The Responsible Gambling Association, reporting
The “Responsible Gambling” Association is the reference in the field of social responsibility in local gambling, currently being the most efficient instrument for preventing and combating the problems caused by excessive gambling, as well as for market education.
Responsible Gambling
The Responsible Gambling Association is proof of the increasing level of maturity and responsibility of the gambling industry, through the active involvement of an increasingly obvious majority of the market in the programs run by this organization.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the level of insecurity and stress in society reached unusually high levels, the Responsible Gambling Association, supported by the Fortuna Group, used its experience in online psychological counseling and made available its 24/7 counseling service, designed for players with potential gambling problems and for people at the forefront of managing the current SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. This year as well, the Responsible Gambling Association offered free of charge non-stop psychological counseling services to patients admitted to the COVID-19 wards of the “Marius Nasta” Institute of Pneumophtysiology in Bucharest, to patient relatives and to the medical staff in the hospital. The psychological care program implemented by the Responsible Gambling Association within the “Marius Nasta” Institute of Pneumophtisiology, with financial support from the Fortuna Group, the Superbet Foundation and Stanleybet, is aimed at the improvement of the psychological and emotional condition of the medical and nursing staff, COVID-19 patients and their relatives, developing better working attitudes within the COVID-19 intervention service and preventing burnout, potential conflict and irascibility among medical staff. This program will continue to be available to the “Marius Nasta” Institute this fall, when an increase in the number of infections has already been announced, potentially overstraining the medical staff.
In school year 2020-2021, Trained when Coming Of Age has reached 2,200 students in 14 cities, 6 counties and the Capital
The education program Trained when Coming of Age has been implemented online since the end of 2020, in line with the current pandemic context. By the end of school year 2020-2021, the Responsible Gambling Association and Dr. Cristian Andrei virtually “travelled” to 14 cities of the country, in 15 high-schools in Alba-Iulia, Băneasa, Bucharest, Buzău, Constanța, Cluj-Napoca, Galați, Hârșova, Huedin, Iași, Mangalia, Medgidia, Pașcani and Turda, reaching approximately 2000 teenagers in the 11th and 12th grades, who are soon becoming of age and will be allowed to gamble. Trained when Coming of Age workshops were designed to play a dual role. That of educating teens in order to enable them to make the right decisions, to know the risks of getting involved in activities which do not correspond to their level of psycho-social development and which can affect their subsequent evolution. And here we have the second role, that of preventing the issues associated to compulsive gambling.
The Trained when Coming Of Age workshops take place in the form of interactive informal discussion, where Dr. Cristian Andrei, psychotherapist, expert and ambassador of the Responsible Gambling Association, talks with 11 and 12 graders about what is truly important in social relations and how teenagers must react to the temptations of adult entertainment. Focus is also placed on the teenagers’ position in relation to the value and earning of money and on how they can become accomplished other than by consuming entertainment or making quick money. “The Trained when Coming Of Age program approaches teenagers from several perspectives – games, money, friendship, luck – factors that can lead to loss of control when it comes to gambling. By educating our teenagers, we will have future responsible adults who, if they choose to engage in gambling activities, may do so knowingly”, explains Dr. Cristian Andrei. This program is supported by Game World.
As regards the Responsible Gambling Program, this is the only program dedicated to people who are dealing with gambling issues and are in need of specialized support. This program aims at preventing, identifying and assisting players who have exceeded the recreational limit of gambling and proposes an efficient intervention program, not only for persons who are directly affected, but also for their families.
To the same extent, beyond the support offered to those who suffer from gambling issues, “Responsible Gambling” also implies awareness and training actions carried out in betting agencies and gambling halls. In the first six months of this year, 1,103 people called the free help line, approximately 550 made an appointment with one of the offices, 254 people showed up in person for the five free counseling sessions and 73 people accessed the sessions online, using Skype/Zoom.
The Responsible Gambling program is run with the support of the Superbet Group.
