Gambling in Canada is evolving; the risk that comes with it isn’t any less, however. This creates room for betting regulations to implement responsible gaming programs, taking each bettor into account.
On every betting platform, their terms and policies are often visibly displayed on easy-to-see portions of their websites.
Each “term and policy” highlights the initiatives taken to ensure ethical and regulatory balance in betting in Canada. This isn’t all about legality; rather, it’s about a balance that creates a safe playing platform for Canadian bettors to monitor and control their gambling habits.
Let’s examine specific responsible gaming initiatives implemented to ensure bettors’ protection.
Table of Contents
Responsible Gaming Tool and Proactive Measure
Know Your Customer (KYC)
A general measure often implemented for responsible gaming is knowing the customer; yes, you guessed right, the “Know Your Customer (KYC).” The KYC is a rigorous step in ensuring age and identity verification. KYC helps prevent anti-money laundering-related fraud and ensures users are who they claim to be.
KYC is often associated with ensuring underage users are not exposed to gambling, as they may not be able to handle the addictions that come with gambling; this is critical to social responsibility practices.
In the promotion of responsible betting via KYC, the submission of valid documents by intending players helps betting operators to identify users who may have issues with financial constraints or may have suffered from gambling addiction-related issues, helping them via stringent compliance.
The policies of betting platforms in Canada are often strict and place so much value on Know Your Customer (KYC) verification to help reduce gambling addiction-related issues.
Financial and Time Limit
Furthermore, a better understanding of how various betting platforms ensure the safety of users is tied to the gaming tools and features they implement.
Some of these tools are designed to help foster strength and limit the ability to overcome addictions and the consequences that come with gambling.
For instance, studies have shown that countries or areas (including Canada) in which gambling is made legal experience a 25% to 35% chance of their users experiencing lower credit scores, higher debt loads, and filing for bankruptcy, contributing to financial hardship among some gamblers.
To curtail this, betting platforms integrate gaming features such as financial limits, allowing users to set boundaries on how much they are able to deposit, wager, and lose over a specific period: daily, weekly, and monthly.
While this is maybe majorly user-based and personalized, some betting platforms have features such as “maximum bet limit” and “maximum proposed winning” that help to curtail the euphoric placement of bets with amounts over the maximum amount that can be won—50,000 CAD—which, if ignored, would not be a good financial limit practice, lead to impulsive decisions, and heighten the chances of excessive spending on the betting platform.
Complementing financial limits are time limits and session reminders; users are often sent reminders showcasing the amount of time spent and how much they have lost or won on the betting platforms to prevent them from spending too much, even less than the proposed limit.
Transparency and Support
Comprehensively, betting platforms offer support and transparent informational reports. These entail the provision of educational materials and resources and display links to external gambling support organizations (such as ConnexOntario, Responsible Gambling Council, and Canadian Partnership for Responsible Betting) via users’ registered emails.
They contain clear and digestible tips and best betting practices that could help against the onset of gambling problems. Some betting platforms go as far as detailing the transactional and betting history, enabling users to track their spending accurately and evaluate themselves using a self-assessment tool, such as questionnaires.
These self-assessment tools, with the aid of cutting-edge AI technology, help to analyze data obtained in a specific location, sort them based on several demographics (e.g., gender, age, income, and educational level), and understand players’ real-time behavior. And have them used in making regulatory advice against problematic gambling.
The yearly Canadian Gaming Summit makes use of self-assessment data to tailor recommendations and restrictions for gaming addictions.
Voluntary Exclusion Support Programs
Addictions towards gambling may vary among players, while the above measures:
Know Your Customer (KYC) Verification, Financial Limit, Session and Time Limit, Support, and Transactional Reports may help curtail overspending and every other form of gambling addiction.
Certain players may find every one of these initiatives not too much of a help to their addiction; hence, the introduction of self-help programs, which are often used by users who have identified gambling to be problematic for them. It is called the voluntary exclusion program.
Canadian betting platforms include a self-exclusion program within their platform. Bettors can contact the customer support system with the intended duration of their exclusion from gambling, with every fund deposited in the account returned to the users via their preferred mode of withdrawal.
While this method may sound lengthy and time-consuming, it is, however, reduced to several clicks thanks to casino and betting platforms’ fast and reliable customer support system. The self-exclusion program in Canada can also be physically conducted; there are several physical locations within Canadian cities (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, and Yukon).
This self-exclusion program is always included on betting platforms, so players who find gambling problematic may walk into any of the centers for various forms of help.
The self-exclusion program excludes the user from marketing, promotional, or direct email from gambling operator sites to help reduce gambling temptation. The policy also extends to the forfeiture of winnings on bets placed while on the self-exclusion list.
