The industry’s awareness of the importance of protecting the vulnerable is underlined by the testing of new technology enabling players to self-exclude themselves from gaming.
Talarius, the largest operator of adult gaming centres (AGCs) in the UK, has announced that it will be the first company to trial SmartExclusion, a customer self-exclusion solution enabling multiple branches of the same operation to be alerted quickly when someone self-excludes.
The technology will be installed in five of Talarius’ Quicksilver venues in the North East of England on a trial basis. The unit is a tablet, removing the need for a paper-trail. Staff at the AGCs will be able to digitally record the details of any customer wishing to exclude themselves and upload an image to a central server.
The player is then provided with multiple exclusion options including location, operators and length of time to be excluded. The information is then shared across all of the relevant venues. Any breach of the exclusion leads to the customer being approached by staff with the offer of support and the details are then circulated.
Peter Harvey, CEO at Talarius, said: “Instances of compulsive gambling are rare in AGCs, but it is important that we have the most effective systems in place to deal with the issue.”
The CEO of SmartAlert, the developer of SmartExclusion, said that the unit had already been successfully trialled in a licensed betting office.
