The Secretary General of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) made the remarks after outlining the key findings of the organisation’s first-ever Sustainability Report, published in July of this year.
At the top of his list was a general call for a greater commitment from operators in regard to their social responsibilities.
“Safer gambling is I think essential for all operators. It’s essential because the sustainable gambling sector relies on sustainable customers,” said the association boss.
“I think we need to have a much bigger commitment to reduce harm and step-up monitoring and analysis of customer behaviour. Test and review your policies — are they working? And as a whole, we need to work towards more common definitions of the standards of problem gambling, but this goes well beyond operators. It goes for regulators and the research community.”
During his 15-minute talk, Haijer also reiterated the need for more transparency and a freer flow of data between organisations and individuals.
To this end, he mooted what he called a ‘cross-border knowledge centre’ in which operators can share and disseminate information.
“There are still huge gaps in the research and data that are available, and we need to have a much better understanding of all the issues in relation to safer gambling. This goes for all stakeholders,” he remarked.
“We must benefit from more data and knowledge, and one of the things that might be interesting to work towards is a cross-border knowledge centre where data and research can be collected, uploaded and then disseminated, as well as being accessible to researchers, operators and regulators. I think a central point to access data would be an interesting development.”
