Tracy Parker: CGS to establish ‘a common approach to building RG culture in Ontario’

Tracy Parker, Director of Standards and Accreditation at the Responsible Gambling Council, discusses her career so far, the RGC’s future plans and her panel session at next month’s Canadian Gaming Summit
Image: Shutterstock

In the second of a two-part interview with SBC Americas, Tracy Parker, Director of Standards and Accreditation at the Responsible Gambling Council, discusses her career so far, the RGC’s future plans and her panel session at next month’s Canadian Gaming Summit

Next month, the Canadian Gaming Summit will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto and Parker will be speaking alongside iGaming Ontario’s Melissa Ball

Parker noted that the session will highlight the need for all industry stakeholders to build a common approach to responsible gambling measures in Ontario. She also observed that collaborating on research and treatment is essential to build a standard on best practices to keep players safe. 

Looking ahead to the panel session, Parker remarked: “It’s gonna be a lot of fun. I daresay that you’ll learn and you’ll be inspired. You’ll probably laugh a bit – with us, not at us. 

“RGC and iGO certainly share a common approach to building RG culture in Ontario and realize that the way to go about that is through collaboration and consultation. At RGC that’s always been about working with all sides, but bringing together the whole betting ecosystem, whether that’s operators, communities or research and treatment service providers.

“Everybody who consults with sports betting it’s about the leagues and the players, and how all of that works together in a really collaborative way. It’s something we hope to explore in the session.”

Parker also discussed her career, and how she reached a position at RGC and worked within the RG space. She noted that, following six years working at Ontario Lottery and Gaming, she has been on both sides of the fence when it comes to RG, both working with operators to monitor standards and working for an operator.

“As Director of Standards and Accreditation, I lead the RG Check accreditation program,” she added.

“And at OLG I was on the receiving end of the accreditation program. RG check operates through the land-based casinos in Ontario and now for online operators and it was really interesting and appealing for me to see the other side and work with different jurisdictions.

”In addition to Ontario, RG Check operates globally in several other jurisdictions. It was really interesting to come on with RGC and, and see how all that got done.”

Finally, RGC’s Director of Standards assessed the Council’s goals for the rest of 2022 as the Ontario market matures. More operators are expected to enter Canada’s largest province in the coming months, highlighted by DraftKings’ late launch this week. 

Parker noted that focusing on research and ‘building an evidence base’ is essential to a healthy marketplace. However, she reiterated the need to work with other industry stakeholders to uphold standards and establish best practices. 

“I think coming through on the themes around collaboration and building the evidence base,” Parker said on RGC’s plans for the rest of 2022. 

“There’s a great opportunity leading up to this and in this first few months and years, to build the evidence base and do the research and understand the player base so that we can measure longer-term impacts and monitor that. 

“Then using that information to work collaboratively and share perspectives, bringing all that ecosystem, bringing all those different players together to better understand and serve Ontario players. 

She concluded: “We mentioned RG check at the beginning, and that’s an accreditation program that all operators will undertake. We’re working through that process with operators over the next two years to move everybody through that and that in itself will be a really great opportunity to align operators and integrate energy culture into the Ontario market.”

You can read the first part of the interview here.