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EGBA’s Haijer sends warnings after praising Kindred Group’s efforts
European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA)’s Secretary General Maarten Haijer has sent warnings that the industry needs to take notes and adapt to the situation as it its facing much investigation.
Haijer has lately been applauding Kindred Group’s efforts into publicly releasing the shares of its revenues that was generated from customers that are considered to be at a high-risk of gambling harm, where it was revealed that 4.3% of gross winnings during Q4 of 2020 were generated through players who are ‘high risk’.
Kindred group has also said that it will be publishing its latest transparency matric as a part of its safer gambling policy, since it is looking to decrease that number to 0% of revenue generated from customers who are high risk and suffer from problem gambling by around 2023.
Nonetheless, as the industry ‘rightly comes under public scrutiny’, he also argued that:
There are still way too many companies in the sector who far too readily point the finger angrily at regulation and complain about it, without taking responsibility and providing solutions.
Haijer has recommended that the industry should ‘become much more mature in how it responds to society and it needs to do so quickly’.
The Secretary General stated:
This is a really important initiative – for customers and the sector – and a big step forward in transparency and accountability. When you look at their numbers, it’s clear that Kindred’s internal procedures for detecting and addressing problematic gambling behaviour are already delivering positive results: over 70 per cent of the customers detected by Kindred’s Player Safety Early Detection System positively changed their gambling behaviour upon detection and intervention from the company. This includes acknowledging that the sector is accountable for what it does and doesn’t do, and how it protects its customers, particularly those who need greater support. Otherwise, the future will look bleak, especially for those companies which continue to think that the best course of action to public scrutiny is to do nothing.
In the end, the Haijer guaranteed to operators that the Belgium-based EGBA would like ‘betting to be enjoyable for everyone’, but also continued by saying that ‘accountability is more than word, it’s the key ingredient for a future-proof online gambling sector’.
At the start of this month, the trade association also issued alerts concerning Brexit, stating that the terms and conditions of the UK’s exit deal do not appropriately safeguard online gambling.
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