iGB Live! Spotlight similarities between what we are doing now with mental health wellbeing in the workplace – talking about it, understanding it, making sure that employers give employees the tools with which the employees can take responsibility – and the gambling industry, which also needs to give its customers the right tools so that if they see there are any issues they can immediately take action.
iGB Live! Spotlight similarities between what we are doing now with mental health wellbeing in the workplace – talking about it, understanding it, making sure that employers give employees the tools with which the employees can take responsibility – and the gambling industry, which also needs to give its customers the right tools so that if they see there are any issues they can immediately take action.
You have got to make sure that customers are able to spot any warning signs. It is them that have to have the intrinsic motivation to take action, but companies have a duty of care to make sure that consumers know what tools are available to them to do so. It’ s that transparency in the way we operate that is absolutely critical for long-term sustainability. Petrochemical industries are doing it, tobacco industries are doing it, the digital industries are doing it, banking is doing it, the health and wellbeing industries are doing it, gambling is no different from any of these.
You mentioned authenticity. That’ s a buzzword that gets used a lot when it comes to millennials. Do you think it is that generation leading the push for change? Do I believe that authenticity is just the vanguard of millennials? No, I don’ t. I believe that if you speak to most people they will respond incredibly well to authenticity. What I do believe is that millennials and the digital era have made us all look at ourselves much more carefully and look at the actions that we take to
address what the purpose of business is, along with making profits, and if they have forced us to do that via a culture shift then all strength to them.
Do you think it could improve the industry’ s reputation if gambling company CEOs became more accessible and made more of an effort to engage with the mainstream media? It’ s probably a little bit strange for me to be answering this question because I’ ve always shied away from the public side, either through a fear or a reticence and people can interpret that how they want. But I do think from having been involved in mental wellbeing and having been involved in responsible gambling, that critical issues such as these have to be talked about. Gambling is such a big industry now that I don’ t know that the CEOs of public companies in particular have any option but to engage publicly. When you take that job I think it is one of the obligations you need to consider before accepting the role.
Stream: iGB Live! HQ Area: Counsel Panel: Gambling will never attract positive media When: 18 July @ 15:00
iGamingBusiness | Issue 111 | July / August 2018 93