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In the upcoming days, customers from Ontario will be officially able to restrict themselves on the iGaming market, marking the possibility to exclude players individually on all sites governed in the province of Canada. Just yesterday, iGo (iGaming Ontario) introduced its new central self-exclusion system – CSE.
The BetGuard system is not yet fully operational and active; however, a year-long project is currently pending and in collaboration with Integrity Compliance 360 and DataWorks, previously named IXUP. Parties now are closer than ever to negotiating the brand launch due to the Responsible Gambling Council’s discovery at a conference in Toronto.
Furthermore, the iGo president and the CEO remarked, “I think there’s a recognition that we’re overdue for this system, we need to live up to our commitment to ensure that all of the responsible gambling tools we can offer to the players and operators are available”. He also clarified that the launch of this particular system will be a cornerstone of this aspect within the scale of iGaming in Canada.
A-One Stop Mechanism For All
Online users in Ontario will be eligible and fully able to withdraw their participation from 82 licensed websites in the province, which is not limited to the Ontario Lottery as well. The process is pretty straightforward, meaning that once BetGuard goes live, which is rumored to be around May of this year, the customers in the province can be allowed to use this mechanism through one online platform. Participation in this process will be expected from every licensed operator within the province as well.
Once the platform is fully operational, as iGaming companies already distribute their responsible gambling tools on their respective websites, they must be fully up and running. However, if we compare the scale of these 2 mechanisms, BetGuard will fully remove the need for players to self-exclude themselves on separate platforms, uniting all of the operators in Ontario once users sign up on BetGuard, excluding them from multiple licenses.
AGCO Sets Principles
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario modified its iGaming rules earlier this month, in a report published on 2 April, in an attempt to better explain what is expected of the operators regarding BetGuard.
At the very least, operators must:
- Make sure BetGuard is properly displayed on their websites
- Provide a full range of durations, such as options for six months, a year, and five years
- Ensure that gamblers who have been self-excluded are unable to access their accounts or register for new ones
- Cease any communication to users who are centrally self-excluded
- Refund any unused funds and terminate any wagers that were placed in the last 24 hours prior to the user’s self-exclusion
BetGuard is only part of the responsible gambling puzzle in the province, where operators must strictly follow the guidelines set by RGC’s RG check certification process, the AGCO, and iGo. This is only a mechanism to ensure that both players and operators are reinforced by the additional layer of safety.
Hillier, whom we mentioned before, has reaffirmed that since the agency collaborated with IC360 and Dataworks to create the tool 2 years ago, iGo has been fully aware of the need for such a tool and has consistently brought it up over time as a crucial player safety recommendation.
Are Alberta and Ontario Equivalent to One Another?
While Ontario implements a new system around responsible gambling, the Alberta iGaming market is set to fully launch this year, on July 13. Minister Dale Nally and other Alberta gaming stakeholders have declared that the province will have its own separate centralized self-exclusion system, marking a similarity to both of the iGaming markets in Canada.
The similarity is unmatched, as any operator intending to enter these two markets must integrate with a CSE tool. According to Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, a website has already been established for the CSE tool.
Alberta’s platform will also offer the ability to be excluded from all categories simultaneously, which won’t be limited to only iGaming websites, as they will include land-based casinos, as well as racetrack entertainment venues. This similarity of the provinces brings us to Hillier’s suggestion that players who are travelling these 2 provinces, and for the clarity of the Canadian iGaming market, both provinces could potentially collaborate in order to minimize the risks of their respective iGaming image. iGo’s president and CEO suggested that those 2 provinces could eventually look for an internal connection between their respective CSE systems.
Source: canadiangamingbusiness.com
