Gambling Group, GVC Holdings, have announced plans to implement extra practices in its latest bid to protect customers from gambling related harm. GVC made the announcement just hours after independent company, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) who are responsible for all gaming sectors within the UK, released a 10-pledge plan to tackle gambling harm in these unprecedented times.
Up Customer Protection
With all sports and events now postponed and land-based casinos now closed in the UK, BGC advised its UK operators to up its customer protection, along with responsible advertising in a bid to protect the most vulnerable at this time.The country is in lockdown for what could be months, people are self-isolating so UK operators have been urged to take extra measures as reports have shown more online activity in the past few weeks. With this comes the risk some customers could develop a gambling problem, the new 10-pledge action plan will set out an action plan to prevent this from happening.
Awareness Of Safer Gambling Tools
GVC have said they will be in regular communication with “all customers, across all group brands and all territories”, advising them to gamble in a responsible manner, and offer safer gambling tools. Safer gambling tools are already available to customers but GVC will now ensure all customers are aware of these which include, deposit and time limits, self-exclusion, curfew setting, bet limits on online slot games and reverse withdrawal settings.Markers of Harm indicators have already been implemented to GVC’s safer gambling algorithm, enabling them to detect early signs of gambling behaviour that may pose a problem. Extra responsible gambling messaging will now be visible throughout its websites, with multi-channel responsible marketing campaigns.Third party advertising partners have also been warned actions will be taken if they breach GVC’s codes of conduct after issuing guidelines of black-listed terms associated with the virus.GVC CEO Kenneth Alexander said, “ We are hugely sensitive to the potential risk for some who are self-isolated at home or may have financial difficulties with reduced access to work. Our enhanced tools give customers the power to manage their spending and time in an effective way, and we are backing this up by carefully monitoring play through our markers of harm. “ As an industry, we have a clear responsibility to protect the vulnerable and we warmly welcome the coordinated approach announced by the BGC which provides a template for strengthening player protections.”