Ontario’s new centralised self-exclusion tool will be “intuitive and easy” for players and operators according to Integrity Compliance 360’s (IC360) President, Eric Frank.
Frank appeared on the Gaming News Canada show, hosted by Steve McAllister, to discuss his company’s successful bid to produce iGaming Ontario’s (iGO) new self-exclusion tool with Australian company IXUP.
Frank said: “We had three fundamental factors we wanted to meet in our system and what we built and the first was to meet the requirements outlined by IGO.
“The second one was to deliver a product that’s intuitive and easy to implement for the operators. We know that they have a lot on their plate in terms of their tech stacks so delivering a product that was intuitive and easy to implement was critical.
“The third factor was the most important. That was to provide the consumers who are struggling with addiction or issues around responsible gambling with a very intuitive, easy system that is a one-stop shop for them to handle and deal with this issue.”
Players over the age of 19 will be able to sign up for the self-exclusion program which will then block them from using all the accounts they are signed up to with Ontario’s regulated operators.
Catherine Jarmain, IGO’s Director of Industry, Programmes and Monitoring, was also featured on the episode. She explained that the programme will be promoted by all of the province’s operators on their websites. Additionally, it will be marketed independently using revenue that is given to iGO by operators with the purpose of promoting responsible gambling.
The development of a centralised self-exclusion system was a mandatory requirement of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) when Ontario’s regulated online gaming market was launched in 2022.
“Going back to the beginning and thinking about why we were regulating this market, one of the main objectives was consumer protection and better support for players,” said Jarmain.
“Central self-exclusion is an important tool for players who may have concerns about their gambling. It was part of the AGCO’s registration standards that each operator have its own self-exclusion program, but also that there would be a centralised self-exclusion system like this one to provide a better, safer, more clear focused way of engaging with self-exclusion.”
During the 30-minute podcast, the guests also discussed the news that iGO’s Executive Director Martha Otton will retire at the end of the year.
Otton has led the agency since 2021 and oversaw the launch of and early success of Ontario’s regulated online gaming and betting market.
Jarmain said that she had a sense that Otton would retire but still felt “surprised and sad” when she heard the news.
She added: “I worked for Martha for six years and I followed her over to iGO to launch this market to make it safe for players. She has not only led us to regulate this market but also built a dynamic agency in the meantime. We all look up to her leadership and I know that we will all miss her.”
