Tracy Parker in SGT with Šimon Vincze: “You need to adjust the details based on local culture”

The latest episode of Safer Gambling Talks with Šimon Vincze, Casino Guru's Head of Sustainable & Safer Gambling is out, with a very special guest attending.

Tracy Parker, Senior Vice President of Accreditation, Advisory and Insights at the Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) joined Vincze for a candid conversation around the bigger picture of responsible gambling, the importance of local culture, and the need to keep raising the bar.

Parker discussed her work as part of the RGC and the role of RG Check, as well as how accreditation can help build a strong safer gambling framework that emanates from operators themselves, rather than relying purely on regulation and compliance as reactory phenomena.

Parker talks about how the RGC can certify both online iGaming operators as well as land-based venues, the extensive work that goes into that certification process, from player interviews to employer interviews, and the equivalent of what the RGC does across the world, mentioning the the National Council of Problem Gambling, as an organization that also strive to provide a genuine assessment of RG practices and incentivize businesses to seek them out actively.

The Responsible Online Gambling Association (ROGA) is also an organization working with the RGC to achieve certification for ROGA’s members. The RGC is particularly active in Canada, where it is based, and where standards about responsible gambling are raising consistently, as the country is expanding with a second regulated online casino market in Alberta soon.

RG Check, one of RGC’s flagship solutions, aims to deliver an honest assessment of how far along operators are in their RG commitments and what they can strengthen and improve. One of the standout features of this solution is that it does not certify operators in a blanket way, but rather takes a step-by-step approach and issues certifications based on individual websites.

The example Parker uses is that Flutter Entertainment would not receive a certification directly, but its websites PokerStars and Party Casino would, for example, after all checks are completed and criteria met.

Parker also points out that this is a contractual obligation right now in Ontario, the first Canadian province to have launched iGaming on a license-based model, rather than a regulatory one.

However, the RGC is far more than this, as it also runs the Play Smart Centers available directly at Ontario casinos and employs more than 100 trained professionals who can provide resources directly to players.

She also highlights how a trust-based relationship between operators and stakeholders involved in managing the market, such as AGCO, iGaming Ontario, and the OLG, has led to far more positive outcomes for responsible gambling.

The Czech Republic has achieved similar results, by having operataors who trust regulators, leading to a more secure overall player protection framework.

As Parker, notes, however, the Czech Republic and Ontario's iGaming markets are different, but have achieved similar outcomes.

The conversation doesn’t stop there, however, with the RGC involved in multiple other initiatives that seek to elevate standards industry-wide, specifically through the Better Gambling Forum and the International Gambling Standardization Association.

Parker similarly speaks about the role that the financial sector could play in helping detect gambling-related harm and tackle it early on. The full conversation is well worth watching in its entirety.

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