Arizona introduces "Take Back the Game" campaign to promote the state’s self-exclusion program

The Arizona Department of Gaming has announced a new program that is intended to help reduce problem gambling in the state and raise awareness for the state’s self-exclusion program. Fittingly dubbed Take Back the Game, the campaign will focus on digital, TV, and radio advertisements to promote responsible gambling messages and highlight the availability of a state self-exclusion program designed specifically to protect consumers. The campaign highlights the problems that may be harming them, and what they have on their hands vis-à-vis self-exclusion options. At-risk players or those who are already experiencing harm can exclude themselves for periods of 1, 5, or 10 years. Arizona first launched a voluntary self-exclusion program in the early 2000s as a tool for residents to opt out of visiting tribal casinos if they decided gambling was negatively impacting their well-being and becoming problematic, explained Jackie Johnson, who is the Department Director. Over the years, however, the program has been expanded as the department seeks to better protect consumers locally and has added event wagering and fantasy sports of late. Once a payer is excluded, they are prevented from accessing the designated platforms for the entirety of their exclusion period. The department, for its part, ensures that the list of restricted operators is kept up-to-date and thus prevents vulnerable players from accessing websites that may further add to their hardship. The campaign is also accompanied by the Take Back the Game PSA, which is a thirty-second spot available in English and Spanish, with viewers educated on how to access and enroll in the self-exclusion program. While a self-exclusion program like this is an important step in the right direction, and it certainly helps, unregulated gambling websites do not comply with these restrictions and continue to target, sometimes specifically, vulnerable players.