IGN recently caught up with Pieter Remmers, a cofounder of the Global Gambling Guidance Group (G4), to discuss the role G4 has taken as a responsible gambling advocate as well as other issues addressed by the group's Responsible e-Gaming Code of Practice.
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"There is a big attraction from online gaming sites to G4 because they have to prove that they are above refute. It is like the old saying goes: 'They need to be more Catholic than the Pope.'"
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Remmers, also a sitting member for the European Association for the Study of Gambling, has been busy getting online operators, network operators, trade groups and others in the industry to join forces so that the G4 network has credibility and strong numbers.
Less than a year after the inception of G4 (in May 2004), the positive affects of the group's efforts are being felt in both the land-based and online gambling industries. The group has established protocols for information sharing, program development, benchmarking and accreditation of responsible gambling programs that Remmers hopes will set the world standard.
IGN: It hasn't even been a year since the launch of G4. Why do you think there has been so much interest in the group from the I-gaming world?
PR: We kind of had a slow start, but things are moving rapidly now. A lot of the interest is coming from the poker world, which clearly is the fastest growing segment of the online gaming industry.
PokerRoom.com, which was actually the first online gaming site to affiliate with G4, had something like a 350 percent growth period over the last year. Those kinds of figures are staggering for any business, but are just unheard for online gaming.
There is a big attraction from online gaming sites to G4 because they have to prove that they are above refute. It is like the old saying goes: "They need to be more Catholic than the Pope."
They want to show that they are absolutely clean and not involved in any criminal activity or even a conduit for money laundering and credit card fraud. There is an enormous amount of operators that want to do good.
IGN: Poker seems to be the key for many in this industry. Will that be a main focus for G4?
PR: We are in a good position right now because it isn't like we are going out and soliciting sites or brands to come to us. They are voluntarily coming to us. We aren't reliant on any one sector, but we have seen tremendous strides on the poker front.
For some reason it seems the Nordic-based companies are in the first row on this and really want to get involved. There are some exceptions to the rule, but most of the sites that are based offshore have been a little more hesitant to get involved in the process. But we don't have to market the things we are doing to this industry because it is coming to us on its own.
But it is a smart business decision for them too. It is more profitable for them to come to us and get on board now in the long run than have issues and doubt hanging over their head and customers choosing other sites.
IGN: Who else is coming on board?
PR: We just signed a deal last week at the ICE show with eCOGRA. We will be making that official with a release in another week or two. There are others in the works, but that is a big one for us. eCOGRA will offer brand organization and allow us to tap into their 52 member sites. It is the first step in getting their members to come on board. We have had communications with other groups, like the Interactive Gaming Council and some companies that operate entire poker networks, and those will continue to be our focus in the short term.
IGN: Is it easier for you to go the route of groups, networks and trade associations instead of through individual operators?
PR: I am not sure if it is easier or not, but it is good to go to them because they already have an established pool of sites to draw from. The one draw back is that you have to be a little less detail-oriented when you are trying to appeal to a mass number of sites. When you are in a one-on-one process, it is a little easier to go over every aspect of the code of practice, but you aren't really offered that luxury when you are dealing with a host of sites or operators.
IGN: Do you have a target number of sites you would like to have on board by your one-year anniversary?
PR: I have no idea how big we will get this year or any other year. I do know that we continue to grow at a pace that it is now taking up most of my time, but again, that isn't all bad. We do need to think about how we are going to expand. At some point, though, the more sites we get the easier it will be to share information and conduct our business. We just have to reach that threshold.
When we started we thought this would be an easy one. It has been tough to manage, but we believe that it is worth doing and will have great benefits for the industry and consumers alike for a long time to come. It has been good to get input from everyone in the e-gaming industry because it shows how serious they are about all of this.