At Aspers, we pride ourselves in doing the right thing, which is central to our vision and values. Our aim is to be a respected leader in the field of corporate responsibility within the gambling industry, with safer gambling at the heart of what we do.
Prevention and education are key to our guests enjoying their experience with us and staying in control. We encourage guests to think about how much they spend, how long they play for and how frequently they gamble. We provide them with tips on safer gambling and sources of self-help that can assist them to stay in control. Monitoring, observing and carrying out interactions to prompt our guests to think more about gambling responsibly are essential measures that also provide us with the opportunity to offer safer gambling information and support where necessary.
For safer gambling measures to be effective, it is essential that they are integrated into the Aspers’ culture and flow throughout the organisation. An achievable and meaningful safer gambling policy is crucial to our business as we see this as one of our highest priorities. We want to ensure that we are an industry leader in this area and aim to provide our guests with an environment where gambling responsibly is the norm.
The key to helping protect our guests from gambling harm is to know them better, which is often referred to as KYC (Know Your Customer); this is important for both AML (Anti Money Laundering) and social responsibility purposes. By understanding more about our guests and their gambling behaviour, we are able to provide the tools and support they need to ensure that they don’t experience harm as a result of their gambling. We achieve this through proactively engaging with our guests, monitoring their behavior and constantly looking at ways to improve on how this can be done. This includes working with other likeminded operators and trade associations on the development and sharing of best practices in this area.
In each of our venues, we have highly trained colleagues operating to policies designed to help identify guests who may display concerning behaviours and to regularly interact with them.
We have invested significantly in player tracking technology and analytical tools. One such method is Focal Research’s ALeRT system. Focal Research have spent over 20 years developing algorithms to identify slot players with a higher probability of risk for having problems with their gambling either now or in the future.
It is a key responsibility for every Aspers employee to promote and support Aspers safer gambling agenda. We have dedicated resources in all of our properties – each site has a Safer Gambling Manager. One of their key tasks is to ensure that all Aspers colleagues understand and adhere to our safer gambling policies and procedures.
The Aspers safer gambling policy is overseen by our Board Compliance & Risk Committee. They are regularly updated on policy compliance and consulted on policy development when changes to the policy are under consideration. Our Board are committed to ensuring that we not only keep up to date with latest safer gambling developments, but also look for opportunities to lead in offering the highest levels of player protection to our guests.