The impact of the RG Check program on improvements at casinos

Responsible gambling (RG) programs usually involve a mix of corporate policies, employee training, and gambling product features. Third-party organizations can help evaluate performance against a set of design and operational standards. One example of a third-party assurance program is the Responsible Gambling Council’s RG Check program. This study examined how casino operators’ responsible gambling performance changed after entering the RG Check program. The researcher used de-identified assessment scores of 75 land-based casinos that were assessed between 2011 and April 2019. A total of 17 venues completed three accreditations, 43 completed two accreditations, and 15 completed one accreditation.

The findings suggest that venues improved their overall RG Check score between their first and second accreditations. Much of this improvement seemed to be due to improvement of the lower-performing venues. Some areas measured by the RG Check program improved over time (e.g., venue/game features and access to money). Other areas improved only in the short-term after starting the program (from the first to the second accreditation only, e.g., RG policies and employee training). The areas of self-exclusion, assisting patrons, and advertising and promotion did not improve over time. Additionally, informed decision making declined over time.

This study uses data from the Greo Scholars Portal Dataverse. The Greo Dataverse contains research-grade gambling datasets that are available for research purposes. See more information on Greo's Data Repository page.

See the two-page plain language article summary The impact of evaluation by a third-party responsible gambling assurance program on improvements at casinos in Greo's Evidence Centre.