- Joined
- May 22, 2012
Dear All,
Firstly apologies for the time taken to reply to the thread. It was a long Bank Holiday, as Max mentioned, and I also wanted to ensure we had addressed some of the issues highlighted before commenting.
Happy Easter!
First and foremost I want to state that 32Red are committed to responsible gambling. Yes, we have made some changes to procedures surrounding the closure of accounts, but by no means are these to the detriment of player protection. We are proud to be licensed in Gibraltar, Italy and the UK and always strive to operate in a manner that is compliant with the responsibilities placed upon us.
Is having to contact a third party and not self-set 'compliant'? Reading the UKGC terms that is debatable.
We constantly review all aspects of our operating procedures and it was evident that our approach to Self-Exclusion needed to revert to it being a more considered and deliberate action on the part of the player. Unfortunately the existing Self Exclusion facility couldn’t be adapted, so we took the decision to reintroduce our previous process, making it available from within the gaming software and without the need to interact with anybody here in order to complete the process.
I'm a bit confused here - when I made the video it was clear I had to interact with somebody, either by e-mail or phone. Was this the 'previous process' BEFORE you had the self-set up to the pre-Easter period and you reverted back to the old tedious process, or is this the one that stands now?
Secondly, why was it 'evident' that your approach needed amending? Pre-Easter you had the same as most other sites and it worked. So you guys didn't like it, for what reason? Financial, as in a recognition of Will Hill's statistics whereby the cost of SE players is significant so you want to limit SE, or another reason?
When the above change was made, we noticed that the automated Take a Break option was also no longer available, as it was part of the same application. We hadn’t realised this and had to make some fairly quick changes to ensure we could still deal with these requests in the timely manner they deserve. A dedicated email was set up (which is given top priority in the queuing system that sits behind the Help Centre) and the pages amended accordingly.
'Hadn't realized'? Basically a huge balls-up by somebody. Harry certainly noticed! Nothing is more timely than the players doing it themselves instantly as before, so I don't understand the logic of that. You set a dedicated e-mail up for TAB. So, reading the facts you have posted you have gone to quite some trouble it seems to remove the self-set options from the players. The only possible conclusion one can draw then is that it's all down to revenue. Nothing else can explain it.
This thread has highlighted a couple of areas where we could improve this process, we have addressed some of those:
- We have now introduced a dedicated line for players who want to discuss their responsible gaming options. Our trained staff will be monitoring this line 24/7 and will be able to offer players instant changes based on their requirements.
- It was highlighted that an email link doesn’t always work if a player doesn’t have an email client installed. We have now amended this step to show the dedicated email address to enable someone using a web-based client to copy and paste it.
This line must have cost some money. Yet again, you had something that worked for the player and have removed it arbitrarily. The inference is absolutely clear here that the cost of it must be more than paid for by reducing your SE/TAB players.
For those concerned about the time taken for an email to be processed, I am able to share with you that the shortest break requested over the busy Bank Holiday weekend was for 1 week – this was actioned within 19 minutes of the request being received.
Whoopee! If the players did it themselves it would be 19 milliseconds.....
It is important to remember that Take a Break is a facility that is designed to offer individuals a break so as to control their gaming and is not there, as is implied in some of the posts, as a means to protect a withdrawal from being reversed. If there are players who really can't control themselves when they are in that position, then they should contact me to see if there any alternatives available rather than using a function designed for something else. Also, regular and frequent use of a Take a Break facility could be seen as indicating problematic behaviour; we are required to intervene and interact in such circumstances and that is why it is important that the facility is used as it is intended.
Correct, it is not there solely to protect against reversals. But then again, who imposed long pending periods on their players especially at weekends? 32red must share some of the blame if players are doing that. Regular TAB 'could be seen to indicate problematic behaviour'. Could, but not necessarily. You cannot know that. So by having them phone you, you get to know more of their reasons? I know of no UKGC requirement to 'intervene' if a player takes a few 1-7 day TABs. This is why there is the distinction.
I have to laugh at your reference about pending withdrawals - "If players really can't control themselves when in that position, they should contact me...blah...." Oh the irony! Up until recent times they wouldn't have had to contact you, but get on live chat and have it flushed, end of!
Finally (sorry for the long post), the video showing the steps to live chat in the Viper software highlighted a rather unfriendly player journey which has also been addressed. Thank you for bringing that to our attention.
Regards,
Mark
Yes, I am glad the video helped you see the convoluted Live Chat process we have to go through. Did you not know this until you saw the video?
To conclude, I thank you for your time to reply. Some questions haven't been answered really and if I may say so some of the reply especially in the last paragraph concerning TAB is a tad contemptuous to your players IMO. 95% of casinos are perfectly happy to let the player take decisions, whether in haste or not, and provide the buttons. A player using TAB to 'protect' a pending withdrawal is not really relevant to most casinos which process fast 24/7. It doesn't mean he has a control issue at all.
Just one last thing - who decides to make these changes, and is any customer research done first? I highly doubt so.