Responsible Gambling Week
Safer Gambling Week 2021. In GB call 0808 8020 133 Free call In IRL call 1800 936 725 Freephone. Safer Gambling Week The UK’s gambling industry will rebrand its Responsible Gambling Week project as the Safer Gambling Week from this year.
The Responsible Gambling Week project is to be replaced by the Safer Gambling Week from this year, according to industry organisations behind the UK-focused initiative.
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), Bingo Association (BA) and the British Amusement Catering Trade Association (bacta) all support the initiative, which aims to promote the ongoing awareness of and education campaign for safer gambling.
‘Let’s Talk About Safer Gambling’ will remain as the strapline of Safer Gambling Week 2020, with the initiative to enable all businesses and organisations to talk about safer gambling with customers, staff and their friends and family. The rebranded 2020 event will run from 19-25 November.
“Safer Gambling Week is a fantastic initiative which the BGC are proud to play a leading role in,” BGC chief executive Michael Dugher said. “This awareness campaign is now in its fourth year and it has achieved a significant increase in engagement at all levels on the tools and support available to customers.
“We achieved over 25 million impressions on social media in 2019, setting a new benchmark for the campaign, which demonstrates the breadth and reach of the campaign.”
Safer Gambling Week 2020 artwork for promotional and messaging materials, including posters, online banners, social media collateral, contact cards and leaflets, will be available to all participants free of charge.
BA chief executive Miles Baron described the week as an important part of the bingo industry's commitment to social responsiblity. It provided a “useful focal point” for highlighting player protection efforts running throughout each year, he added.
Bacta CEO John White added: “Safer Gambling Week allows bacta members to highlight their year-long commitment to safer gambling, the safer gambling tools available to customers and the quality of staff that engage with our customers on a daily basis.”
The prevalence of gambling in our society, and the risks associated with it, has become a contentious political issue and damaged the reputation of gambling operators.
Responsible Gambling Week, now known as Safer Gambling Week, is an annual campaign to involve the entire industry in promoting safer gambling messages to customers and the wider public. Its objectives are to raise awareness amongst consumers about safer gambling tools and where to find support, but also to communicate to staff within the industry their responsibilities to customers.
We were asked to lead the campaigns in 2018 and 2019, devising a communications strategy to navigate the reputational challenges to the industry from a sceptical media, and to execute the campaign successfully.
The tone of the campaign messaging, ‘Let’s Talk About Responsible Gambling’ was deliberately conversational and informal, reflecting research suggesting that a heavy-handed approach was less effective. It delivered simple, practical advice to consumers, such as ‘Set your limits for time and money’ and ‘Only spend what you can afford’.
To communicate the messages effectively, we needed to galvanize the industry to get behind the campaign, principally through trade media outlets, but also to reach wider audiences. We initiated partnerships with football clubs and league sponsors, harnessing their huge social followings and communicating directly with their supporters at stadiums. Some clubs even changed their matchday kit to display the Responsible Gambling Week logo.
Operators shared our content on their own social channels and displayed collateral at every venue in the country, involving more than 800,000 staff, ensuring we successfully initiated a conversation about responsible gambling.
This complemented a national and regional media campaign in which we secured interview opportunities and thought leadership pieces, ghostwritten by our team, for the campaign chairman.
Responsible Gambling Week
With gambling operators facing a political storm, we felt it was important to include political engagement in the campaign. In 2018, we held a drop-in event at the House of Commons for MPs with a strong interest in gambling – supporters and opponents of the industry. This focused approach ensured we communicated the campaign’s objectives to key political audiences.
Responsible Gambling Week 2020 Uk
We provided social assets for every racecourse in the country, including GIFs and animations, to share on social channels. At a televised Ascot meeting, a race was renamed the Responsible Gambling Week Stakes and the winner’s enclosure was branded with the campaign logo.