AGA Webinar: Innovation Drives New Era in Responsible Gaming

Introduced as a “forward-looking panel featuring leading gaming suppliers who are advancing responsible gaming through product design, data solutions and collaborative innovation”, the American Gaming Association’s latest webinar made one thing clear: the industry’s approach to responsible play is evolving, and innovation is at the center. 

In his opening remarks, AGA’s senior vice president of strategic communications, Joe Maloney, chose to draw a parallel between the industry’s continuous attempts to introduce new products and its ability to create smarter, more effective tools for player protection. 

For the next 45 minutes, Powering Responsible Gaming Through Product Innovation panelists repeatedly circled back to the idea that operators are the ones driving the changes by incorporating responsible gaming straight into their business models.

Responsible Gaming, a “Compliance Obligation”

“I think the most significant shift has been the move from seeing responsible gaming as a compliance obligation,” explained Tasos Dagkos, Aristocrat Group’s general manager of responsible gameplay. 

“This is where we move into it actually as a core design principle for us at Aristocrat. We now start with a different type of question: how can this product empower safer play and sustainable play?”, Dagkos added. 

Jessica Feil, vice president of regulatory affairs & compliance at OpenBet, reinforced the idea, arguing players and operators are hungry for holistic solutions. 

“When we sort of inspected the market and thought about where the industry was heading a few years ago, we looked up and really felt that player protection was going to be the center point for the entire industry around the world,” Feil said. 

“Going forward, with the rise of digital gaming, it’s become critical that we have not just compliant solutions around responsible gambling, but innovative and easy to use solutions.”, she went on.

Dr. Jennifer Shatley, executive director of the Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA), emphasized that responsible gaming must be part of the player journey itself. “I think what we’re seeing from an operator perspective is responsible gaming shouldn’t be a standalone, separate thing,” she said. “It should actually be integrated into the play experience and into the player journey.”

RG Tools Can Improve Operations

Panelists also discussed profitability concerns, with Sportradar’s Tom Mace noting that those fears are fading as companies realize responsible gaming tools can enhance operations. He used the example of Bettor Sense, their own responsible gaming tool that is in full agreement with their broader insight tech solution, a suite of API driven AI models, and AI models used for trading, risk management, and marketing operations.

Shatley pointed to ROGA’s formation, funded by companies like Bally’s, bet365, BetMGM, and FanDuel, as proof of growing collaboration. “There are a lot of resources and a lot of, I would say, brain power, being put towards how do we evolve responsible gaming practices,” she explained.

Feil concluded that regulators must understand the science behind the data to create a “more bespoke product” based on the reporting and red flags, allowing in-house responsible gambling teams to act whenever necessary.