Svend Aage Kirk: “How do we stop players from needing treatment?”

As we enter the new year, with the Casino Guru Awards fast-approaching, we have caught up with Svend Aage Kirk who spoke about the upcoming event, the importance of implementing responsible gambling tools, and preventing players from coming into harm in the first place. Our interview takes a deep dive into the industry, what can be improved, and whether we are on the right path.

Q:Svend, it’s a pleasure to have you with us. As a veteran in responsible gambling, having worked on numerous initiatives within the industry, how do you assess the current state of responsible gambling? Are we moving in the right direction as an industry?

We for sure are moving in the right direction but the industry still has a way to go before we can say that we are potentially ahead of regulation which I believe should be the ambition building a more sustainable industry obtaining public acknowledge and being more in control of regulatory reqirements.

Q: What do you think a platform such as the Casino Guru Awards can help contribute to making Responsible Gambling "the norm" and raise awareness for the existence of such tools in the first place?

Casino Guru is facing players which means that the award will be promoted so players becomes aware and that for sure can support brand loyalty and retention which is extremely important in the gambling industry due to high cost of acquisition.

Q:As part of The Digital Wellness Center, you focus on empowering individuals to maintain mental health and emotional balance—both vital for fostering a healthy relationship with potentially compulsive behaviors, including gambling. Based on your observations, what are the key insights you've gained about the struggles individuals face with addiction? Additionally, what recovery approaches have you found to consistently yield positive outcomes?

Actually I would rather say "how do we avoid players getting that far" where treatment is needed. Main focus today is on the 6-8% being At Risk or High Risk but once they were all Low Risk and our focus should be on keeping customers at Low Risk knowing that it is an obligation taking care of customers having a potential problem. In The Digial Wellness Center our focus is prevention, we are the seat belt in the car whereas traditional RG today is intervention being the brake in the car, we push it when something is about to go wrong. Gambling is based on decision making and our focus is helping people making better decisions so we can avoid the traditional RG tools as players don’t like limitations and many don’t see themselves as having a problem being in need of such tools.

Q: Previously, you were part of SG:certified. The company focuses on supporting the gambling industry by helping organizations meet compliance and sustainability standards. Is this all companies look for when approaching you? Do they only care about compliance and sustainability or is there interest beyond that – how you stay ahead of the curve, for example?

Both I would say but companies working with ESG already and being aware that building a sustainable business do not see compliance as a nessity only, compliance is a part of their daily operation and that’s why they use refined platforms as SG:certified which makes it easy for them assessing their current situation and take action when gabs are being identified. A partner of SG:certified is Betcomply who has invented ComplyCheck which is deployed in the SG:certified platform and helps operators assessing their compliance readiness.

Q: Do you think we can really talk about responsible gambling as "staying ahead of the curve." Is RG supposed to be something that is graded, i.e. some companies do it better and others are worse at it. Shouldn’t it all be unified and standardized?

The industry needs a standard being used across jurisdictions as today too many resources are being spend on fulfilling regulatory requirements across jurisdictions which actually could have been spend more efficient and valuable if we had a standard. Regulation changes so fast these days that operators tend to focus on just fulfilling existing requirements rather than being innovative staying ahead of regulatory requirements.

Q: Do you think the Casino Guru Awards can contribute to this?

I think Casino Guru Award is great for those who apply as they during the process have to assess their existing RG strategy and consider whether there are basis for improvements and beside they also get a response from the judge being an independent 3rd party looking at their strategy, tools and behavior from outside in.

Q: How do you think consumers treat RG tools today? Do you think they understand how important those can be and how they can impact their personal play?

Players tend to think that RG tools are for someone else as especially those being in need of traditional tools don’t see the need themselves, that’s one of the reasons for ending up where they are not taking action before it goes wrong. Rather we should focus on helping people making better decisions so they can stay at Low Risk and enjoy gambling as entertainment. That’s what we focus on at The Digital Wellness Center where we have introduced microbreaks as a prevention tools influencing decision making.

Q: What word of advice do you have for companies applying for the Best Implementation of RG Tools?

Beside what is mandatory then start looking at prevention as happy players create brand loyalty and retention which supports growth and long term sustainability.

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