GVC ups responsible gambling measures to support BGC call of duty

GVC Holdings has underlined its support for the Betting and Gaming Council’s (BGC) ‘coordinated approach’ to provide consumers with the safest gambling environments during the current Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. 

The FTSE250 betting group has emphasised the need for greater responsibility during a period in which a ‘quarter of the global population in some form of lock-down’. This could lead to vulnerable individuals encountering greater gambling risks. 

In order to mitigate consumer risks, GVC has devised a number of new measures to strengthen its leading ‘Changing for the Bettor’ safer gambling mandate.

The operator has confirmed that its suite of safer gambling tools will be enhanced ‘in the coming weeks’, adding functions such as curfew setting, stake limit setting on slot games, and reverse withdrawal settings. 

During this period of isolation, GVC has informed all operational teams to be ‘proactive in communications with customers’, ensuring that players are fully aware of safer gambling tools and self-exclusion procedures across the operator’s brand portfolio. 

GVC brands have also been instructed to carry out reviews of customer behaviour ‘pre and post-home isolation’. The operator detailed that it has strengthened its problem gambling identification algorithms, adding two new ‘Markers of Harm (“MoH”) indicators.

Abiding by the BGC’s approach, GVC added that its brands will only run responsible gambling-led advertising, with increased safer gambling messaging promoted across its active brand portfolio.

Issuing guidance to affiliates, GVC stated that its brands will not tolerate any referencing of pandemics or boredom to encourage play. The operator will establish a blacklist for advertising partners that breach its terms.  

 Commenting on the introduction of the new measures, GVC CEO Kenneth Alexander said: “At this time of unprecedented uncertainty, we are more committed than ever to keeping our customers safe while they enjoy our products. 

“We are hugely sensitive to the potential for increased risk for some who are isolated at home or may have financial difficulties with reduced access to work. Our enhanced tools give customers the power to manage their spending and time in an effective way, and we are backing this up by carefully monitoring play through our markers of harm.

“As an industry, we have a clear responsibility to protect the vulnerable and we warmly welcome the coordinated approach announced today by the BGC which provides a template for strengthening player protections.”