What better way than to interview industry leaders, veterans and employees who each fit and play a part in this fun, exciting industry and shine a light on the subject for you to read at home? Our interviews will cover many subjects: from game developer perspectives and affiliate manager insights. casino managers and odds compilers view the iGaming world and more. We believe interviews are a great way to shed light on the other side of your screen so you can learn more about how online gambling operates as an online industry.
The first chapter in the "IGS Interviews" series is with Great.com, who are, in their own words "Redefining the Online Casino Industry One Market at a Time". Founded by industry veteran Erik Bergman in 2019, Great.com is a casino affiliate portal with a charitable twist - 100% of profits are donated to important environmental charities.
It's not often you hear this "business model", and we wholly commend them for launching such a great site with a big message. As Great.com put it "we have a responsibility to create the highest-quality products possible for our users, which include the most informative and honest reviews, industry insights and gambling news. However, in our case, the difference is that we pay back profits to important environmental charities close to our hearts.
Interview #1 With Great.com - The Risks With Online Gambling
When it comes to online gambling, as we all know, it can be entertaining and a hugely fun pastime, especially when you land that big win. But we don't think that one can forget there are major downsides for many people, those who don't manage to land a big win or those who slowly develop a gambling problem. Read on to find out what Great.com had to say about the risks with online gambling and casino when we caught up with them this week:
How Many People Are Struggling With Gambling Addiction in General?
For our first question to Great.com, we wanted to know how gambling addiction looks, in general, all over the world, and whether there are enough tools and awareness available to support problem gamblers? Do they think there's more the gambling industry can do to help promote responsible gambling and general awareness?
Great.com: In general, people are pretty good at handling their gambling habits and do it on a regular level. But of course, there's also a certain number of people that can get stuck within problem gambling, where playing online has taken over their lives and it spirals into addiction. This can ruin both their own lives as well as the lives of the rest of their family. Luckily these days, there are a lot of schemes and helplines that players can turn to if they feel that their gambling is taking over and controlling their lives. There's so much more awareness now than when the online gambling industry started a couple of decades ago.
Do Online Casinos Offer Any Help To Players?
Our next question is if online casinos offer any help to players suffering from gambling addiction?
Great.com: This differs between casinos, but in general, yes - reputable online casinos will have several tools to help keep your gambling habits in check. Nowadays, it's easy to set gambling limits and deposit limits in your account at most online casinos and gambling sites. For example, the NJ casino site Tropicana online casino offers their players the ability to set strict gambling limits, as well as offer multiple ways to seek help if their customers need it - they link to several helplines where players can turn to for guidance if they feel their gambling is shifting out of control.
How Do You know If You Play Too Much?
Our last double question is: How can you determine if you play and gamble too much? How do you stop before it escalates too much?
Great.com: Although we're not gambling addict experts, there's some fantastic advice available that you can follow, available for free from well-known gambling addiction helplines like BeGambleAware that can help you determine if you have a gambling problem or how to get help for yourself or someone you know that does. Everything can be done anonymously; too, you just need to reach out as the help is all there.
If you're unsure but suspect yourself or someone you know has a gambling problem, but aren't sure, then there are a couple of signs to watch out for. For example, if a person talks a lot about gambling, this could indicate they spend a lot of time gambling online. Another indicator could be that they spend a lot of their time in a land-based casino or at online casinos - most nights, often avoiding social engagements in favour of gambling online. What's more, another clear sign is if the person's economy starts to fail in one way or the other.
They may ask to borrow money, sell their items or worse - steal (or simply not pay back monies owed), to fund their habit because their own economy cannot support their habit any longer. We always recommend seeking help or directly talking to the person you wish to help before it escalates to this situation
💗 We want to thank Great.com for participating in this interview and for giving us some factual and informative answers to our questions.
Responsible Gambling
iGamblingSites.com has a dedicated section concerning responsible gambling, which we've put together to help you if you need it. If you're unsure you have a gambling addiction or wish to determine if someone you know does, we've put together a quick questionnaire that may provide some clues by way of a yes or no answer. We've also listed plenty of gambling helpline organisations so you can easily reach out freely and anonymously if you need to. Find out more here.
