Operators must have respect for their customers if they are committed to responsible gaming according to The Game Safety Insitiute’s Co-Founder, Sarah Ramanauskas.

Ramanauskas offered these insights as she reflected on her career in gaming during the latest episode of the Martin Lycka Safe Bet Show.

She said: “You have operators who respect their customers and respect their gameplay, and then you have others who are really not so bothered and are just there for the money. 

“The industry has a lot of great people who really want to see sustainable gameplay but, unfortunately, there are still way too many in the industry who are just there for whatever they can get.”

Innovation hinders responsible gaming

The gaming industry is constantly changing as operators and suppliers race to reveal the latest innovations in the sector, however, Ramanauskas revealed that this arms race complicates the work of responsible gaming organisations and regulators.

“It’s only going to get more complicated and more difficult to regulate gambling products. There are a lot of very smart minds in the industry who are really keen to keep innovating,” she explained. 

“You’ve got regulators trying to do more but at the same time you’ve got gambling operators continually innovating, continually pushing the boundaries and continually going to places where regulators just aren’t keeping up.”

This is further complicated, Ramanauskas added, by the advertising of gaming products which pushes them in front of people who don’t gamble and can “cause a backlash”. “It’s a very diverse and complicated issue,” she admits.

Terminology must change

As well as founding The Game Safety Institute, Ramanauskas has also been a partner at Gambling Integrity – a specialist in assessing and certifying safer gambling programmes – since 2014.

She told Lycka that one of Gambling Integrity’s aims has been to change some of the terminology used around the subject, specifically switching the mindset of those in the industry away from the term responsible gambling and instead using safer gambling.

“Most of this work is about chipping away and planting seeds, things like changing responsible gambling to safer gambling,” said Ramanauskas.

“It’s still not great, we can have lots of debates about whether the word safer gambling is useful, but I think it’s certainly better than responsible gambling. My proudest moments are actually when I hear things coming back to me [from the industry] that I’ve already said.”