Social responsibility has many aspects, and supporting good causes that benefit society, vulnerable groups, or even the environment is only part of it.

In the world of online Gaming, social reliability also involves curbing the risks faced by communities from uncontrolled gaming and even gambling over the internet, protecting the players themselves from such risks, and barring minors from accessing games intended for adults only.

And that is not all, as active anti-money laundering measures and care not to allow criminal funds to come into play are also a vital aspect of any online gaming or casino platform or separate game that can claim to be socially responsible.

According to data from a study on Responsible Gaming published by SevenJackpots, two thirds, or 66% of online gamers in regulated markets around the world, agree (39%) or completely agree (27%) that they are more likely to play a game if it is socially responsible.

Moreover, negative answers are below the 10-percent mark, with 5% out of 4,000 respondents to the survey answering they disagree, and just 3% saying they completely disagree, that social reliability would play a role in their choices of games. Neutral answers are 26%.

Regulated Markets Register Growing Awareness and Acceptance of Responsible Gaming Tools

Further data from the SevenJackpots study reveals that regulated and mature markets are registering growing levels of awareness and acceptance of responsible gaming tools, even though many such mechanisms potentially limit player activities.

Surveys by the UK Gambling Commission, for example, show that self-imposed spending limits and self-exclusion are the most commonly used responsible gaming methods, especially by younger players like the 18-34 age group.

The Commission reports stable rates of participation in gambling of 44% for 2021 and 2022, including 27% participation in online gambling, as well as statistically stable overall problem gambling rate of 0.2% for the last two years.

In Sweden, 80,000 people have chosen to use their national self-exclusion system to take a permanent or temporary break from all legal gambling sites operating there.

This is equal to 1% of the Scandinavian country’s adult population of 8 million and is more than the estimated number of vulnerable and problem gamers in Sweden, the SevenJackpots researchers point out.

Social Responsibility Standards are Set up by Rules

The safe online gaming environments achieved by these countries were created by rules, which in turn were made possible by gaming and gambling regulation. The rules are devised by authorities, industry bodies and non-governmental associations, but all revolve around the so-called pillars of responsible gaming.

Contrary to all of that, attempts at regulation over online gaming and gambling in India have prohibition as their focal point. This is mostly clear in the majority of cases like Tamil Nadu where a State is trying to address problems associated with uncontrolled gambling over the internet by an outright ban on online games.

Even though the very title of the law that TN recently implemented contained the word “regulation”, the head of the state’s new online gaming authority says that regulation is helpless because it can’t stop people from playing and there is no “other way out except banning”.

The thing with regulation based on bans, as opposed to regulation based on rules, is that when the ban is disrespected there are no rules left. With online games, bans push players to go underground where social responsibility in not a concern.