I am doing my daily reading of online news and articles when I stumbled on this one. It has an article title of
Casino Guru’s Šimon Vincze on How Problem Gambling Can Become a Thing of the Past So I read and wanted it to share in this forum for some healthy discussion.
Here is the opening paragraph of the article to establish the questions.
We sit down and speak with Casino Guru’s Šimon Vincze, the man behind the company’s sustainable online gambling and reducing gambling-related harm juggernaut. Vincze most recently published the blue paper for the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative, a massive campaign that intends to tackle problem gambling with the participation of industry stakeholders and build a future where gambling-related harm is no longer an issue. Find out who Vincze is and how he is reshaping the industry.
More detail can be read on the link above.
The 3 key points that summarize the article:
The gambling industry is missing a system with the possibility to self-exclude internationally.
Thanks to our global presence and active approach toward sustainable online gambling, we saw a gap in the current self-exclusion options, practically overseen by the rest of the industry.
Read the blue paper and dedicate a few minutes of your time to imagining a world where blocking one's access to all gambling opportunities is a possibility. "
Digging deeper into what is this Global Self-Exclusion system (GSES) is, I found the
pdf of the blue paper. GSES is also deeply explained in this website,
Global Self-Exclusion Initiative, with a tagline :
"Let’s make online gambling safer, together."It said that to be able to solve the gambling problem in the gambling industry it needs GSES.
Why the gambling world needs a global self-exclusion scheme?Present self-exclusion options can be circumvented
Operator-level and nation-wide self-exclusion do not create an effective barrier that stops problem gamblers from playing. Players can avoid them by gambling at other sites, or even opting for unlicensed operators and ending up playing at objectively worse gambling websites.
Regulators and operators do not work together on a global level
National schemes do not work together on a global level or let foreign operators take part. Even if they wanted to, the rigid rules individual entities have to follow do not allow them to team up to better protect players.
What Self-Exclusion Is and Why It Is ImportantWhat is self-exclusion?Self-exclusion is a responsible gambling feature available to people playing in casinos or partaking in other gambling activities that allows players to block themselves from gambling for a certain period of time.
How does it work?Players can usually self-exclude from an individual casino in one of two ways:
Turning on self-exclusion by themselves, in the ‘responsible gambling’ section of the casino website. This usually involves choosing the desired duration of self-exclusion, but some casinos also ask about the reasons why the player wishes to use this feature.
Messaging customer support via live chat or e-mail. Some casino websites don’t support a feature that would allow players to turn on self-exclusion themselves. Instead, they need to message customer support and ask them to turn on self-exclusion for them.
Why is self-exclusion important?The importance of self-exclusion has a lot to do with reasons why players use it. While these can be very diverse, a considerable proportion of players resort to self-exclusion because they struggle to keep their problematic gambling habits under control.
How would global self-exclusion scheme help?Overcoming gambling addiction requires major commitment and often also professional help, but self-exclusion can make the process at least a bit easier and more effective.
The only challenge to this system is that it can be easily circumvented by gambling addict by finding a foreign casino willing to allow the player to gamble. The only solution to this problem is simply by making the self-exclusion global and affecting all available casino can make the system very much harder to circumvent.
Personal Input:Having this kind of tool in every online casino is really helpful but the main challenge is the people involved. Are they willing to participate in the program? That is the main issue unless Casino will cooperate and force implement this procedure to their players which is highly unlikely. Aside from that this is still in the experimental stage so it is too early to say that this kind of tool will solve the gambling problem that had been in the industry since the beginning. I think it will help but it won't make the gambling problem a thing of the past. So what do you think about this article's claim?
Sources:
https://www.gamblingnews.com/news/casino-gurus-simon-vincze-on-how-problem-gambling-can-become-a-thing-of-the-past/https://casino.guru/global-self-exclusion-initiativehttps://casino.guru/global-self-exclusion-initiative/self-exclusion-and-its-importance