“In the past, responsible gambling and problem gambling were often the last thoughts, the last commitment,” said Brianne Doura-Schawohl, CEO and founder of Doura-Schawohl Consulting, a boutique government-relations firm specializing in problem- and responsible-gambling policy. “It was very rarely a pillar of a lot of policies that we saw in both statutes and regulations.”
Doura-Schawohl added that as the gaming industry expands across the U.S., operators are more likely to be open to RG initiatives.
“All of a sudden, it’s gone from what we have to do to check that box to how we make this the nucleus of our policies,” Doura-Schawohl said. “What more do we need to be doing? What did we miss by these fairly aggressive, haphazard policies that we threw together?” Now, she added, “I do think we’re heading in the right direction.”