The African Responsible Gaming Network has launched as a continent-wide body intended to strengthen player protection and tackle gambling-related harm. It brings together responsible-gaming organisations, researchers, treatment specialists, advocates and industry stakeholders that had largely worked within separate national markets.
The network’s founding partners are Gamble Pause Initiative Africa, Gamble Aware Nigeria and the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation. Lebo Seoheng, the foundation’s advocacy and communications manager, has been appointed president; the network also includes representatives from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Cameroon, Uganda and Eswatini, with support from Austria.
According to Next.io, ARGN’s remit covers responsible gambling, education, prevention, treatment, research and policy development. Its four priorities are to produce a continent-wide evidence base on gambling harm, improve access to treatment, recovery and support services, develop policy recommendations and responsible-gaming measures, and coordinate awareness and prevention campaigns.
The immediate work programme includes a pan-African gambling-harm report and a directory of treatment and recovery services, FairGambling reported.
Ladipo Abiose Akolade, founder of GamblePause Initiative Africa, said the network was created because problem gambling was becoming a larger issue while most responsible-gambling work remained nationally focused. He told iGaming Business that ARGN is intended to support rather than replace domestic organisations and regulators, providing a forum to share research, experience and responses to common challenges.
ARGN plans to promote common principles rather than identical rules, reflecting different legal frameworks, cultures and levels of market development across African countries. Akolade identified protection of minors, effective self-exclusion, responsible advertising and access to support as basic protections, while also calling for enforceable minimum standards on age and identity verification, counselling and treatment, and action against illegal operators.
Seoheng said the fast expansion of online and sports betting made it essential for player protection and responsible gambling to remain central to operators’ activities. He said effective legislation and regulation could reduce harm, gambling addiction and associated pressure on healthcare systems.
The launch follows Africa’s first Safer Gambling Week, which we reported launched on Sept. 7 as a separate continent-wide player-protection campaign.
