The gaming entertainment industry will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Responsible Gaming Education Week August 6-10. Created by the American Gaming Association, this week of activities focuses on educating casino employees about disordered gambling and promotes responsible gaming education within host communities and nationwide. The theme for the week is “Responsible Gaming: In Your Own Words.”
    A press event will be held at Caesars Atlantic City on Monday, August 6 to kick off RGEW. The event will feature gaming industry employees from Atlantic City properties such as the Tropicana, Harrah’s, Resorts, Bally’s, Caesars, Showboat, the Borgata and the Atlantic City Hilton.
    Speakers will include Gary Loveman, chairman, CEO and president of Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. and chairman of the AGA; Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., president and CEO of the AGA; Linda Kassekert, chairwoman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission; and Kevin Mullally, general counsel and director of government affairs for Gaming Laboratories International and a member of the board of directors for the National Center for Responsible Gaming.
    These leaders will speak about the importance of responsible gaming for the industry and the community, and then unveil the four winning posters from the Responsible Gaming Poster and Essay Contest held earlier this year.
    One poster submission was selected as the RGEW 10th anniversary commemorative poster. It will serve as the graphic centerpiece of the week, with buttons, ribbons, stickers, posters and table tents using the winning design. Three additional designs were selected to make up the Responsible Gaming Education Poster Series, which will be distributed throughout the year leading up to RGEW 2008.
    In preparation for this year’s activities, the AGA also asked gaming employees, from casino floor staff to corporate executives, to submit short essays focused on the importance of responsible gaming. The works of the 15 essay winners will be featured in a soft-cover, bound book I n Their Own Words: Voices of Responsible Gaming, to be released during RGEW.
    The role gaming industry employees had in the creation of this year’s RGEW materials ties directly into the theme for the event.
    “The theme of this year’s RGEW campaign, ‘Responsible Gaming: In Your Own Words,’ was chosen as a way to energize the level of employee participation and encourage employees to think about what responsible gaming means to them during RGEW and beyond,” said AGA President Fahrenkopf. “RGEW provides the industry with an opportunity to carry its message into the community to raise public awareness of what is being done, why it is being done, and why the public’s participation is vital in order to successfully address the various issues surrounding disordered gambling.”
    Many casino employees across the country also will be wearing bright orange “Keep it Fun” responsible gaming awareness wristbands during RGEW to demonstrate the gaming industry’s continuing dedication to responsible gaming awareness. As with most other responsible gaming materials, the wristbands are available to employees and the public in English and Spanish.
    These wristbands, along with buttons, stickers and ribbons, will be worn by employees during RGEW, and are designed to attract the attention of patrons to encourage them to talk to employees about responsible gaming.
     “The hundreds of thousands of gaming industry employees across the country are the most visible faces of our industry,” Fahrenkopf said. “Employees are truly at the heart of any responsible gaming effort because they are on the front lines, interacting with casino guests and ensuring that visitors receive the best casino entertainment experience possible.”
    It is this kind of individual interaction that is the best way to spread the word about responsible gaming—by word of mouth, friend to friend, neighbor-to-neighbor or family member-to-family member. RGEW, says Fahrenkopf, is an important part of work being done every day by the gaming entertainment industry to educate employees, patrons and the community at large about the issues of problem gambling and responsible gaming.
    “We’re excited about celebrating the 10th year of this event,” Fahrenkopf said, “and we look forward to working with employees at all our properties to make this education effort our most successful yet.”

By Patrick Roberts

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