What is Responsible Gaming: Definitions, Limits, and New Perspectives

The term Responsible Gaming originated internationally in the 1990s to refer to a set of principles, tools, and practices aimed at reducing the potential harm associated with gambling for monetary prizes, while maintaining it as a legal, regulated, and accessible activity. This approach is based on the idea that gambling should remain a form of entertainment, provided it is practiced within limits considered "healthy" from an economic, psychological, and relational perspective.

According to the definition also promoted by the World Health Organization, Responsible Gaming presupposes that each individual can play autonomously, consciously, and informedly, maintaining control over their behavior and preventing the emergence of problematic situations. In other words, the ideal player is one who knows when to stop, is aware of the risks, respects their limits, and acts with complete clarity.

In Italy, this vision has been embraced and relaunched by the Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM), which has made it a guiding principle for regulating the sector. Responsible Gaming, in this context, translates into a set of measures that include: the protection of vulnerable individuals, the prevention of excess, transparency of the offering, risk information, and the fight against illegal gambling.

The underlying idea is to balance two needs: on the one hand, the individual right to entertainment; on the other, the need to protect people's economic and psychological health, especially in cases where gambling can take on compulsive traits or lose its recreational nature. Freedom of choice remains a fundamental value, but requires a regulated ecosystem capable of intervening when signs of risk emerge.

Ensuring a safe and sustainable gaming experience therefore means preventing problematic behaviors by offering concrete tools: from spending and time limits to self-exclusion, to risk education and access to specialized support networks. It's not just about regulation, but about promoting a culture that recognizes the complexity of the gaming experience and protects it responsibly.

The Traditional Model of Responsible Gaming: Principles and Critical Issues

In its traditional formulation, the concept of Responsible Gaming is based on the idea that proper behavior should be attributed to the individual. The "ideal" player is one who knows how to self-regulate: informed, aware of the risks, and capable of setting and respecting time, spending, and frequency limits. To support this model, operators are required to offer appropriate tools—such as customizable limits, warning messages, and self-exclusion options—so that players can exercise their freedom of choice in a conscious, non-compulsive manner.

This vision is based on several fundamental principles:

·       risk awareness, meaning the obligation to inform the player about how the game works and the true probability of winning;

·       individual control, made possible by effective and easily accessible self-limitation tools;

·       freedom of choice, understood as the ability to gamble voluntarily, without pressure or addiction;

·       protection of vulnerable individuals, with particular attention to minors, vulnerable individuals, or individuals in difficult circumstances.

While this approach is a necessary condition for making gambling a legitimate and regular activity, it currently has clear limitations. In a context profoundly transformed by technology, increased personalization, and the persuasive logic of digital platforms, relying solely on individual behavior for prevention risks being insufficient.

For this reason, the concept of Responsible Gaming requires a cultural and strategic overhaul. It's no longer enough to address individual behavior: we need a systemic vision that encompasses the entire gaming ecosystem—from regulators to operators, from product design to communication strategies—to truly build safe, sustainable, and protective gaming environments.

The Limits of Individual Responsibility in Gaming

The concept of Responsible Gaming, as it is generally understood, places the individual player's responsibility to self-monitor, educate themselves, set limits, and recognize risk signals. It is an individual-centered vision, which presupposes clarity, rationality, and the ability to make choices, even in moments of emotional fragility or vulnerability. The problem is that, by doing so, the burden of risk is shifted entirely onto the player, implicitly absolving the context around them.

In this framework, the gaming environment—that is, the way a website, app, interface, bonus, or communication is designed—is treated as neutral, when in reality it can profoundly influence behavior. Talking only about individual responsibility often avoids systemic reflection: on what those who design, promote, regulate, or communicate gaming can and should do.

This is where the message "play responsibly" risks becoming rhetorical, if not an alibi. It often becomes a convenient formula: a linguistic shield that protects the entire system from a broader assumption of responsibility. Responsibility is not limited to a single sentence: it requires context, tools, ethics, and collective commitment.

The culture of responsible gaming in Italy today and what do Italians mean by responsible gaming?

The FAIR Foundation presented a study on responsible gaming at the EASG event, the 14th European Conference on Gambling Studies. This study, titled "The culture of responsible gaming in Italy - FAIR Foundation," was conducted with the Eumetra Research Institute on a sample of 2,000 players and non-players representative of the Italian population. It arose from the need to understand the current gaps in these issues and how, working together with operators, institutions, and other stakeholders in the sector, we can fill them to place responsible gaming at the center of changes in the sector. This is a fundamental starting point.

Source: The Culture of Responsible Gaming in Italy - FAIR Foundation

This research shows that most players identify Responsible Gaming as a controlled, safe, and protected form of gaming. Non-players, however, have a very different view, even calling it a useless concept.

The FAIR Foundation's Definition of Responsible Gaming

The FAIR Foundation proposes a new paradigm of Responsible Gaming, which transcends individual logic to embrace systemic, effective, and shared protection, based on risk prevention and the centrality of the individual.

Responsible Gaming is an integrated approach to gambling that aims to promote a culture of safety, awareness, and protection. It is based on regulatory compliance, the adoption of player protection and support tools, data analysis, and transparent communication. The goal is to offer a sustainable gaming experience, preventing problematic behaviors not only when they arise, but above all by acting early through education, ethical gaming experience design, intelligent use of data, and support for the most vulnerable.

The Perspectives: Moving Beyond "Responsible Gaming"

Today, in many countries, the logic of responsible gaming, understood as a simple individual duty, is being moved beyond. In the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Norway, and Canada, there is increasing discussion of "player protection," "harm reduction," and "duty of care": concepts that shift the focus from individual responsibility to systemic responsibility. This means building gaming environments that actively reduce risks, using technology not only to incentivize consumption but also to prevent dysfunctional behaviors in real time, thanks to data analysis, predictive signals, and behavioral design.

A window of opportunity is now opening in Italy too. The new online gaming law and the growing focus on protection could mark a turning point. But it takes the cultural courage to move beyond the rhetoric of "play responsibly" and build a new language, based on awareness, prevention, and shared responsibility between institutions, operators, and civil society.

The FAIR Foundation promotes this evolution: we believe that true protection isn't about telling players what to do, but about designing a system where choosing good, not risk, becomes natural.

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