FEATURE: RESPONSIBLE GAMING

future, we’re always looking for ways to raise the bar. We’ve made good progress but there’s more we can do and that starts with making sure that how we look at responsible gaming today aligns with the market of today.”

One way in which FanDuel does that is to have an annual ‘Play Well Day’ in which all employees, top to bottom, must participate. The company ties it to yearly compensation, with all bonuses pegged to the amount of Play Well participation. “In addition, new employees have 30 days to complete the training or they’ll have an issue with their compensation,” Jones reports. “Whether you’re an assistant, a technologist, a marketing person or one of the traders themselves, everyone in the company from the CEO down to an intern has to take the training.”

As for ‘Play Well Day’ itself, “it’s a full day where don’t work in the traditional sense. The entire day is a series of speaking engagements. We had all our partners in, talking about the importance of responsible gaming and how we’re building this as a thread throughout our entire culture. It is to remind all 3,000 employees that this is a non-negotiable part of the business and we have to take a day out of the year to really remind ourselves that we are building a sustainable business. The way to do that is always to put customer protection at the forefront.”

Or, as DeBaun concludes, “We’ve seen tremendous change in the U.S. in the availability of legal gaming. You know, getting this right is not only the right thing to do but it’s key to our long-term success.”