Responsible Gaming Education Month & GGB

In support of the AGA’s Responsible Gaming Education Month initiative, we at Global Gaming Business magazine will devote our Daily Updates to articles submitted by the industry’s best responsible gaming experts every day in September, to dive deeper into the status of gaming’s most pressing problem.

Responsible Gaming Education Month & GGB

Last year was the first Responsible Gaming Education Week, which then morphed into Responsible Gaming Education Month (RGEM). All credit to the American Gaming Association (AGA) for this designation.

But all of us in the gaming industry, including at the AGA, know that even a month isn’t enough time to dedicate to responsible gaming. It’s a year-round, 24/7 type of commitment that is necessary to ensure that we reach a goal of no one becoming a victim of our products and services. The gaming industry does not want to profit from someone’s compulsion, and if we can identify those individuals ahead of time, we can guide them to resources that will help them.

At GGB, last September we decided to dedicate each of our Daily Updates to an article on responsible gaming penned by some of the experts in the field. Admittedly it was a last-minute decision, but we managed to pull it off.

This year, we began preparing in late July and have gotten (or will get) contributions from some of the top professionals who are working hard to combat this issue around the globe. Starting on Friday, September 1, with a column written by AGA Vice President of Strategic Communications & Responsibility Cait DeBaun, each weekday in September will feature an article by these experts on their particular views of responsible gaming.

Having reviewed some of them, it’s not all going to be kind to the industry. There are things we can do better—many things. So we hope that everyone involved in gaming reads these articles and takes them to heart.

I’ve been covering the industry’s responsible gaming efforts since the late 1980s when they first started to appear. At that time there was virtually no peer-reviewed research on the issue. When the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) was formed by former AGA CEO Frank Fahrenkopf, that began.

But the early research was very complicated for a young reporter like myself. I felt lost in the physiological and psychological research that was presented at that time. And then when it was discovered that compulsive gambling was most often paired with other addictions, that comorbidity dilemma seemed to make it almost impossible to treat the problem. But in the last five years, we’ve begun to see some groundbreaking research into treatment programs that actually aid the problem gambler and help to prevent them from going down that long, dark road.

So for the next month, GGB will be doing our part in combating problem gambling. We hope you’ll come along for the ride and, in the end, be ready to do your part as well.

Articles by Author: Roger Gros

Roger Gros is publisher of Global Gaming Business, the industry’s leading gaming trade publication, and all its related publications. Prior to joining Global Gaming Business, Gros was president of Inlet Communications, an independent consulting firm. He was vice president of Casino Journal Publishing Group from 1984-2000, and held virtually every editorial title during his tenure. Gros was editor of Casino Journal, the National Gaming Summary and the Atlantic City Insider, and was the founding editor of Casino Player magazine. He was a co-founder of the American Gaming Summit and the Southern Gaming Summit conferences and trade shows.
Roger Gros is the author of the best-selling book, "How to Win at Casino Gambling" (Carlton Books, 1995), now in its fourth edition. Gros was named “Businessman of the Year” for 1998 by the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Gaming Association in 2012 as part of the annual AGA Communications Awards.

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