Committed to addressing illegal gambling and related criminal activities while minimising any potential harm on society, EL has developed a Standard that aims to promote the adoption of best practices across the EL membership: the EL Responsible Gaming Certification.

EL Member Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin recently became Responsible Gaming certified for the fifth time. This is an excellent achievement which emphasises the importance of the core lottery value of responsibility.

In this interview, Head of Marketing Thomas Dumke will tell us all about the growing activities of the lottery in the field of responsible gaming and the developments over the past years since its first EL Responsible Gaming Certification.

Your lottery has been certified for the fifth time. How did the process differ from previous certifications? What are the biggest lessons learnt?

The process differed considerably as it's much more about setting goals and also controls and evaluating them. For us, this is the most important lesson we have learned from the fifth certification.

Could you tell us about your progress since the first certification? What has changed and how did you grow and learn in the past 13 years?

We have always been very focused on the protection of players and minors. However, the certifications have always helped us to institutionalize this even more. Each certification also sharpens the senses and leads to questioning one's own actions.

Reaching the fifth certification is a huge achievement. Did you set yourself specific goals this time and did you reach your expected results?

Thank you very much. YES, we really did. Our overarching goal was to do very well again, even under the new, much more demanding certification framework, which we succeeded in doing with 98.1%.

What was the most difficult part of the fifth certification and how did you overcome it?

The new certification framework was much more demanding. Especially the setting of concrete goals and the monitoring of compliance with them, forces one to deal even more than before with the protection of players and minors.

What was the added value for your lottery in being certified for a fifth time? For example, how does it influence your daily business - retail outlets, product development, relation with stakeholders?

As I said, it shows you how important it is to really institutionally live the protection of players and minors on a daily basis. This is also recognized and rewarded by the stakeholders.

What advice do you have for EL Members concerning their (re)-certification process?

It is important to deal with the facts honestly and fundamentally. You also have to set concrete goals. In addition, monitoring compliance with the goals is a Western point that must be anchored in the company.

https://www.european-lotteries.org/news/deutsche-klassenlotterie-berlin-achieves-fifth-rg-certification