It’s day one of the Neosurf takeover of iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove.

To kick things off Andrea McGeachin, CEO of Neosurf, is joined by Shelley White, CEO of the Responsible Gambling Council (RGC), to discuss the work of the RGC, responsible gambling practices in the payments industry and her imminent retirement from the organisation. 

After recapping the recent RGC Discovery Conference, the talk turns to the work done by the RGC. 

After explaining the role of the organisation, Shelley champions some of the work done by the RGC, including the education they provide to young people about responsible gambling before they reach a legal gambling age.

She says: “We’re in high schools with kids talking about what gambling is, what gaming is, the intersection, what the risks are, how to mitigate those risks to start preparing them because they’re thinking about [gambling], they’re talking about it with their friends and with family and hearing about it in ads and we want to ensure that they’re getting the best possible information.”

The RGC started in Canada over 20 years ago and now works with regulators in 13 different countries worldwide. 

The pair talk about how the organisation can work effectively across the jurisdictions given regulators use different regulatory frameworks. Shelley explains that the key is for the RGC to have an international perspective and understand that regulation is not a “cookie cutter approach” as what works is dependent on culture and regulations already in place.

Given that it is the Neosurf takeover this week, it’s unsurprising that the talk turns to how responsible gambling practices can be implemented in the payments industry.

Shelley says that operators have now begin to understand the worth of integrating digital payments technology into their responsible gaming strategy. 

She also talks about the different responsible gambling safeguards that are needed due to the rise of digital payments as spending is not as “tangible” compared to wagering cash with a land-based operator.

“We know that with digital payments, it’s not as tangible as putting that $20 bill in a slot machine, for example,” she added. “And so people can lose track of how much money they’re spending. And also the pace of play we know is faster as well with cashless. So, what do we need to do to put those safeguards in place for players? And we see things like people being able to get reports on how much they’ve spent and getting messages in terms of what their spend is, et cetera.”

To end the episode, Shelley explains that she will be retiring from the RGC at the end of the year however she says that she still hopes to work in the responsible gambling space by sitting on the boards of companies to help shape their responsible gambling strategies.