Of course, this is big news in Ontario and Canada broadly. The Responsible Gambling Council’s spokesperson said the investment can “further enhance its consumer education campaigns, expand community outreach programming, and build partnerships with local community groups to deliver its message to more Ontarians.”
Shelley White, the CEO of the Responsible Gambling Council, stated: “Ontario has long been a champion for responsible gambling and this investment into prevention education and programming and today’s announcement is a game-changer. This demonstrates Ontario is the Canadian leader in promoting responsible play, minimizing harm and creating a strong, sustainable online gambling market.”
White continued: “We applaud and thank the Ontario government for this welcome and historic investment into responsible play. We know online gambling comes with unique risks and this funding will have a positive and meaningful impact on the lives of so many Ontarians by providing them with the resources and programming to help keep them safe and build a culture of responsible play in this new environment.”
Such meaningful investment at the government level means casinos and sports bookmakers can continue to provide their service, enjoyed by so many across Canada, but do so in a harm-free and engaging way with the customer to ensure that they don’t fall on any financial or mental hard times as a result of their gambling experience.
As a non-profit organization, the Responsible Gambling Council wants to benefit from seeing fewer people suffer from problematic behaviours that drive their gambling addiction. Getting to the root of the problem is the first step to recognizing that a problem can be solved and that betting doesn’t need to take over somebody’s life.
It’s interesting to see what the next moves will be in terms of safer gambling measures at the provincial level and how that will display itself to the broader public. Efforts can’t be stopped to make sure everybody is safe, and the gambling companies are rightfully becoming increasingly aware of their responsibility to ensure their members are safe while at the same time passing on the message that the public needs to be self-aware about the signs of bad gambling behaviours.
If you want to read through the Responsible Gambling pages on the Betsquare website to better educate yourself on the issues others have faced and when to stop, you can do so here on our website.