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NO ROOM FOR AMBIGUITY Perrin Carey, independent analyst and former chief risk and compliance officer at Stride Gaming, speaks to Tim Poole about how the gambling industry can truly change its culture
Perrin Carey
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GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM
Following a recent ruling from the Gambling Commission, supplier Playtech paid a £3.5m ($4.4m) fine to charity for social responsibility failings. Its subsidiary, operator PT Entertainment Services, originally escaped the fine having been closed since the original offence. The case in question saw customer Chris Bruney take his own life and leave a suicide note attributing his decision to problem gambling. Instead of intervening at any point, however, PT Entertainment Services allowed Bruney to deposit vast sums, encouraging him with further bonuses as he lost £119,000 in the five days leading up to his death. The example showed that, despite much technological advancement within the field of responsible gambling, the industry can never truly progress in this area without a genuine change in mentality. For Perrin Carey, a compliance professional with over 15 years’ experience in the field, this means a shift in focus towards risk management. Gambling Insider caught up with Carey to discuss one of the most important issues facing the gambling industry.
The tragic case of Chris Bruney prompted you to comment on our LinkedIn post sharing the story. Can you tell us more about how you view this side of the gambling industry? With this very sad and sensitive case that has come to light, the reality is it won’t be unique. That’s the tragedy of all of this. There are and will be many cases which are unreported, unidentified, undisclosed. There are many reasons for that. I worked in the industry, not for a huge amount of time – 16-17 months – having been drafted in to support Stride and their operating company Daub Alderney. But I brought with me experience within other industries – not just financial services but international education and immigration. We talk in this industry about social responsibility, and I’ve thought long and hard about what that actually means, and whether or not it actually drives change. My personal opinion is that it probably doesn’t; it doesn’t come at this issue from the right angle. My view is the angle this should be coming from is absolutely from a risk management perspective. This isn’t about carrying out social responsibilities; this is fundamentally an ethical, moral and risk management-orientated issue. Organisations across different industries have to consider not only the risks their customers pose to them – AML (anti money laundering) and CFT (combating the financing of terrorism) – but the stack of risks that go back in the other direction. This is why I don’t like, and I don’t mean to discredit it, the aspect of ‘we’re acting socially responsibly’. The real question is are you mitigating the risk you pose to your customers? Drill into that question and then come up with some clear, evidence-based data, decision-making and actions that demonstrate that mitigation. The other side of the social responsibility concept I struggle with – and all industries do this – is how it’s used from a perspective of ‘look aren’t we good because we’re socially responsible?’ It’s your absolute moral and ethical obligation. This isn’t about being good because you are socially responsible. You, as a business, have to manage and mitigate these risks. You have to do that in an absolutely clear,
