Hard Rock International’s new program PlayersEdge aims to educate users about the risks of gambling and instill positive gambling habits in them. It also trains hotel staff in recognizing compulsive gambling and helping gamblers who display this trait.
PlayersEdge will be implemented across all Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming casinos. It is designed to work with all types of gamblers, young, new, old, seasoned, etc.
PlayersEdge adopts a friendly tone of a fellow gambler to inform the user of his behavior. For compulsive gamblers, PlayersEdge offers voluntary self-exclusion as professional counseling. self-exclusion is a powerful tool where a particular game is not visible to the user. It works on the principle out of sight means out of mind.
Vice President of Global Social Responsibility at Hard Rock International, Paul Pellizzari, said,
We built PlayersEdge by listening to gamblers. We want to communicate the right information by appealing to how they actually think and behave in casinos.
He explained that PlayersEdge would overtime create profiles of individual users and evaluate their gambling experience to tailor its messages to an individual gambler’s needs with a focus on timely intervention to stop problems from growing.
PlayersEdge has been built using independent R&D as well as expert opinions. It uses print, digital, web, social, and live activations that keep users up-to-date.
Hard Rock wants gamblers to talk to their friends, family about their gambling habits to take their feedback on whether they are going overboard or are neglecting their work and have turned into compulsive gamblers. It seeks to involve gambler’s family members to help gamblers make better, more informed choices and not just fall into an abyss.
PlayersEdge is built on the segmentation strategy, where it adopts different strategies to target consumers, staff, and supervisors regarding compulsive and irresponsible gambling.
About 15,000 employees who come face-to-face with guests will be put through an online training course called “Frontline Fundamentals,” in which they will learn to interpret player behavior and how to respond to it. Their responses will progressively escalate if they feel that the player is not gambling responsibly. Thus, if a player gets too caught up in making up his losses, the staff can persuade him to try his luck again some other time.
Supervisors and managers will go through the “Supervisor Support” classroom module, which will employ role-playing and real-life scenarios for interacting and comforting distressed gamblers. Inputs were taken from experts from the Florida Council for Compulsive Gambling and trained clinicians, for designing this program. It will give a helping hand to distressed gamblers and prevent them from taking any drastic step which may harm themselves or others.
Through PlayersEdge, Hard Rock is working to make gamblers more aware of themselves and their habits to get better control over themselves. If customers don’t go broke and learn to gamble responsibly, they can return every year to try their luck again. It also ensures a loyal customer base for Hard Rock.
Hard Rock International operates in over 262 locations in 76 countries and manages Hotels, Casinos, Rock Shops, and Cafes. Last year it won the Top Employer for Women and Land Operator of the Year at the Global Gaming Awards.
