by Ryan D. Jaeger
It was revealed in a special report issued by eCOGRA this week that responsible gambling training was taken to operator bases, instead of the operators traveling to the watchdog group's London offices.
All in all, 268 employees of eight international operators and software providers were provided with responsible gambling training throughout 2010, according to eCOGRA Fair Gaming Advocate Tex Rees.
"We used to host the training at a single location with a small number of delegates attending from a number of different operators," said Rees.
"The delegates were then tasked with training their staff when they returned to their companies."
"We now provide this important training at operators' sites as a far more cost effective way to reach more employees directly and properly train those who are on the front line and are most likely to initially deal with problem gamblers," she said.
According to Rees, this allowed staff to discuss any problems they had experienced in different circumstances and thereafter receive professional feedback from eCOGRA specialists.
"The training is designed particularly for staff who interact with customers, such as call center representatives and VIP department employees, but is also of value to staff in the marketing, retention, fraud and risk departments," she said.
Training sessions included problem gambling awareness, social responsibility, responsible gambling regulations and requirements, interaction with the players and dealing with problem gamblers.
"The percentage of gamblers who develop a problem may be relatively small - around 2% - but these are vulnerable members of society and they deserve appropriate and sympathetic but firm treatment by properly trained staff," noted the CEO of eCOGRA, Andrew Beveridge.
