines the sector’s efforts to improve. It allows questionable operators to buy the positive press that should be going to the operators who are really trying to make things better.

So events like the Casino Guru Awards are important, to set the bar for how awards in the sector should be run.

Q: One of the challenges with any awards is that they genuinely reflect meaningful achievements rather than being seen as a mere publicity stunt. How do you think the Casino Guru Awards maintain their credibility and foster real change in the industry?

The Casino Guru Awards engender credibility by bringing in knowledgeable and credible judges whose integrity matters to them more than the publicity. By recruiting people like the fantastic Monica Shafaq from Gordon Moody the awards ensure respectability. Professionals of this calibre and standing have a reputation to protect and will safeguard the integrity of the judging process.

This sends a strong social message out to the sector, which in turn raises the prestige of the Awards. This is how awards should be done. Of course, there’s still the opportunity for publicity. And there should be publicity around winning an award. But the publicity should be tied into the recognition of achievement rather than some financial transaction.

Q: Are there any specific criteria or achievements you would like to see in the Casino Guru Awards to push the envelope on responsible gambling?

I’d really like to see a fundamental shift in the way we communicate about safer gambling.

Right now we’re failing to engage our audience. Talking about harm, and risk, and staying safe is what we’ve done for decades now. And that may work when we’re talking to the converted. Those that already identify as impacted by gambling harm.

The people we need to reach however are the people who aren’t currently experience gambling harm. Or those that are experiencing mild levels of harm and who don’t identify has ‘gambling addicts’. Prevention is absolutely key. If we can encourage people to adopt safer habits before the problem reaches a point of crisis, we will save lives.

The challenge we face is that players, who are engaging with gambling for fun and entertainment, aren’t buying the message of harm we’ve been selling. We need to change the language and approach to find the message that will engage the average player.

If a nominee really wants to impress me, they’ll show a new approach to communicating with players. They’ll find a way to make safer gambling engaging and fun.

Q: How do the Casino Guru Awards influence public perception of the iGaming industry? Do you believe the awards can genuinely demonstrate that the industry is moving toward a model that prioritizes responsible gambling?

Most awards make no difference to public perception of the gambling sector. They are an exercise in self-indulgence. The industry patting itself on the back.

But Casino Guru occupy a unique position within the industry. As an affiliate they have a huge player audience. They bridge the gap between the sector and players. Their awards are no an insular exercise in self-congratulation.

Casino Guru has already taken a sector leading position. No other affiliate has prioritized speaking about safer gambling in the way Casino Guru has. And this is starting to create a paradigm shift within the sector, with other affiliates starting to focus their message on creating a safer space for player to engage in.

And for this reason the Casino Guru Awards have the opportunity to influence public perception in a way that other awards don’t. They engage the people whose opinion really matters. The players.

Q: What specific challenges do you think an industry format such as the Casino Guru Awards can help overcome?

I think that the vast majority industry awards have become a bit of a cliché. They are the industry congratulating the industry for what a good job they’re doing. They’re given out by groups that are B2B, and are not answerable to the people that really matter. The players.

Casino Guru is different. They are directly answerable to their audience, who are players. That offers a unique opportunity to do something totally different with their awards. Make them more relevant to players. And to present a counter point to the standard self-aggrandising standard fair of industry awards.

Q:When it comes to the state of responsible gambling today, what would you like to see improved sooner rather than later?

I think we need to radically reconsider how we are talking to players. I understand that much of the messaging around safer gambling is being steered by those with lived experience. And this is an important voice to hear.

However, the average player doesn’t identify themselves as impacted by gambling harms. Even when they might be. Lecturing them about harm and the risks associated with gambling does not work. We’re turning these people off to our message before they even consider it.

If we want to effectively reach players before they reach the point of crisis, we need to change the language we’re using to communicate with the audience. We keep disregarding the people we’re trying to speak to, because we’re so intent on talking from our own point of experience.

We need to fundamentally change the way we talk about safer gambling and start listening to the people we’re speaking to.

Image credit: Casino Guru News