Zona de Azar Argentina – Jose del Pino: “Kids Should Not Be Playing (Not gambling at the very least)”
Argentina.- November 27, 2024 www.zonadeazar.com I’ve been working for the online gambling industry since 2008. Back then was a young industry, only discovered by a few enthusiasts, keen to have a great time exploring the new opportunity that playing online meant.
There were a bunch of companies, most of them fighting for a place in the global market, while convincing audiences, governments, legal institutions and activists, that they were building a responsible industry. This meant being extremely careful in protecting players with sophisticated processes like the KYC (Know Your Customer) process, innovative self-exclusion tools for potential problem gamblers, and limited advertising targeting the proper audiences, usually 18 to 35 males, which was possible due to the advanced marketing tools at hand. Kids were definitely NOT a target.
Companies were very careful about underage gambling, as it could threaten the growth and future of the entire industry. I will never forget that one of the biggest and most important companies back in the day, in and around 2008-2009, didn’t allow marketing teams to place commercials on the Simpsons. Even if the Simpsons are directed to adults (mainly), they are animated cartoons and children could be watching with their parents (I was personally a participant of this conversation).
Fast forward 16 years, I wonder how come 12 to 16-year-old kids are betting on sports and playing slots as if it was normal. Losing their lunch money, taking pocket change from their parents nightstand, asking friends for money they can’t give back, and wasting a huge amount of dopamine that should be channelled to their learning motivation instead. Schools are crazy trying to intervene and help with limited to no tools at all, and regulators are trying to act with old practices like domain blocking, which we all know are not effective, they never were.
Please, Let’s not look the other way, fact is: UNDERAGE KIDS ARE GAMBLING. (in a recent survey in the City of Buenos Aires, 25% of underage school kids said they gambled online recently. I wonder how many more preferred to keep it to themselves)
Some could say this is a problem for the regulators, most will say that they verify age through great technology, some will even guarantee that their verification raise flags immediately. No doubt, all good, Let’s choose to believe. BUT, kids are still playing. So, still our problem as an industry.
I’ve been trying to understand how come we came to this point, where this doesn’t really look like an issue, where we continue celebrating the industry growth, improvement, great games, and we even give an award to the “Best Operator”. Guys, we have an emergency, we need to put our heads, effort and money on this issue, we can’t look away anymore.
I get that most of us come from the old times when no local regulations existed, and responsible gambling practices were up to any given operator, each one use to set their own limits, and nobody really knew. But our activity changed, in Latin America we are going through a massive transformation due to recent regulations and proliferation of massive advertising campaigns, well known influencers, big celebrities, and we are even taking advantage of the ingenuity and ignorance of the local business community, that see a new industry coming to town, one that looks like moving billions around the world, and one that creates one of the biggest Corporate FOMOs I’ve ever experienced.
What’s my intention with this article? Well, first of all that a bunch of people in the industry reads it. Second, that hopefully some will reflect and bring the subject to their teams table to discuss. And the maximum success I would consider, is that someone at SBC, SIGMA, ICE or any of the likes, decides to include this topic in the next conference agenda, so we put it on the table, so we can discuss it, and start the virtuoso path to fixing it.
Editó: @_fonta www.zonadeazar.com
