RGWeekIrl2018, the Irish Responsible Gambling Week initiative, ran last week in Ireland, from 5th – 11th February, a new attempt at more responsible gaming that was welcomed in the country. It ran with the slogan “A real tip – know when to stop.” Banners displayed up and down the country also featured the following excellent advice: “Only spend what you can afford”, “Never chase your losses,” “Limit your time spent gambling,” and “Never allow gambling to harm your relationships”.
Nobody has the exact statistics on how many problem gamblers Ireland has, but with a stalled reform bill for gambling jammed up in the political system, calls from the Irish Bookmakers Association (IBA) and others for an independent regulator to be instantiated, and a meagre 1% tax on gambling firms, the potential for it is certainly rife.
The event saw representatives involved from all sectors of the industry, from gaming clubs, horseracing tracks, and online casinos and betting sites, to high street betting shop brands. They wished to implement and promote tools and strategies which are available to keep gambling safe and healthy, a move anyone would be a fool not to champion.
Various activities took place during the week, including services from event partner Dunlewey Addiction Services to raise awareness about communication channels and helplines available to players. Betting shops featured their own initiatives regarding training staff, offering coffee mornings in local betting shops for players to discuss their concerns and experiences. And a briefing and reception was held in the Dail itself, with the aim of informing politicians about the event and its purposes.
Sharon Byrne, Chairperson of the IBA, had this to say about the event: “Social responsibility has been increasingly fundamental to our members’ approach to customers and business, and what makes this week so important is that the industry is coming together and sharing the same messages to secure maximum exposure and awareness. We want to start more conversations about what it means to gamble responsibly between operators, customers and their friends and families… Having the whole industry behind Responsible Gambling Week is essential to its success… Their full support and involvement is what will make this campaign effective and will help us reach more people than ever before.”
This excellent initiative hopefully marks the start of a more proactive time in the Irish gambling scene, as a greater and greater proportion of players and operators move on from frustrations in trying to get politicians to speed up reforms of legislation and start to take matters into their own hands. I, for one, applaud them.
