As gambling provides, Australian casinos must work hard to ensure that players gamble responsible. Crown, Echo Entertainment and SkyCity are the biggest casino operators in the country, and they each have their own approaches to responsible gambling.
Crown Melbourne operators the Crown Responsible Gambling Support Centre (RGSC), which is open 24-hours a day and 7-days a week. The centre offers up a wide range of services to help players who feel that they may be losing control of their spending.
With the help of the RGSC, players can choose to enter a self-exclusion program, banning themselves from the casino – or, they can receive counselling from qualified professionals. Crown Melbourne also offers the Play Safe Limits Program, which allows players to use pre-commitment and set their own betting limits.
Responsible gambling at Crown Perth is similar. The venue has established policies to manage a wide range of responsibility issues, including problem gambling, underage gambling, responsible marketing, unattended children and responsible alcohol service.
The casino offers up a unique Manage Your Gambling Service. Players have access to their own activity statements, allowing them to manually monitor their spending. There is also a Play Safe Limits Program, which operate in the same way as Crown Melbourne’s pre-commitment system. Another option that may be useful to at-risk and problem gamblers is Crown Perth’s self-exclusion program. This allows players to ban themselves from the casino.
At Adelaide Casino, SkyCity has an in-depth Host Responsible program which aims to help players gamble safely. In addition to offer pre-commitment and self-exclusion, SkyCity can also assign players a Host Responsibility Coordinator. This team member will help players stay in control by helping them gamble within their means and maintain responsible gambling habits.
At The Star Casino in Sydney, players and staff are encouraged to keep an eye out for players who may be addicted to gambling. The Responsible Gambling Code outlines a number of risk indicators. These include: gambling every day, gambling without taking a break, taking multiple visits to the ATM, continuing to gamble after hitting a big win and becoming angry or violent while playing games.
Echo Entertainment also offers pre-commitment at all of its venues, including The Star Casino, Jupiters Gold Coast and The Treasury. At every casino operated by Echo Entertainment, there are also customer liaison representatives who are available to help players who may be having trouble with keeping their gambling habits under control.