Accessing Responsible Gambling Information from Casinos: Two Secret Shopper Studies

Although responsible gambling (RG) programs are prevalent as they are legally required in many jurisdictions and are commonly found as part of corporate social responsibility policies, consumers report barriers to and limited employee knowledge about RG resources. Using a secret shopper methodology, two studies explored the accessibility of information about casino RG programs. The two studies sampled all seven casinos located within a southeast United States metropolitan area of 1.3 million people. Study 1 involved contacting each casino by telephone and requesting information from customer services representatives (n = 12), and Study 2 involved visiting casinos in person and requesting information from on-casino floor employees (n = 6), off-casino floor employees (n = 7), and security personnel (n = 7). The information requested through both modalities included (1) general information about RG, (2) the presence of RG resources both in-casino and online, and (3) directions to find RG resources in-casino and online. Study 1 indicated that the accessibility of RG information was unreliable via the telephone. Study 2 indicated that casino employees provided information about RG and in-casino materials but inconsistently provided information about online RG resources. These two studies suggested that casinos could not reliably provide comprehensive RG information. This finding suggests a greater need for governments to hold operators accountable for offering RG programs and for operators to better adhere to corporate social responsibility commitments.