BCLC
New Approaches to Mitigating High-Risk Play: Responsible Marketing
Guardrails are often put in place to keep people within safe boundaries and to prevent harm. Can the notion of player-health ‘guardrails’ help evolve how gambling products are marketed to mitigate high-risk play and improve player-health outcomes?
Three panellists recently joined Dr. Jamie Wiebe, BCLC’s Director of Player Health, to examine this question during BCLC’s New Horizons in Responsible Gambling pre-conference session, Responsible Marketing: Establishing “Guardrails” for Safer Play.
Panellist Floris van Driel, Nederlandse Loterij Responsible Gaming Specialist for Sports Betting and Casino, shared Nederlandse Loterij’s approach to integrating responsible marketing into online gambling, which became legal in the Netherlands on October 1, 2021.
The Nederlandse Loterij team scores and advertises each game by risk level. Games rated with a very high-risk score are not promoted at all in television or social media advertising and similarly, high-risk players are excluded from receiving any marketing materials. Additionally, van Driel’s team looks at player behaviour and classifies players into different risk categories to better understand how to market games to each segmented group.
“We are looking at high-risk players, and the types of games they prefer, to understand if we should be more restrained when promoting these types of games,” van Driel explained during the New Horizons session. “It’s really about using specific customer data to customize the campaigns to mitigate risk along with utilizing marketing tools to stimulate people to moderate their gameplay.”
Part of Nederlandse Loterij’s new marketing strategy entails reframing the tone of their player health advertising, reflecting a more fun, light-hearted approach. Its recent TOTO campaign promoting responsible participation in online sports betting was recognized as the Safer Gambling Campaign of the Year at the 2021 Global Regulatory Awards.
“We are finding that keeping it lighter and more fun ties in better with the tone of the other communication that we give to the player. The intention is to make it easier for players to accept the message and to get player health behaviour normalized.” The campaign resulted in a very positive behavioural change: 82 per cent of players thought that the tips were very useful, and 44 per cent considered changing their behaviour.
Ryan Persaud, Director of Insights and Player Experience at BCLC outlined the organization’s integration of marketing guardrails operationally. In 2021, BCLC completed a study whereby it included Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores with online customers, connecting survey results with actual behaviour.
“It allowed us to understand: How do [players’] personal stated risks relate to their behaviour? We used that information to help us craft what we are calling…high-risk indicators,” said Persaud.
BCLC is building on these findings to develop high-risk indicators centred around variables such as deviation, deposits, wagering, time and player-health risk alerts.
“At BCLC we are focusing on the player side of assessing risk and using high-risk indicators to dig into the behavioural components as opposed to just the product risks,” Persaud explained. “This player-health data is being used to better inform the conversations we’re having around marketing.”
Finally, Richard Wood, President, GamRes Limited, outlined during the discussion that in order to responsibly market a product, it’s important to identify and understand the impacts and unintended potential risks for each player. Wood and the GamRes team created Gamgard, a game risk-assessment product used to help prevent high-risk play, while also supporting operators in their end game: to deliver a fun, interesting product.
“With Gamgard, jurisdictions are able to identify high-risk elements and then choose to either not advertise the game at all to high-risk players or to use the data to integrate player health guardrails into their marketing approaches,” Wood explained.
Wiebe concluded the session by asking each panellist to look forward 10 years and share their perspective on gambling marketing:
“Focusing on integrating more fun and entertaining player-health messaging into the marketing experience will help to mitigate risk,” Wood said. “We’ve found that the most responsible players are the most satisfied players… so player health and marketing aren’t polar opposites; at the end of the day, they have a similar goal of ensuring that players have a good healthy experience.”
Hosted by BCLC, the full New Horizons in Responsible Gambling Conference is celebrating 10 years of industry leadership and bringing together hundreds of industry-leading researchers, policymakers and representatives from around the world to tackle some of the most challenging topics related to gambling and player health. The conference will occur virtually in early March 2022.
BCLC has received the World Lottery Association’s (WLA) Level 4 certification, the highest level granted by the WLA’s Independent Assessment Panel (IAP) for excellence in player health programming. This is the fifth consecutive time BCLC has earned the Level 4 certification through the WLA’s rigorous assessment process.
As part of the certification, the IAP recognized BCLC’s Player Education program with a “Best Practice” outcome, which is used to determine certain program elements as “clearly beyond the norm” and demonstrative of “innovative policies, practices or evaluation measures.” The IAP highlighted BCLC’s “various targeted initiatives and set of evaluation measures” as well as the organization’s “ambitious plans moving forward” in its evaluation report.
“Receiving re-certification at Level 4 and the ‘Best Practice’ distinction is a strong endorsement of BCLC’s player-centric approach and evidence of the continuous improvement of our player health programs,” said Marie-Noëlle Savoie, BCLC’s Chief Compliance Officer and Vice President, Legal, Compliance and Security. “The innovation and collaboration across the organization has enabled this significant achievement and is what will drive further advancements to these player health supports.”
The Level 4 certification and “Best Practice” recognition validates BCLC as a continuing leader in player health across the industry. Various elements of BCLC’s player health program, including its ongoing research initiatives, employee training, player safeguards and stakeholder engagement activities, were determined to meet or exceed industry standards. BCLC is one of just 13 lottery jurisdictions in North America to achieve Level 4 certification.
In its submission, BCLC was proud to highlight successes such as its virtual GameSense Advisor (GSA) program, the introduction of an active reinstatement requirement to its Game Break voluntary self-exclusion program and the implementation of enhanced identification requirements at B.C. casinos to support those enrolled in Game Break. BCLC’s GameSense brand, which is made available to other commercial gambling entities through its licensing program, was also celebrated in the report.
The WLA is a global professional association of state lottery and gaming organizations from more than 80 countries. BCLC’s WLA certification is valid for three years.
BCLC has appointed Natasha Questel as its new Chief Social Purpose Officer and Vice President, Marketing, effective January 22, 2024.
Questel joins BCLC with significant experience in the non-profit and consumer-packaged goods sectors underpinned by her commitment to help create a better world. Most recently, she was the CEO of One Girl Can, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to breaking down poverty and gender inequality among the world’s most vulnerable girls. Prior, she was the President of Happy Planet Foods, a Vancouver-based, sustainable-food company focused on doing right by people and the planet.
“As BCLC continues to mature as a social purpose company working to generate win-wins for the greater good, it’s integral that we continue to embed our ‘reason for being’ into all that we do. We are thrilled to welcome Natasha to BCLC, where I know that her passion for making a difference, combined with her demonstrated business success, will enable us to innovate and iterate on how we can further improve our business – and influence others to do the same – for the betterment of society,” said Pat Davis, President and CEO, BCLC.
Questel’s recent volunteer efforts include serving as the board chair and working board member of Basket Brigade Canada, a not for profit dedicated to spreading love by delivering food baskets to single moms and under-represented Canadians in need. She is also board member of Aisle, the B Corp period-care brand, focused on sustainability and inclusivity. In the last year, she has been featured in the Globe and Mail and Vancouver Sun, speaking about the importance of breaking down barriers for women and driving inclusivity in the Canadian workplace.
A graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive LEAD program, she was a finalist in the Stanford Venture Capital Boot camp. She is a member of YPO, the global community of CEOs. She is currently pursuing the YPO Gold President’s program at Harvard and holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.
With the holiday season in full swing, BCLC is reminding adults that it’s okay to be a Grinch when it comes to removing lottery products from kids’ shopping lists and stockings.
“Early participation or exposure to gambling in childhood can increase the risk of developing a gambling problem later in life,” said Ryan McCarthy, Director of Player Health at BCLC. “Adults may be unaware of these associated risks so, as part of our commitment to healthy play, it’s a priority for us to share the message that lottery products should never be gifted to kids.”
Research shows that 10 to 14 per cent of adolescents are at risk for developing a problem with gambling, while four to six per cent of youth ages 12-17 are presently impacted by problem gambling. Studies conducted worldwide have found the average problem gambler started gambling at age 10.
“It’s never too early to start the conversation. While kids and gambling don’t mix, many teenagers are already doing it by betting on things like a card game, or by purchasing a virtual loot box,” said McCarthy, who offered the following tips to parents:
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- Tailor the conversation to your child. For example, if they like video games, talk to them about loot boxes and how the outcome is random, and the risks posed.
- Tell them about the hidden signs of a problem, like hiding debt or skipping classes.
- Lead by example; kids learn from their parents.
As part of a partnership with the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) and McGill University’s International Centre for Youth Gambling, BCLC is also sharing its #GiftSmart message through reminders at its 3,400 lottery retailers in B.C. as well as on social media. Learn more about how to be #GiftSmart on gamesense .com, which includes resources for families, with tools, ideas and further information for parents.
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