South African National Responsible Gambling Programme: The Money'

1
South African National Responsible Gambling
Programme The Money.

• Prof Peter Collins
• Executive Director (NRGP) and
• Director of the Centre for the Study of Gambling,
  University of Salford, UK

2
Overview

• What do industry and government want?
• Deliverables
• Cost
• Perceptions and Reality

3
What Industry Wants in relation to Problem
Gambling and Why

• To promote share-holder interests through absence
  of
• Sensational, mendacious, exaggerated and damaging
  stories about problem gambling in the media
• Consequent profit-damaging regulatory limitations
  on freedom to trade
• And swinging levies and taxes
• NB Profits in the gambling industry are vitally
  dependent on public perceptions and public
  perceptions focus overwhelmingly on the problem
  gambling issue

4
What Government Wants

• Absence of
• Sensational, mendacious, exaggerated and damaging
  stories about problem gambling in the media
• Leading to claims of callousness, greed and
  recklessness by government
• Requiring the bringing of intensely controversial
  measures to parliament
• And loss of unresented taxes and electoral
  support

5
A Public Private Sector Partnership in SA to
address problem gambling

• Industry (except for National Lottery) pay 0.1
  of GGR (supplemented by R4.5m of public money) to
  SARG Foundation and have 4 out of 10 seats on the
  Board
• Government regulators have four seats on Board,
  including Chair and CEO of National Gambling
  Board
• There is an independent Chair, who represent
  nobody
• There is an Executive Director who commissions,
  co-ordinates and oversees the work of services
  providers in three areas academic research and
  programme and education public awareness
  including public service advertising, liaison
  with media and stake-holders, and industry
  training treatment, including telephone
  counselling line and face-to-face counselling by
  qualified treatment professionals

6
Deliverables Treatment

• 24 hour free, confidential, expert telephone
  counsellling
• 6-9 free structured counseling sessions by
  qualified treatment professionals (psychologists
  or social workers) for PGs and families
• Group therapy
• Debt management services
• Professional development for counsellors and TPs

7
Deliverables Public Awareness

• Ads in local newspapers and on radio
• Brochures etc made available in gambling venues
• All gambling ads carry NRGP strapline and free
  phone number
• Brochures given personally to recipients of state
  benefits at All-Pay points
• Edutainment in selected schools
• Large number of interviews given to media (to get
  them not to tell lies about gambling but to tell
  the truth)
• Briefings for politicians, regulators, compliance
  officers etc
• Industry training for all staff and advanced
  training for compliance managers and those
  dealing with e.g. exclusions

8
Deliverables Academic

• Research
• Prevalence Study
• Panel study
• Poverty Study
• Cognition Study
• Schools
• Text and audio-visual material on taking risks
  wisely made available to all schools in SA in
  hard copy, CD-Rom and on web.

9
Total Cost

• /- 3m p.a.

10
Just PR

• The Industry and Government pay for this and want
  this programme because it generates good PR
• But the Programme would not generate good PR
  unless it was really and manifestly going to
  reduce the harm caused by problem gambling

11
Conclusion Does it work?

• Definitely as PR
• PG numbers seem to be constant but then that is
  a widespread phenomenon
• We try to secure objective evaluation, e.g. from
  Prof Robert Ladouceur, by following up clients
  etc
• But in reality, we dont know
• Probably we do a small amount of good to a small
  number of people in relation to problem gambling
  and a fair amount more which relates to ancillary
  issues (people who benefit from counselling about
  other matters, what people learn about
  risk-taking more generally etc)

12
Thank you

• Website and correspondence addresses
• www.responsiblegambling.co.za
• execdir_at_responsiblegambling.co.za