Self-exclusion standards for online gambling presented at assembly of the African Organisation for Standardisation

The 32nd General Assembly of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) was held in Mombasa, Kenya from Monday 24 – Friday 28 August, and hosted in partnership with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).

At the assembly, Dr Margaret Carran, Assistant Vice President for Education Partnerships, City St George’s University of London co-presented the findings of the Self-Exclusion Standards Project, which focuses on creating standardised and clear guidelines for how online gambling self-exclusion programmes should work in different jurisdictions across the globe.

Given her audience, the presentation played particular attention to application within jurisdictions in Africa and was co-presented by Šimon Vincze, Head of Sustainable and Safer Gambling at Casino Guru.

The project forms part of Dr Carran’s academic work at The City Law School, researching gambling - related law and regulations and is sponsored by Casino Guru, an independent online casino resource which aims to provide a fairer and safer experience for players who gamble online (also known as ‘’iGaming’).

The result of extensive research, the Self-Exclusion Standards Project outlines a three-stage evidence-based approach derived from research, workgroup consultation, and broader public consultation in order to deliver a gold standard that can be adopted across jurisdictions.

The framework is designed with the idea of being a blueprint that is easy to integrate across state borders and with the aim of having an immediate impact on player well-being and consumer protection standards.

Dr Carran shared:

Creating international standards for safer gambling tools and principles would bring enormous benefits to all stakeholders. The regulators and policy makers would have a reliable, evidence-based and robust source of what offers genuine protection; enforcement would become easier; players would benefit from a consistently high level of protection regardless of where they choose to gamble, and the public would gain confidence that the governments are indeed serious about protecting players from gambling-related harms.

We focused on every aspect of the self-exclusion process and its implementation at operators to ensure that players are well-informed, able to find the right tool and use it at times when they are losing control. At the same time, we have sought to equip operators with appropriate procedures and safeguards to make sure they protect those who need it effectively.

To ensure the impact of the Self-Exclusion Standard Project, the initiative's authors have vowed to support jurisdictions attempting to implement the framework to protect consumers and improve consumer safeguards locally.