ICE: Blink And You’ll Miss It – The Importance of Staying Open

As I’m sure many of the people reading this post will have, I spent last week marching the floors of the ICE conference, talking to everyone I could about BetBlocker, responsible gambling, the upcoming white paper and ADR.

Over the 3 days of the conference, I had the opportunity to talk to some truly interesting people and initiate dialogues that will hopefully grow into bigger cooperations that can improve the support that we can offer players in a variety of different ways.

It was genuinely great to meet some of the unsung stars of the sector who are pushing to build and improve the support structures that ensure the industry functions in a socially conscientious fashion. From other non-profits like Keith Scott Whyte at the NCPG, to regulatory bodies like Jordan Apap from the MGA, operators like László Pados at Greentube and even affiliates like Casino.Guru’s head of player complaints Matej Novota and Sustainable Gambling Lead ?imon Vincze . These are the people working to make the industry better and I very much valued the opportunity to talk to each of them.

But none of these conversations were the most meaningful of last week for me. That title goes to an interaction that I neither planned nor expected. With someone whose name I don’t know and that I’m never likely to encounter again.

I’m the first to admit that I’m not the most socially comfortable of people and while I find the conference experience useful, I also find them both physically and emotionally exhausting.

It was Thursday afternoon. The conference was now over for me. And I was burnt out. I was on the underground heading back to King’s Cross to catch my train home. I’m sitting with my headphones on, listening to some music and zoning out a little.

About a minute or two before the train pulls into King’s Cross, the young man who has been sitting across from me for some time signals that he wants to say something. I take my headphones down and he points at my sweatshirt, asking what the logo on my top is. It’s my BetBlocker hoodie and I quickly tell him that it’s a charity that helps people stop gambling. He tells me that one of his friends has lost a massive amount of money gambling and asks if I think BetBlocker could help. The train pulls into King’s Cross and both of us move to disembark. I quickly say “yes” and give him a business card, telling him that he or his friend should contact me directly if they have any problems.

This unexpected interaction was easily the most powerful of the week. The work I do for BetBlocker as a Trustee is more broadly focused on securing funding and coordinating the development of the tool. Long gone are the days when I used to deal with the user support myself. And that being the case, I can be a little divorced from the real-world impact of the service at times. Coming face-to-face with someone who wants information about the service we offer so that they can support one of the important people in their life is a welcome and moving reminder of why I founded BetBlocker in the first place. To help people.

More than this though, this interaction has reminded me of the importance of staying open. As mentioned above, I’m not the most socially comfortable of people. Left to myself, I tend to find ways to socially signal that I want to be left alone. Great big headphones do that job perfectly. I sometimes wear them in the supermarket even when I don’t have any music playing!

But what if I’d been a little more open and available on that train? The young gent in question had been sitting across from me for several stops. Perhaps he would have spoken to me earlier and I could have given more detail about the service we offer before we went our separate ways. Perhaps I could have had a bigger opportunity to help someone.

So looking to the future, while I’m not going to make commitments that I won’t hold to, I am going to try and make myself more accessible. More available to those unexpected interactions. A better ambassador for the brand and for myself.