Madrid, November 18, 2020.- Codere, a leading multinational company in the private gaming sector, has updated its Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Gaming Plan, with the aim of collecting and unifying actions in the different markets and promoting them through a strategic project, with which it aspires to improve its response to the main expectations and social concerns regarding the industry.
To this end, the company has carried out a meticulous listening and analysis exercise of the perspectives and demands of its different interest groups, to prioritize them and define positions and guidelines for action, in its desire to give an optimal response to the market and minimize any adverse effect that its activity may have on society.
“Codere continues to evolve in dialogue with the market, responding to its demands based on its pillars of integrity and transparency. Our goal as a company is to create value, sustainable and responsible. To do this, we must connect with the expectations of our audiences, and include their interest in the best possible way in our processes. With this CSR Plan, we are taking a further step in our responsible management with the aim of mitigating the main social concerns regarding the industry and being leaders in promoting responsible gaming”, says the CEO of Grupo Codere, Vicente Di Loreto.
Top Global Concerns Regarding the Gaming Industry
In order to detect the concerns regarding the gaming industry of its main stakeholders, and give them a global response, the company set up an Institutional Relations Committee headed by the CEO of Grupo Codere, and made up of the first level of management. This committee, which will now be in charge of the implementation and monitoring of the plan, has carried out an exhaustive analysis over the last year, detecting the following issues as priorities and establishing its position and action plan:
- Advertising regulation: a deficient regulation of commercial gambling communications can lead to overexposure that undermines the optimal protection of vulnerable groups - especially minors. The company defends reasonable limitations to the advertising of gambling based on objective criteria, whatever the nature of the operator (public or private).
- Planning of gambling venues: Codere defends a regulation that sorts out the installation of venues, their size and the types of games that can be offered –with the aim of rationally reducing the incidence of problematic gambling–, respecting the investments and operations already established.
- Control of access to the game: Codere is radical regarding the zero access of minors and self-prohibited, either through the face-to-face channel or online. To this end, in addition to an exhaustive compliance with current regulations, the company maintains a close collaboration with public and private organizations to promote regulations that allow the compliance with this objective.
- Management of vulnerable groups: the company undertakes to permanently analyze and implement responsible gambling measures, in order to guarantee the best protection for minors and users with problematic behavior.
The company's responsible gaming program is structured based on the pillars of prevention, awareness, detection and management of risky behavior.
- Image of the sector: misinformation about gambling activity encourages the spread of prejudices and beliefs not supported by data, which deteriorate the public image of the sector. Codere understands that it must give light to the sector and help to dignify it, by promoting and disseminating objective studies on the industry that reflect a faithful image of it.
“Our sector makes an important social contribution in terms of job creation and tax contributions to the public coffers. The data on the incidence of risky behaviors show that there is not a generalized social problem in relation to the activity; while the figures on demand reflect that there has been no growth in recent years, but rather a transformation of consumer preferences in some markets, as may be the case in recent years of a greater preference for sports betting or gambling online”, explains Bernardo Chena, regional manager of Codere Latam (excl. Mexico).
Alejandro Pascual, regional manager of Codere Europe, adds that, “despite the contribution of this sector, its overexposure due to both, an increased advertising activity and the public discourse, have contributed to generating a negative social perception, without a scientific base, that we must mitigate from the industry, continuing our work in the implementation of best responsible gaming practices and giving visibility to what we do and what we are; a highly regulated, responsible industry that attends to the entertainment needs of its customers ”.
Responsibility from within
The responsibility of the company is not limited to the external sphere, but extends to all sectors and groups involved. For this reason, in this CSR Plan, the concerns of the workers have also been prioritized, with the design of an internal action program based on the values of the organization, which will encompass all Codere members.
On the other hand, the group's collaborators will receive, as part of this Plan, a complete training program in responsible gaming, so that each one can contribute in the best way, from their responsibility, to the global objective of leading responsibility in the gaming industry.
