My first contact with gambling industry and, in particular with Responsible Gambling, was 18 months ago when I was appointed Executive Director for “Joc Responsabil” Association.
As a new comer to industry, I was impressed to learn about the magnitude of Association’ programs and the quality and dedication of the its staff, about Sponsor involvement in supporting those whom, unfortunately, went beyond the entertainment limits and entered in addiction area, and, not the least, about the involvement of the founder members in maintaining the quality of existing programs and development of new ones.
For me it is for the first time that I am managing an NGO, so far I have had experience in food services industry (2 years) – running my own craft bakery which unfortunately did not withstand the pandemic, and over 20 years in telecom in various local, regional or global positions, both in sales and operations. It is interesting for me to change the paradigm: the NGO is also run according to the principles of an economic entity, only that the purpose of the activities is to run social programs and not to increase profits.
And, of course, some facts about the association: we have a team of 18 psychologists, which totals over 140 experiences and a colleague responsible for communication. We currently run 3 mature programs (one preventive: “Antrenat de Majorat”, dedicated to young people around the age of 18, and two dedicated to treating addiction: Responsible Gaming (through which we offer 5 free psychotherapy sessions) and 24/7 Counselling ( through which a psychologist is available non-stop for discussions with those who need emotional support in real time, even at 3 am). Starting with 2022 we are operationalizing a fourth program, also for addiction treatment, namely: Support Groups. In 2023 our proposal for a prevention youth from gambling & technology addiction as well as from bullying behaviour was sponsored by City Hall of 2nd District of Bucharest.
The Association has 3 founding members: Romslot, Romanian Bookmakers and Rombet and the scope of our programs could not be sustained without the support of sponsors: Superbet, Fortuna, Game World, Kindred Group (Unibet & Vlad Casino), Romanian Lottery, Maxbet, Betano, Admiral, Stanleybet, Las Vegas, Get’s Bet, Winboss, Winner, Win 2, Frankcasino, A.O.P.J.N.R. and Kambi.
