Kindred Group is the winner of "Most Impactful Social Responsibility Initiative", one of seven categories at the inaugural Casino Guru Awards in 2023. The accolade is the second accomplishment our responsible gambling team have won this year after winning the 'Social Responsibility of the Year Award' for the third year in a row from the Global Gambling Awards. Daria Magdoiu, Responsible Gambling Relationship Manager, collected the award on behalf of the Responsible Gambling Team.
Daria was interviewed by Casino Guru and shared her view on the responsibility gambling companies have towards the sector and consumers, the changing attitudes within the industry, and what improvements can still be made. Read the extract from the Casino Guru interview with Daria below.
Kindred Group has just won the Casino Guru Awards in the "Most Impactful Social Responsibility Initiative" category. How does this feel?
Winning the "Most Impactful Social Responsibility Initiative" category is a great recognition to receive, as it reinforces all the positive impact that our work has on our customer base and the wider society and within Kindred.
All the teams at Kindred work relentlessly towards our ambition of having 0% of our revenue derived from harmful gambling. This is a goal that we will never cease to work towards, and it's one of the catalysts for continuously striving to improve our detection system, our strategy, our intervention, all our Responsible Gambling tools and our approach in general.
Kindred is clearly a torchbearer in the sector, and you have had experience dealing with different aspects of social responsibility and related initiatives. Is the public becoming aware of the good that companies such as Kindred do?
Through our Journey towards Zero goal, we hope to showcase that Sustainability, Transparency and Open discussions are the best way forward. And through initiatives such as our yearly Sustainable Gambling Conference, we provide a platform for operators, regulators, people with lived experience, researchers, help centres and other stakeholders to connect and learn from one another in the hope that we can transform gambling into a more sustainable and trusted source of entertainment.
Is the industry more concerned with responsible social initiatives today, or is there still a reluctance among some bigger players?
We are seeing an increased positive trend in the importance allocated to social responsibility within the gambling industry. However, there is, of course, enough room for improvement.
We, operators, are all sitting on data goldmines, and we should try to put it to better use to help us improve the level of understanding that we have for our customer's gambling behaviour, as well as improve the way we detect potentially problematic gambling activity, our intervention measures, and the way we interact with our customers. The key here is to collaborate and work closely with stakeholders such as researchers, treatment centres and people with lived experience, as their expertise and feedback are highly valuable.
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