VIGE 2017 – RECAP FROM E-GAME SPECTRUM | Responsible Gambling in Central & Eastern Europe


VIGE 2017 – RECAP FROM E-GAME SPECTRUM | Responsible Gambling in Central & Eastern Europe

The first ever gaming exhibition in Vienna took place last week – the Vienna International Gaming Expo (VIGE 2017) organized by EEGEvents - Part of EEG. Our media team attended the event and we have prepared short recaps about the seminars from the first two days of the expo. We also had the chance to talk to some of the speakers, all of them experienced professionals and visionaries from the gaming industry.

Day 2 of VIGE2017 started with conversations about responsible gambling and players’ protection.

 

The speakers of the first panel were Roman Nesshold from Institute Gambling and Addiction, Austria, Dan Iliovici from Rombet, Malcolm Bruce from Gambling Integrity. The panel was moderated by Pieter Remmers from Assissa. 

 

According to Roman Nesshold it's important to prevent youngsters and have very good educational materials on websites, because online gambling hides the most potential threads when it comes to underage players. As one of the main challenges for responsible gambling programs in Austria he pointed out the growing number of illegal gaming machines after the prohibition of slot machines was applied (now they are only legal in casinos). 


We talked with Malcolm Bruce about the risks that the new trends in gambling create and weather gambling on e-sports for example makes youngsters vulnerable to problem gambling.


I don't think new types of games will endanger responsible gambling as long as operators put the right responsible gambling measures in place from the very beginning. So it's perfectly possible to protect youngsters from any new gambling product as long as you are very mindful of the need to put the right protections in place and show how you can protect yourself and to educate people properly with any new gambling product. One of the things I'm concerned about are behavioral addictions in general, which are much bigger problem than gambling addiction itself. Gambling addiction is to be seen in the context of the wider behavioral addictions field. Young people are probably more in danger of social media addiction than they are from gambling. 


Prohibiting or education is the way forward? 


Definitely education is the way forward. Prohibition never works, because anyone can find any gambling site they want anywhere in the world. Public education shall make people realize that it is safer to bet from a regulated site from their country so that they will be looked after if there is a problem. 

Author: Hristiana Petkova

Associate Editor