Safer Gambling Highlights Unveiled | Focal Research at NAGS 2023
Focal Research Consultants Limited shared our latest research and insights at this year’s 31st National Association for Gambling Studies (NAGS) conference, held from November 15th to 17th in Adelaide, South Australia. Notably, the conference coincided with Safer Gambling Week, a cross-industry initiative aimed at promoting safer gambling in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Tracy Schrans' NAGS 2023 Sessions
Regulating the Game, Not the Players
In this session, Tracy focused on normalizing safer gambling by extending player protection to all gamblers. By moving risk detection and safer gambling action upstream, Tracy emphasized the importance of actively preventing the development of gambling harm. The presentation presented empirical findings from an international research project, showcasing the creation of a taxonomy of critical behavioral triggers associated with harm. Tracy’s insights opened new possibilities for supporting safer gambling and active prevention, delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.
Finding the Invisible At-risk Player
Tracy shared insights into a new EGM Affordability Model during this session. The model, specifically adapted for changes in play due to COVID-19, aimed to identify players spending beyond affordable limits. The exploration of behavioral cues and machine data provided a nuanced understanding of managerial and regulatory implications, particularly in assisting vulnerable over-spenders. This research offered a sophisticated approach that is easy to operationalize and yields greater results in identifying players spending beyond their means.
Learn More about Focal’s Principal and President, Tracy Schrans:
Tracy Schrans is the President and Co-founder of Focal Research, a Canadian-based research and data analytics company with an international public health orientation. She is one of the first applied researchers to use player tracking data to develop instruments and algorithms for detecting gambling risk and harm in non-laboratory settings.
Jay Robinson's NAGS 2023 Sessions
Smart Betting and Safer Gambling: Gambling Literacy Where It Matters Most
Jay Robinson, Director of Safer Gambling and Stakeholder Engagement, conducted an interactive pre-conference workshop addressing the need for gambling literacy and harm minimization strategies. Participants gained practical insights into betting and game-specific play strategies, emphasizing the importance of understanding the factors that matter most to people who gamble. The session not only enhanced participants’ awareness but also instilled confidence in communicating gambling literacy that is game-specific, relevant to the player’s needs, and useful in harm minimization.
Moving The Ambulance from the Bottom of the Hill: Preventing Gambling Harms Through Interactions with Customers
Jay Robinson’s presentation tackled the urgent need to prevent, identify, and respond to indicators of gambling harms in-situ. By sharing operational insights and empirical findings related to industry training, Jay contributed highlights from Focal Research’s extensive research on safer gambling customer interactions. The session provided proven tips and tools for interacting with people who gamble around financial and other gambling-related harms, setting the groundwork for future research directions in responsible gambling training.
Learn More about Focal’s Director of Safer Gambling and Stakeholder Engagement, Jay Robinson
Combining rigour and creativity, Jay Robinson brings research to life for real-world application in regulatory, operator and public health environments. A thought leader and innovator in responsible gambling programming, Jay is recognized as an expert in training related to gambling safeguards, who has created original gambling and treatment training programs across Australia, Canada, the US and the United Kingdom for the past 20 years.
Known as an accessible, grounded and relevant knowledge broken, Jay transforms the best evidence into new, impactful policy and programs that address the needs of our new global gambling landscapes.
Honourable Mentions and Special Thanks
Watching the Money: Striking the Balance Between Player Privacy and Regulatory Control
Focal gives thanks to moderator Nadine Grinblat, and panelists Sarah Hare, Andrew Gill, David McAnalen and Peter ter Weeme for the relevant and frank discussion on player privacy and regulatory control.
Closing Thoughts
We were happy to participate in this years NAGS conference and reinforce our dedication to advancing safer gambling. Through our pioneering research and insightful contributions, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ongoing initiatives aimed at preventing gambling harm.
As we reflect on the valuable discussions and collaborative efforts during Safer Gambling Week, we look forward to continuing our mission of fostering a safer and more responsible gambling environment globally. Thank you to all who contributed to this meaningful dialogue, highlighting the collective commitment to progress in the field.
Learn more about our Safer Gambling Solutions
ALeRT is a data-driven real-world solution to help prevent gambling risk and harm.
The system integrates corporate social responsibility best practices and technologies across a modern enterprise, helping move operators into an active prevention role. It does this by identifying at-risk players, supporting effective customer interactions, and evaluating the impact of such interactions in reducing customer risk and harm.
The ALeRT BETTOR Customer Care Training program is intended as an ancillary resource for gambling operators to use in addition to their own policies, practices and staff training.
This training program provides service staff with additional information and skill sets for undertaking effective customer interactions as part of normal customer care. This in turn helps gamblers make better decisions, making gambling safer for all those choosing to gamble.
Our Healthy Bottom Line brochures are helpful guides that provide insight into gambling risk, and harm and provide professional encouragement to safeguard your patrons from risky play patterns that may develop into long-term issues.
With six different brochures, each brochure is customized and branded for each operator to provide information that is relevant and meaningful to their customers. Materials are available in both print and digital formats.
