Canada Issues Stricter Responsible Gambling Checks

July 21, 2014

The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC), with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, has created a new set of standards aimed at increasing customer protection for online casino players. These new measures will be a part of its accreditation program for online gambling sites in Canada. These will result in better and safer services for online casino users and reduction, if not prevention, of problem gambling.

The new set of standards has been published by RGC under the title “Responsible Gambling Standards – Internet”. The document consists of seven standards and 51 criteria that will apply to online casinos and other online gaming operators. The focus is to introduce a comprehensive responsible gambling policy into the corporate culture of online casinos and make sure that it is embedded in the organization. Some of the sub issues covered include communicating self-bans, providing responsible gambling information efficiently, dealing with players who have gambling problems, access to money, website features, game safety and employee training. The document was prepared by the RGC’s Centre for the Advancement of Best Practices after several years of extensive research, consultation with experts and a thorough review of problem gambling literature. Regulators, treatment providers and players who suffer from gambling addiction were also consulted in the process.

The press release pointed out that Canada does not give out licenses for online casino operators. However, some of the provinces like British Columbia and Quebec have their own sites and Canadian players are allowed to access online casinos hosted offshore in other countries. Internet gambling sites that have accreditation from RGC through the RG Check program are preferred by Canadian players. In order to now receive this accreditation online casino operators will have to conform to the new standards. The program creates objective benchmarks for the content, quality, and breadth of responsible gambling related activities and processes. It takes six months to earn an RG Check – Internet accreditation. But being allowed to display the accreditation on the web site tells the player that the online casino has actually taken all the measures to reduce the risk of gambling addiction and that it promotes a higher standard of customer protection.

Jon Kelly, CEO of RGC said, “RGC set out to create the gold standard of consumer protection. The RG Check program, based on 7 standards and 51 criteria, gives internet gambling providers the opportunity to have their responsible gambling safeguards assessed against comprehensive international standards and a rigorous accreditation process.”