Oregon Lottery adds ‘responsible gambling’ training for retailers
Beginning this month, the Oregon Lottery is launching “Responsible Gambling & You,” an online training program for lottery retailers and their employees, the agency said Tuesday.
“This training is one facet of the Lottery’s far-reaching responsible gambling program and illustrates our commitment to working at every level of the business to mitigate harm that can arise from gambling,” noted Lottery Commission Chair Mardilyn Saathoff.
The lottery created the training to enable video lottery retailer staff to recognize and take advantage of opportunities to direct people to resources and help related to gambling.
“Promoting responsible gambling practices and connecting people to help when needed is as integral to our mission as maximizing revenue,” said Acting Lottery Director Barry Pack. “We are proud to partner with our retailers to bring this awareness to their employees.”
Employees from 42 Dotty’s locations are the first to pilot the training program that helps front line staff recognize opportunities to provide information on gambling and resources for problem gamblers in the context of providing excellent customer service.
“We are delighted to partner with the Oregon Lottery to promote responsible gaming,” said Dotty’s owner Dan Fischer, President of Oregon Services Inc., which operates the popular Dotty’s chain of restaurants.
“The overwhelming number of our customers play the Lottery for entertainment and fun,” Fischer said. “So we share with the Oregon Lottery a strong commitment to delivering the best possible experience for our customers and we applaud the lottery for developing this new training program that will enable our employees to recognize and address problem gaming situations as they may arise,”
Dotty’s is supplying employees with electronic tablets to take the interactive course. Employees can take the training on a desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile device.
The Oregon Lottery worked with Janine Robinson, an international problem-gambling expert, to design training that teaches front line retailer staff how to provide accurate information about lottery games, such as the odds of winning and how the games work and resources related to responsible gambling and problem gambling.
The Lottery plans to roll out this training to all its video lottery retailers during the summer months.
“Providing this training to customer service staff is an important step in promoting awareness of problem gambling and the importance of responsible gambling,” said Oregon Council on Problem Gambling Executive Director Tom Moore.
“The lottery has worked closely with its council partners on this project, and we congratulate the lottery and its retailers for bringing this important information to retailer staff.” Moore added.
