"เกี่ยวกับตลาดการพนันที่ยั่งยืนมากขึ้น" - Šimon Vincze
Šimon Vincze, Head of Sustainable and Safe Gambling at Guru Casino, joins a series of recent interviews about the Affiliate Grand Slam.
Šimon Vincze explains that Guru Casino is an honest source of casino reviews and a database of online casinos. They provide more information than they encourage. They focus on visitor satisfaction, and they never push their visitors to gamble. He talks about some of their projects, including Casino Guru Academy, the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative, the Complaint Resolution Center, their educational content, and the Codex Fair Gambling – follow his story below.
What is the story of Guru Casino, and what is Guru Casino?
From a business perspective, Casino Guru is an affiliate site that has the largest database of online casinos and the bonuses they offer. We specialize in objective reviews that help users choose a trustworthy and trustworthy casino to play at.
However, we aim to do more by living up to our values and trying to change the gambling industry for the better through programs such as the Casino Guru Academy and the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative, as well as the Complaint Resolution Center. Educational content and fair gambling codes.
All these efforts have to do with the values that have been part of Guru Casino since its inception. The project was started by two good friends who worked as software developers and were tasked with designing and building software for an online casino. After getting to know the industry, So they decided to create a website about online casinos and use their skills to make it stand out.
They decide to use structured data as the foundation, which is an approach that allows us to work with data and consider it from an unbiased perspective. The first version was released in May 2016, and now, more than 5 years later, Guru Casino is one of the largest websites on the internet.
What is the role of Guru Casino in the online industry?
There are so many things we do, it’s hard to pinpoint a single role. But I can try to summarize the most important roles.
Casino Guru is a database of online casinos. This is because it is one of the largest sources of online gambling. So people come to our website to find information.
Important We are also a source of honest casino reviews. It follows a strict methodology and focuses on neutral data and parameters. We read the details so that the players don’t have to read them. These reviews help our visitors truly understand that any casino is reliable, fair, and safe, which sets us apart from other sites that offer casino reviews.
We aim to be the driving force behind the changes that make online gambling safer for everyone. Non-profit projects I lead, such as the Casino Guru Academy and the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative, are committed to doing just that. I truly believe that both players and businesses operating in the industry can benefit from a more sustainable gambling market. And I hope our efforts move things in the right direction.
What sets you apart from other affiliates and what makes your site unique?
I would say that our reporting approach instead of promoting it is one of the things that sets us apart. Our goal is to provide the best information to our visitors. So that they can make good decisions and have complete information when to play where. games to play, how to play, or whether they should gamble or not. We never push our visitors to gamble, but we do identify things as they really are. If we find that the casino or game is bad, we just say it. We believe it is very important in this industry.
Our systematic approach to virtually everything is another differentiator. We use a well-tailored process for our casino reviews and periodic updates. This helps us maintain our objectives. Reduce errors and produce repeatable results. As a result, users can rely on the information found on our site.
Also, I think our global presence is special. Guru Casino is available in 17 languages, which allows users from different parts of the world to access information about the casino in a language they understand. It is also available on our forums. Users can discuss issues in different languages with automatic translation.
What is your approach? What are your goals?
To summarize our approach in a few words. I would say that it is to do everything as best as possible and to be in line with the values that have been part of Casino Guru from the beginning. We believe that players should be able to enjoy online casino games fairly and safely. Being strict with casinos and pushing them to be better will benefit this goal. In our opinion,
We hope that this approach and our values will help us achieve our goal of becoming the most visited online casino site in the world. In addition to clear business interests, This also helps us help as many players as possible and influence their gambling decisions in a positive way, and will tell us that we are on the right track.
You settle your players’ complaints based on your fair gambling code. Can you tell us more about this and how to tweak player safety and fairness in the game?
The main concept of the Fair Gambling Code and the way we process complaints is fairness. We try to find the best and fairest way to deal with the problems that arise between the casino and the players. From our point of view Simply because the casino has something written into its terms and conditions. It does not mean that everything is correct.
For example, we have seen casinos state in their terms and conditions that they can decide to close a player’s account and keep all the money in the account at their sole discretion. Most players do not read the terms and conditions (which is why we read them when reviewing casinos). The casino may be eligible to use this rule, after all, the player has agreed to the terms and conditions upon registration. However, we will do our best to help players if the casino wants to apply this rule to them, as it is extremely unfair.
Of course, this is a harsh example, since I’m sure most people would agree that it’s unfair, but there are many problematic situations in which the answer is not clear. To deal with these. We have weekly meetings where we discuss these situations and try to figure out how best to deal with them. We do not only consider cases and rules from a legal perspective. But also from the point of view of fairness and user-friendliness.
For example, I participate in these meetings to help with complaints related to self-exclusion and responsible gambling.
Once we agree on the best way to proceed, we know how to handle similar complaints in the future. If necessary, we also explain our situation and position in our Fair Gambling Code. Not everything is explained yet, as things are still developing and taking time to write and translate. But we are working on a correction.
Your review is data-focused. It follows strict methods and is not for sale, can you tell us more about them? Does this help casinos be more fair to players?
Haha. I see you have read our ‘About Us’ page. I believe it is not certain. I think we as an industry need to hold casinos accountable for their actions. If the casino does not treat players fairly, I think we need to point them out and push them better, and that’s what we’re trying to do with our reviews.
Our review methodology is designed to provide complete impartiality in our reviews and ratings. They strictly adhere to the information inserted into our system by the casino monitoring team. We went to the casino’s website. Look for complaints about this. All of this is used to calculate the casino’s reputation rating, which basically explains the likelihood that players (who play in good faith and without malicious intent) will receive their money without any problems.
All this means that the casino needs to change something to get a better score from us. If they don’t like bad reviews, They can remove unfair rules that have given them bad scores, or they can resolve situations with players who have been abused by them and file complaints, and hundreds of casinos have done so over the years.
At Guru Casino, you have a complaint resolution center. How did it get started and what was the idea behind the center? How big is it?
Complaints have always been part of our investigation methodology. At first, we only searched the internet and other gambling sites to complain about the casino we were reviewing. We also received emails with complaints from players who had been abused long before we launched the Complaint Resolution Center.
Considering the complaints we see being handled by other websites and other websites we receive in our inbox. We realized that we could help players by launching our own complaint center and doing better than others by looking at the issues in terms of fairness and user-friendliness. Programming, and launching
The number of complaints we receive each month has steadily increased since then. In 2021, we recorded 5,532 new complaints on our website, of which 1,631 have been resolved, with all disputed amounts returned to players of $4,243,557.
Right now, I’m not sure about the number of other websites and forums that help players with casino complaints, but I think we are definitely one of the big. If not the biggest.
You produce educational videos to give players a chance to learn and help prevent problems. Tell us more about it.
Yes, we do. We create educational videos about gambling and publish them on our YouTube channel, as well as on our website. There is a lot of gambling video content on the internet, but unfortunately I would say that most of them do not do a good job in terms of responsible gambling. Just search for the best slot strategies, and the many videos that you will see will try to tell you that you can win slots systematically, and of course this is not true.
And I’m not talking about this example by chance. now We are summarizing our video on slot strategies, which corresponds to an article on our website on the same topic. We made it clear that these strategies will not help you beat the casino, but they can help you play slots more efficiently and lose less in the long run. At least from a mathematical point of view. We are doing our best to spread awareness of the fact that gambling should be seen as entertainment with a certain cost, not a way to make money.
Personally, I think this puts us at a slight disadvantage, as people tend to click on stunt content that promises huge wins, but I also think our approach is correct. If we help at least some people understand that things really work and that gambling is not a way to make money, it will be worth it.
And I’m sure our video has definitely helped at least some people who are searching for information about gambling. Our channel now has over 900 subscribers, and our videos are getting more views every month. I expect these numbers to start growing faster as we have more video content.
The Casino Guru website is available in 17 languages and has run a multilingual forum. What value does this provide?
When we design our forum, We spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to do it, and since all of Casino Guru’s languages are available, we decided to use automatic translation that allows players to communicate smoothly even if they don’t speak the same language.
And I think this has a lot of benefits. Especially for non-English speakers. If you think about it, it is quite easy to find several large gambling forums on the Internet. However, those who do not speak English may find it difficult to find active forums to discuss gambling with other players in a language they understand. That’s what our forum excels at. It breaks down language barriers and gathers players from all over the world.
And I think that having these accessible communication channels is very important for many players. In addition to the usual things that casino players like to talk about, such as their favorite slots and the biggest wins. They also have the opportunity to discuss their problems with the casino and share their stories and experiences with gambling, as well as problems related to problem gambling.
Your database contains more than 3,000 casino sites, how do you keep all this information up to date?
And yes, keeping all the data up to date is a huge challenge, but we’re doing our best. first We periodically check the casinos in our database and check them again more or less, which means that we check all the information we have about the casino and make sure it matches the facts. Fixed what has changed since we last checked the casino.
besides Many casinos contact us themselves whenever there is a major change, such as a new language version. Whenever we find something new, we add it to the review, but a lot of regular review updates happen regardless of that.
How do you manage relationships with multi-place entrepreneurs?
I’m sure there’s a lot of work behind the scenes considering the size of our database and global reach. But I have to admit that I personally don’t look far into this business space. We have a team that communicates with entrepreneurs. Discuss the terms of cooperation and take care of finances.
This team is completely separate from our casino review team. which collects information about casino sites and inserts them into our database. This information will be used to calculate our reputation score and generate our reviews.
We have intentionally set it up so that our reviews and ratings remain completely neutral and not influenced by the financial aspects of any casino partnership.
How can you help make online gambling safer? Your goal is to create a global system of self-exclusion. Can you tell us more about this?
Many of our activities involve helping to make online gambling safer. I’ve already mentioned these, including an unbiased review of the Codex Fair Gambling. Pushing for Better Casinos, Casino Guru Academy and Global Self-Exclusion Initiative
When dealing with player complaints and other problems that exist in the gambling industry. We noticed that the current self-exclusion options This is mostly limited to self-exclusion in a single casino and national self-exclusion schemes. It does not effectively prevent gambling risks and addictions from the dangers of further gambling.
We have seen many stories of gamblers who used national systems such as GAMSTOP in an attempt to block access to gambling, but later started gambling again with foreign operators. The problem with systems like GAMSTOP is that they are limited to a single jurisdiction. While players can find casinos from other countries that don’t know about self-exclusion and are willing to let them play.
Realizing that we couldn’t solve this problem on our own, we decided to launch the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative to raise awareness of the problem and look for partners who could join the Initiative and help make our vision a reality.
Have you been to SiGMA? Europe, Asia or America – Which of the three exhibitions are you likely to book in your diary in 2022?
I attended SiGMA Europe last year in Malta. This was my first time on this small island, and I was fascinated by the life and gambling that this island was able to live on throughout the event. I would definitely like to come to Malta again this year, but I am also interested in the African and Asian regions. However, my participation will depend on the priorities of my collaborative projects, especially the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative.
Tell us a little about yourself. After all, Business must be done by people, not just companies! Hobbies, favorite books, favorite quotes, or whether you would like to play games yourself, etc.
I am interested in eSports because I grew up playing video games and this space is very close to me. I don’t play casino games, but I place bets every now and then. But luckily I can do it from time to time.
In addition to work, I spend most of my time with my family or playing sports. I’m a big fan of Stoic’s philosophy, and now I’m improving my communication skills.
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SiGMA Asia 2022
After an exciting series of conferences, which is the week of Malta 2021, the SiGMA Group plans to storm the world with the golden spires of Kiev and the snow-capped city of Toronto as the center of global captivity. The best and brightest iGaming come together Our next expo takes us to the modern metropolis of the UAE for three days of networking. Discussion and Celebration Stay up to date with the latest and greatest news via SiGMA News.
