00:00Let's close it out with a discussion that really helps responsible gaming, especially with this company called BetBlocker that allows people who simply don't want access to ads and be able to go online and bet.
00:13Maybe it's something to do with the individual personally, a new partnership involved there.
00:18And I just wonder, Sam, if this is the wave of the future, too, because I know that there are a lot of folks out there who may have had experiences in the past and have just decided that betting is not for them.
00:27Yeah, definitely. So, Craig, I would say this is where the industry is trending.
00:31You've got BetBlocker, which is a free voluntary voluntary gambling blocking service, which launched in the United Kingdom in 2019.
00:39They block access to over one hundred and eighteen thousand gambling sites and over fifteen hundred apps.
00:45Essentially, when you want to block yourself off or, you know, you think you have a problem or you're overdoing it, you can either schedule a cooling off period where you can access these sites later on.
00:55You can schedule a period of the year, maybe football season where you know you're going to go overboard or you can just indefinitely block yourself, not just from one app like a DraftKings or a FanDuel, but from all these sites out there, as well as a lot of offshore and unregulated sites, which is very important because, you know, when people don't have access to the legal market, they usually have access to the unregulated market.
01:16So yesterday they announced a partnership with ROGA, which is the Responsible Online Gaming Association.
01:22We've talked about a couple of times on the show.
01:24It's this new group that's being pushed by the top eight U.S. sports books.
01:29I think they represent about 90 percent of the market that they've created to kind of pool resources together to combat problem gambling as a unit, as an industry, as opposed to just kind of on their own, which is pretty important because it's hard enough to get one kind of company on the same page with itself.
01:45So getting eight on the same page is a really big development in this space as well.
01:50The fact that they've partnered with BetBlocker, which kind of does the technology they've been talking about for them.
01:55They've talked about having one sort of online clearinghouse where if you're blocked from one sports book, you can't go to another.
02:01They've likened it to getting kicked out of a bar if you've had too much to drink.
02:04That means you can't go and walk into another bar and cause a problem there.
02:08So, you know, it's a small stepping stone.
02:10I think it's kind of hard to get these technological, a lot harder to get these things done than you would think, especially when you have all these companies coming together.
02:19But, you know, them partnering with a company that's been doing it for years in the U.K., I think is really important.
02:24And hopefully it builds on more progress here when we talk about responsible gaming, when we talk about problem gambling, gambling and what the industry can do to combat a problem that sometimes people see it benefiting from.
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