Kindred Group targets zero revenue from problem gambling by 2023

Kindred Group is aiming to reduce the amount of company revenue generated from at-risk gambling behaviour to zero by 2023.

In its new sustainability report, CEO Henrik Tjärnström claimed advances in AI, coupled with the introduction of 5G networking over the next few years, would help to remove threats from harmful gambling, money laundering and match fixing in the industry.

“We have set up an ambition to reach zero revenue from harmful gambling by 2023, which we believe we can achieve through the technological revolution taking place right now,” Tjärnström said.

The operator refused to be drawn on what percentage of its current company revenues were drawn from at-risk gambling, asserting that it was monitoring this closely as part of the focus.

Strategies aimed at achieving this long-term ambition have been in effect since 2018 and have seen the operator re-launch its responsible gambling pages, increase communication of RG-led messaging by 70% and extend its RG strategy in the UK to include its sponsorship assets.

Kindred has committed to continuing these initiatives during 2020, while also targeting industry-wide collaboration on safer gambling through internal events and its annual sustainable gambling conference.

Within the field of RG research, Kindred has said it is currently sponsoring several research papers to improve industry knowledge together with sponsoring several students pursuing PhDs in the area.

This includes a PhD in artificial intelligence usage in anti-money laundering and two PhD students studying the relationship between social wellbeing and gambling at the University of Malta.

In addition, the group is also funding an RG- focused PhD being currently undertaken by Kindred head of responsible gambling Maris Catania.

According to Kindred, 97% of its 1,666 employees had completed training on responsible gambling within 25,755 hours of employee time.