Bacta president James Miller and chief executive John White took the opportunity to outline Bacta’s on-going commitment to social responsibility when they met with former minister responsible for the gambling industry, Tracey Crouch MP, at Westminster last week.

 

The member of parliament for Chatham and Aylesford, who resigned from her ministerial position in November 2018 following Chancellor Philip Hammond’s original announcement of a six month delay in the reduction of the FOBT stake from £100 to a maximum of £2, received an update on initiatives Bacta is developing in relation to Category B3 machines and Category C pub products.

James Miller explained: “It was a very positive meeting with a politician that knows the industry well and who shares our vision for a pragmatic and deliverable approach to social responsibility. Bacta has been working alongside the Bingo Association to trial social responsibility messaging on B3 machines when they are in attract mode as well as the opportunity for players to apply limit setting alerts based on either time played or money spent. When the limits are approached alerts are activated which lead to a break in play.”

For the pub environment where machine playing is a secondary activity, Bacta’s focus includes separate messaging designed to influence both staff and players. “The pub represents a different retail environment on a number of levels” argued Miller. “As a consequence we are proposing the inclusion of introductory messaging reminding staff of their responsibilities and the law in relation to age. The messaging then requires players to confirm their age on the machine prior to playing. The move towards digital gaming will enable the industry to deploy reminders on socially responsible gambling in a way that will help machine players, licensees and the PubCos alike.”

 

This article was originally published on www.coinslot.co.uk