Safer gambling accreditation and local culture, with Tracy Parker of the RGC

How do you check that an operator's safer gambling programme works in practice? Tracy Parker, Senior Vice President of Accreditation, Advisory and Insights at the Responsible Gambling Council, tells Šimon Vincze of Casino Guru News how RG Check works in Ontario and where safer gambling goes next.

In this episode

• Parker says RG Check is required of all regulated online operators in Ontario, over 50 operators and over 80 sites; the obligation comes from their contract with iGaming Ontario, not from regulation (5:11, 18:06).

• It works like an audit across nine standard areas for iGaming (eight for land-based), takes about four to five months and is specific to each site (5:38, 6:20, 8:18).

• Common standards travel, but local culture shapes them: a dedicated player education area in a land-based casino looks different across jurisdictions with different help-seeking cultures (45:54, 46:10).

• She describes the Better Gambling Forum as a UN-affiliated initiative building a framework for healthy markets; the working group has no funding yet and a consultation document is due this spring (34:46, 35:02, 37:30).

• In Canada, Alberta is next: its market is scheduled to launch in mid July under a model similar to Ontario's (52:18, 52:55).

• She wants banks and credit unions to do more to identify harm and financial vulnerability, and calls financial literacy a very strong foundation (54:35, 55:31).

Episode from Safer Gambling Talks with Šimon Vincze by Casino Guru News, published on YouTube.