"It Pays to Know" Getting Line-ups for Responsible Gaming

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“It Pays to Know” Getting Line-ups for Responsible Gaming


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Since responsible gaming programs began, operators have been challenged to spark players’ interest in key messages. This as lead some to ask if a business that sells fun can help gamblers cultivate smart play habits.

OLG believed we could animate human curiosity if the facts and information were delivered in new and innovate ways. This is mind, we set out to build a communications platform based on key attributes of our players and their receptivity to gaming environments and interactive experiences.

In June 2010, “It Pays to Know”, a social marketing campaign created with DRAFT FCB, was launched to educate players on a matrix of core messages by engaging them while they gambled. The multi-year initiative works to not only build awareness, but ultimately to help players manage their behaviour.

Efforts focus on reinforcing OLG’s priority messages, and delivering them continuously through direct channels like digital media at gaming sites and lottery points-of-sale. By driving players to interactive games on our KnowYourLimit.ca website, and by engaging them with kiosk promotions (provided by Endo Networks) at gaming locations, we seek maximum player engagement.

“It Pays to Know” does not look or feel like typical responsible gaming (RG) campaigns, because it is premised on “what’s in it” for the player. Its “look-and-feel” works extremely well in gaming environments, and the interactive components draw in players through prize incentives. It basically applies the approach OLG takes to market gaming experiences to RG information.

Early results have exceeded expectations, with players embracing messages and promotions with an unprecedented interest. After only a few weeks on digital signs at OLG slot and casino sites, 32 percent of players surveyed had noticed the messages, and of those players, 88 percent said the ads were interesting and an effective way of engaging them in facts about gambling.

OLG’s “It Pays to Know” campaign strongly aligns with the best thinking in the RG sector on the priority messages for operators to provide, categories that include: how gambling works, gambling safeguards, risk factors, and the availability of help.

The campaign has also been designed to be data-rich, and to help OLG track improvements in awareness and behaviour over time; knowledge that will help inform priority areas for future player education.

By Paul Pellizzari, director of policy and social responsibility for OLG