The one guarantee in the gambling landscape is that there will continue to be challenges thrown our way and we as an industry, must adapt and change to stay relevant.

The level of competition for the leisure market dollar has never been higher – with venues not only competing against their rival clubs and pubs, but also the local shopping centre who is actively targeting casual dining customers, the cinema who has been starved of patronage, local cafes and bars providing new entertainment options, and now – the home.

The level of in-home entertainment and technology advancement means that our customers can play pokies on their mobile device, smoke and drink where they like, wear whatever they like and stream whatever they like on-demand.

There’s no doubt that the fastest developing area in the hospitality space is technology, however any new process or systems rolled out to your customers could become a make-or-break moment. Venues need to be effective in the current climate, however we must be cautious not to create too many ‘efficiencies’ at the expense of the end user – your customer.

More often, systems in the hospitality and gaming space are designed to make our jobs faster / better / easier / smarter – however we must never forget why we are here – to entertain and to serve. Whilst we may be smarter than ever, we have also reduced the many burdens of interacting with our customers. This presents a number of issues.

Firstly, gambling creates both winners and losers. No amount of streamlined systems and clever notifications can teach staff how to ‘entertain a loser’.  For the past few years, we’ve been telling people to stay away from each other – but we have to put the people back into our offering. Apart from your food, it’s the only thing venues truly create themselves.

What practices do you have in place to counteract the reduction in staff interaction with gaming machine players? How are you leveraging your relationships with customers to produce meaningful and value-led interactions?

Technology is there to serve you, so that you can better serve your customers. Used correctly, smart technology will give you the time you need to spend front-of-house so you can increase engagement, rather than simply reducing costs or manual input. Critical to the success of this digital evolution is having a solid technology roadmap to understand the greater ripple effect that new systems often create.

One of the key technology advancements of late, is the ability to better manage gambling and alcohol related harm to the industry. Venues are at the forefront of customer care, yet we are so often attacked despite our best efforts to mitigate the risks. The reduction in gambling harm statistics prove we’re on the right track, however it is clear that venues must strive to improve their measures ongoing.

We see first-hand, the great work our clients are doing with the community however sadly this is rarely publicised or documented. DNS Specialist Services are fortunate to work with Government and industry on practices surrounding harm minimisation and have developed a market leading harm minimisation tool that links with the Eagle i360 system (or stand-alone) to document customer interactions and provide a proactive approach to assisting those in need of assistance.

Developed in conjunction with venue operators, SafeStakes provides the necessary tool for staff to easily capture and record key events in monitoring those who may be at risk. SafeStakes not only provides instant notifications on player activity but also allows venues to manually capture harm minimisation practices for food, beverage and gaming.

As we continue to face increased Government and community expectations, it is up to the industry to drive and proactively implement strategies to create a safe environment. Technology will continue to advance, making it easier to do our jobs, but we must never forget why we are there in the first place.

Want to know how we can help?

For more information on Eagle i360 and SafeStakes, contact Danny Nixon-Smith on danny@dnsspecialistservices.com.au or 0433 906 809. 

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