9. INTERACTION WITH OUR CUSTOMERS AND CONCERNED PERSONS
As the provider of services and products that can cause harm, we take a number of steps that seek to minimise the risk of harm to our customers.This involves not encouraging customers to engage in risky betting behaviour and seeking to identify when customers are at risk of, or experiencing, harm and then taking appropriate action. We will ensure our employees, and our TAB Venues and their staff, are equipped with the support, knowledge and skills needed to identify when a customer is at risk and how to intervene appropriately.
9.1 RETAIL INTERACTIONS
TAB Venue staff are regularly trained to identify behaviours or respond to remarks that may indicate you are having difficulty managing your gambling or suffering from gambling harm. These may include: Loss of control
- gambling right through normal meal times;
- finding it difficult to stop gambling at closing time;
- starts gambling when the venue opens or only stopping when the venue is closing;
- staying on to continue gambling even when friends have left; or
- making remarks to us that may indicate serious overspending.
Money seeking
- borrowing money to fund gambling;
- leaving a venue to find money to continue gambling;
- continuing to bet with winnings rather than collecting winnings;
- has run out of all money when leaving the venue; or
- showing concern to us about losses and payouts.
Intensity and duration
- gambling for long periods without a proper break;
- significant increase in spending pattern;
- Gambling on most days that the venue is open;
- gambling without reacting to what is going on in the venue; or
- telling us you need a break from gambling.
Emotional responses
- displaying signs of distress including crying;
- displaying signs of anger including swearing, becoming angry with staff; or
- telling us that you feel guilty or remorseful for gambling.
Social behaviour
- avoids contact or conversations with others;
- avoids interacting with staff;
- decline or changes in personal grooming and appearance; or
- repeatedly commenting to us that you are experiencing family problems.
Customers may also directly tell staff that they are experiencing gambling harm. How we help you When TAB Venue staff identify customers with these behaviours or you approach a TAB Venue staff member asking about or indicating the need for assistance, our staff members will assess the customer’s circumstances by speaking directly with the customer and respond by taking a range of actions:
- encouraging you to take a break from gambling by leaving the TAB service area participating in other venue activities or having a refreshment or lunch break;
- encouraging you to take a break from gambling by leaving the TAB Venue, or moving to another section of the venue that is away from the TAB service area;
- providing you with information on our Safer Gambling tools and services, including pre-commitment limits;
- providing you with information on how to access gambling support services and facilitate access to these services if required; and
- providing you with information about TABCare (our retail self-exclusion program in Victoria).
TAB Venue staff will respond and support you in a private, sensitive, confidential and appropriate manner, however they are not trained to provide counselling. TAB Venue staff will interact with you in a manner that respects your privacy, making sure other customers cannot overhear any conversation. If TAB Venue staff believe you are displaying signs of distress, they are required to refuse to serve you, including placing or paying out your bets.TAB Venues and their staff must not:
- encourage or affirm customer superstitions about gambling;
- encourage excessive gambling or provide incentives to continue gambling;
- encourage or induce a person from gambling intensively or for long periods without a break;
- encourage or induce customers to withdraw funds from a cash facility for the purposes of gambling;
- encourage or induce a person to continue to place bets, when the customer is showing one or more behavioural indicators associated with gambling harm;
- discourage a person from leaving the venue in order to stop gambling; and
- discourage a person from seeking help from a gambling support service.
We regularly assess and maintain the information publicly available on the TAB Website and the TAB Safer Gambling Website, to ensure the information and support needed by our customers, their families, community or other persons is up-to-date and accessible.
We actively monitor your account deposit and betting behaviours using systems and tools to identify customers at risk of gambling harm. Examples of behaviours that may indicate gambling harm are:
- changes in deposit behaviours – frequency, amount, escalating sums of money deposited;
- changes in betting behaviours – average bet size, frequency, number of bets;
- changes in gambling patterns, e.g. betting on different events, betting at different times;
- gambling for extended periods of time;
- admitting being drunk or under the influence of drugs;
- showing signs of distress such as crying or anger;
- expressing guilt or remorse for gambling;
- making remarks that may indicate serious overspending;
- repeatedly commenting about family problems;
- showing concern about losses and payouts;
- indicating they need a break from gambling;
- frequently closing and re-opening their account; and
- disclosing that they are experiencing gambling harm.
Our Safer Gambling Team has a range of interventions in place for when these behaviours are identified. How the Safer Gambling Team intervenes is specific to your behaviour and circumstances. Steps that the team may take include:
- sending you an email and/or SMS with information about our safer gambling tools including self-exclusion;
- sending you an email and/or SMS with information about available gambling support services;
- reviewing your account to see if we need to take further action. This includes looking at previous interactions, betting activity, deposit activity, withdrawal activity and whether you have previously used any of our safer gambling tools;
- calling you - what the call covers will be specific to you and will include a discussion about what we’ve observed including potential indicators of gambling harm, understanding your individual circumstances and providing information about safer gambling tools including pre-commitment deposit limits, self-exclusion, and gambling support services;
- where we cannot contact you for a safer gambling call, we will proactively freeze your accounts; and
- proactively closing your accounts.
If you advise us that you are experiencing severe gambling harm, we will immediately close your account. When we close your account, our systems will prevent you from opening future accounts using the same details. We also check for where accounts are opened using similar details as customers who have had their accounts closed.We train our staff who interact directly with our customers how to identify customer behaviours that indicate gambling harm. Where these indicators are identified, our staff are trained how to appropriately manage the customer and escalate the matter to our Safer Gambling Team. Our Safer Gambling Team can be contacted by our customers, their families, their community or any other person:
We regularly assess and maintain the information on the TAB Website and the TAB App, to ensure the information and support you need is up-to-date and accessible.
9.3 WHO TO APPROACH IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT SOMEONE
We encourage those who have a concern about a family member or friend’s gambling to contacts us through:
- our Safer Gambling Team on:
- our Customer Service Centre on 131 802; or
- at any of our TAB Venues.
Our Safer Gambling Team will advise you of how they can assist and give you information about support services available.
10. INTERACTION WITH STAFF
We acknowledge that people who work in the gambling industry can be at heightened risk of gambling harm. We also understand that gambling at work can create integrity risks for the employee and for our business. For these reasons, we have policies on employee gambling, which must be complied with by all employees, our TAB Venues and their staff.
10.1 EMPLOYEE GAMBLING POLICY
All employees or contractors must comply with our Employee Gambling Policy. This is a strict requirement for our employees and contractors. Non-compliance is a serious breach and may mean that an employee is disciplined or has their employment terminated, or a contractor has their contract terminated. The policy places a range of restrictions on team members participating or otherwise engaging in wagering activities operated by Tabcorp.
10.2 VICTORIAN VENUES GAMBLING POLICY
TAB agencies: All staff including agents and their staff are prohibited from gambling at any time at the agency where they are employed or anywhere whilst on duty, including rostered, paid and unpaid breaks. TAB licensed venues: All licensees of TAB Venues are only permitted to gamble at their venue via a digital channel, and only when off duty. TAB licensed venue staff: All staff are prohibited from gambling at any location while on duty, including rostered, paid and unpaid breaks. Licensed venues owned and operated independently of us may place additional restrictions on their employees gambling at their venue.
10.3 PROVIDING INFORMATION AND ASSISTANCE TO STAFF
Where an employee, including a venue staff member is exhibiting or displaying observable signs of gambling harm, or behaviour indicating difficulties managing their gambling, we will provide information on:
- Safer Gambling tools and services;
- how to access gambling support services and facilitate access to such services if required; and
- TABCare.
We will support our staff in a private, sensitive, confidential and appropriate manner. We will interact with staff in a manner that respects the staff member’s right to privacy, for example taking steps to make sure any conversations are sensitively handled.11. SAFER GAMBLING TRAININGIn order to ensure our employees deliver our products and services in a safer manner and can identify when a customer may be experiencing gambling harm, we require all employees, TAB Venues and their staff to undertake mandatory compliance training. For all corporate staff – Safer Gambling Training when they start their employment and as part of our annual mandatory compliance training program. For corporate staff that interact directly with customers – Additional specialist Safer Gambling training, which includes:
- how to identify potential indicators of gambling harm;
- how to intervene and address indicators of gambling harm that have been identified, including providing information on our safer gambling tools and services, providing information about our online and retail self-exclusion programs, providing information about gambling help services and proactively suspending or closing an account; and
- how to escalate gambling harm concerns to the Safer Gambling Team.
For TAB Venue staff – Safer Gambling training when they start their TAB duties and as part of mandatory annual compliance training. This training includes:
- how to identify potential indicators of gambling harm in retail customers;
- how to intervene and address indicators of gambling harm that have been identified, including providing information on our safer gambling tools and services, providing information about our online and retail self-exclusion programs and providing information about gambling help services;
- the requirements regarding intoxication and prohibition of minors betting; and
- how to escalate any concerns to TAB.
TAB Venues are provided with regular reminders of their safer gambling obligations, along with safer gambling manuals.
12. GAMBLING SUPPORT SERVICES
12.1 HOW WE INTERACT WITH THE SERVICES
In line with our commitment to safer gambling and to enhance our understanding of gambling harm, we liaise with a range of gambling related support services and stakeholders at least once every 3 months. These organisations may include Lifeline, Gambler’s Help, Gamble Aware, Relationships Australia, Financial Counselling Australia and other support service providers.We liaise with gambling-related support services and stakeholders through:
- informal and ongoing telephone and email contact to seek their advice and feedback including e.g., in reference to our safer gambling improvement initiatives, our self-exclusion programs and the Code;
- formal telephone and email contact to seek feedback regarding the effectiveness of the Code as part of our regular review of the Code; and
- attendance at the annual National Association for Gambling Studies Conference.
We also attend, present and liaise at gambling harm counselling forums across Victoria throughout the year where possible. We actively promote Victorian Gambling Harm Awareness week in our TAB Venues and other digital content.
12.2 AVAILABLE GAMBLING SUPPORT SERVICES
We provide customers identified as requiring support with information about the below gambling support services. Customers, their families, their community, or any other person can reach out to these services.
We also offer referrals to a range of independent support services.If you contact one of these services, they can provide you with free information, advice, and support. They can also direct you to the best service provider for your specific circumstances.
13. MINORS