GeoComply announced a $200,000 donation to Conscious Gaming to help fund the non-profit as it continues to build scale to tackle the responsible gaming challenges faced by the iGaming industry in the U.S. through the accelerated deployment of PlayPause, a first-of-its-kind national self-exclusion tool.

“We have been very fortunate at GeoComply to have a front seat to the growth of the iGaming industry across the United States over the past decade,” said GeoComply Chairman and Co-Founder Anna Sainsbury. “We recognize with this growth comes challenges and GeoComply is proud to commit funding to Conscious Gaming to help the industry fulfill its responsibilities and obligations to responsible gaming and a safe environment for players.”

GeoComply has set up Conscious Gaming as an independent nonprofit to align all industry stakeholders’ responsible gaming needs and create a standardized baseline to share nationally. Conscious Gaming endeavors to unite the industry in order to solve the challenges created by the patchwork of state-by-state requirements in the United States.

With the initial $200,000 donation, Conscious Gaming will ramp up the development, industry outreach and deployment efforts around PlayPause. PlayPause is an innovative tool created to modernize and strengthen the U.S. gaming industry’s responsible gaming programs.

“The interest and momentum for PlayPause from operators and regulators since the launch has been tremendous,” said Seth Palansky, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility & Communications at Conscious Gaming. “This donation from GeoComply will help us scale our efforts and help drive the adoption of PlayPause throughout the U.S. iGaming industry in 2021.”

PlayPause is the first-of-its-kind national self-exclusion tool adopted by the industry. Already, Entain and BetMGM have come aboard as the first operators in the industry to commit to utilizing the PlayPause tool, while the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board became the first state regulator to deploy it.

The PlayPause solution will:

• Expand the protective self-exclusion bubble so that as players move from state to state, the protection that they have asked for, can also move with them.
• Enable consumers to self-exclude across multiple states to prevent the incidence of simply crossing a state line and continuing to gamble.
• Empower operators to strengthen responsible gaming programs – and make more data-driven decisions – with greater insights into players that have already self-excluded in one state but need to be recognized and protected if/when they seek to play in another jurisdiction.
• Streamline the administrative burden and eliminate the silos associated with maintaining numerous separate state-operated self-exclusion databases.

Today’s funding announcement contributes greatly to Conscious Gaming’s ability to unite the industry to achieve shared responsible gaming goals and protect consumers. By utilizing PlayPause, industry leaders can significantly streamline responsible gaming compliance obligations by managing state-to-state self-exclusion through one single integration point.