Time to take responsibility

Joonas Karhu, Chief Business Officer at online casino comparison site Bojoko.com, says that affiliates must do more to protect gamblers from problem play

The global online casino industry is now very much focused on prioritising responsible gambling and ensuring that players are properly protected.

This is being driven by regulators in core markets around the world coming down hard on operators that have dropped the ball in this regard.

In the UK, for example, several big-name gambling giants have been hit with multi-million-pound fines for serious responsible gambling failings.

But it is not just operators that have to shoulder the responsibility for ensuring that online gamblers are happy, healthy and given the tools they need to remain in control of their play.

Affiliates are a huge driver of new player traffic to online gambling sites and are rewarded financially for the customers they send.

As such, online casino publishers must do as much as they can to protect their readers in addition to the efforts operators must go to as part of their licence requirements.

There are several ways this can be done.

The first is to provide players with the information they need to understand what tools are available to them, and how they can be used to manage their play.

This means creating guides that clearly explain deposit limits, loss limits, wager limits, session limits and the options to cool-off and self-exclude.

What’s more, responsible gambling should be a separate tab on the homepage or on the bottom banner – the clearer it is the better.

In addition to this, affiliates must also make sure players understand wagering requirements and how they work.

The seasoned gambler is likely to be very familiar with them, but those that play on a more casual basis may not be.

The best way of explaining how wagering requirements work is to clearly outline the different types of play through operators can attach to a bonus and use an example.

It is also important to make bonus terms and conditions, in particular wagering requirements, clear at all times.

The UK Gambling Commission now requires that significant terms and conditions be visible below all bonus offers, and not just one click away.

This shows how serious the regulator takes the issue of bonus T&Cs when it comes to responsible gambling and properly protecting players.

Of course, this is all standard practice for any good online casino affiliate site. So, what more can be done?

Here at Bojoko, we recently took the decision to team up with gamban®, a tool that allows players to block gambling websites and mobile apps.

Why did we do this? While all licensed online casinos offer the option to self-exclude, errors do occur and, in some cases, players have been able to continue to wager.

We wanted to give our readers the best tool around to completely block online gambling websites and apps should they decide to self-exclude.

We have negotiated a deal with gamban® so that our readers can use the software free of charge for three months before their £1 per month per device subscription kicks in.

It may seem counter intuitive for an online casino affiliate site to allow its readers to self-exclude from sites, but it’s not.

Publishers should want their players to be healthy and if they do go on to develop a problem it is vital they do all they can to provide the tools and support they need to overcome it.

Here at Bojoko, we believe that it is the responsibility of all industry stakeholders, and not just operators, to uphold the highest responsible gambling standards.

We are proud of our partnership with gamban® and hope that other publishers will follow our lead in doing all they can to protect players.