In my last entry, I brought you up to speed on what an “RG check” is and how it relates to the gambling world.
For those of you who missed it, an RG check is the name the Responsible Gambling Council in Toronto gives to a program it runs to investigate whether casinos and other gambling facilities are being responsible in their operations.
To some of you, the pairing of “responsible” with “gambling” might suggest an oxymoron. Industry types and regulators such as the B.C. Lottery Corporation will beg to differ.
As promised in my previous entry, I would let you know who paid for the checks of B.C. gambling facilities, which has totalled 22 so far, including Edgewater casino.
And the answer is: The lottery corporation, according to Jon Kelly, the CEO of the Responsible Gambling Council, which identifies itself as an independent, non-profit organization.
So to the question: Isn’t there a conflict in the lottery corporation paying for a service that translates to perceived pressure to return a positive review?
Kelly’s short answer is, no.
The longer answer is, well, a longer answer.
First of all, Kelly acknowledged, the review isn’t set up for operators to fail, although some don’t pass the test on the initial examination.
“Not everybody is accredited on the first time we do it,” he said. “But we’re not here to embarrass people or publicly say, ‘You failed.’ We’re here to raise the bar.”
So, he said, what happens is gambling facilities get the initial review and if something needs fixing, then it’s up to the casino or bingo hall to update its operations.
“My experience has been that many, many venues are legitimately interested in how they stand by some external expert,” he said. “Yes, they want to do well and, yes, there is pushback. When we provide a report to people and they disagree with it, that’s part of our process. They get to push back.”
Added Kelly: “Some people are shocked, some people are unhappy — like very upset.”
OK, but let’s get back to what the public should think of the lottery corporation picking up the tab for the reviews…
“I guess the question in my mind would be, well, who would if they didn’t?”
How about the casino operator paying for it?
“In some ways, that would be more likely to lead to a pushback. At least with the gaming operator — like the B.C. Lottery Corporation — you’ve got a higher level organization than the operators. So the only other funder or payer that I could see for this would be the government itself. I could see other models but it seems right to me that the people who are running the place should be the ones who have to pay for the external reviews.”
And as Kelly pointed out, casino operators aren’t forced to undergo the review.
“It’s completely voluntary, nobody needs to do it,” he said, adding that the standards in the review were decided upon independently of the gaming industry.
Kelly’s organization will again audit Edgewater in May. So far, Hastings Racecourse and Planet Bingo — the city’s two other gambling facilities — haven’t been audited.
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