Responsible Gambling Initiative From eCOGRA and EGBA
Date Posted : July 18, 2008

Responsible gambling is one of the biggest issues facing online casinos and online gambling operators. It is one of the most common negative brought up by people lobbying against online gambling and is an important issue that must be resolved if online gaming is to progress.

The good news is that two of the biggest gaming regulators have teams up with a new initiative. eCOGRA (e-Commerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance) and EGBA (The European Gaming and Betting Association) have launched a new set of compliance guidelines that cover all aspects of the Internet gaming industry.

As part of their membership criteria, EGBA members are required to comply with all standards. Compliance is verified by a compulsory annual audit carried out by eCOGRA, a leading standards and player protection body, which itself is annually subjected to a comprehensive quality assurance review by one of the world’s leading firms of auditors.

There are 170 different recommendations in the new initiative including,

• Promoting responsible gaming, preventing underage and problem gaming;
• A zero tolerance approach to fraud or criminal behavior;
  
• Protecting customers’ privacy and safeguarding their information;
  
• Ensuring prompt and accurate customer payments;
  
• Assessing rigorously and independently the fairness of games;
  
• Committing to responsible and ethical marketing practice;

eCOGRA CEO Andrew Beveridge added: "Our goal is to ensure that EGBA has a meaningful professional review process for determining each member's compliance with agreed and consistently applied standards, which consumers and regulators have come to expect in the online gaming and betting industry."