Southern European and Latin American gaming operator Codere has formed a new corporate social responsibility and responsible gambling strategy that aims to impose a standardised approach across all markets in which it is active.
The business said it carried out “a meticulous listening and analysis exercise” to better understand the perspectives and demands of different stakeholders across multiple jurisdictions.
This has then been used to collect and unify actions in each market into a single strategy, to minimise any negative impacts of its activities on society.
“Codere continues to evolve through dialogue with the market, responding to its demands based on its pillars of integrity and transparency,” Group chief executive Vincente di Loreto said. “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 factor their concerns into our processes,” he explained. “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.”
This will be managed by an institutional relations committee, headed by CEO di Loreto, will now be in charge of implementing and monitoring the plan.
It has launched with an number of broad areas of focus. First, it has committed to supporting “reasonable limitations” on gambling advertising, in order to protect the vulnerable and young people. This will be supported by its commitment to work with public and private bodies to promote regulations that help it prevent these at-risk groups from gambling.
These efforts could impact its retail estate, for which a review is to be launched, encompassing the location of venues, their size and the types of gambling they offer, and how more can be done to reduce problem gambling rates.
The operator will also implement and constantly monitor responsible gambling controls, with its programme structured around the pillars of prevention, awareness, detection and management of risky behaviour.
An action plan for player protection action plan, meanwhile, will see new training programmes launched across the business.
Finally, it will look to challenge misconceptions about gambling and improve the industry’s image, by promoting and circulating objective studies that reflect the sector’s “true image”.
“Our sector makes an important social contribution in terms of job creation and tax contributions to the public coffers,” Bernardo Chena, regional manger for Codere LatAm said.
“The data on the incidence of risky behaviours show that there is no generalised social problem in relation to the gambling, while the figures available show 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.”
Chena’s counterpart for Europe Alejandro Pascual added that the industry’s “overexposure” – a consequence of widespread advertising – had created a negative perception of gambling, though one without any scientific basis.
This, he said, was something Codere must work to address, by implementing best practice standards of player protection and talking about its broader sustainability efforts.
The new CSR strategy follows last week’s publication of the operator’s third quarter results, which revealed a 58.4% year-on-year decline in revenue.
During the period it saw its European operations recover, though with novel coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions still in place across much of Latin America, revenue from the continent fell sharply.
