The WLA held three webinars from 17-19 June on Responsible Gaming Certification, in English, French and Spanish. Over 90 attendees, heard from lotteries in the African, Latin American, and North American regions about their experiences of RG certification using the DigitalRG Platform and learned more about the support they received from the WLA and DigitalRG.com.
In 2024, a new WLA By-law was adopted, stipulating that new members must obtain at least Level 2 RG certification within 18 months of joining, while existing members must achieve the same before May 2026. Following this, WLA ramped up its support and tools to help members achieve this and their ongoing certification journeys.
For each session, Melissa Azam, CSR Coordinator at WLA, noted that since increasing its support to members and making the DigitalRG Platform available, membership certification to Levels 2, 3 and 4 has grown from 65% in 2022 to 84% in 2025, and provided an overview of the tools and support provided to members.
Streamlining and facilitating RG certification
The DigitalRG Platform simplifies and allows the entire process to happen in one place. Some of the features which facilitate the process include: the applicant’s certification history, all sections of the application to be completed, the ability to upload all related documentation in different formats, automatic translation of the application into English, assessment results, and notification of the next certification date.
Laura Da Silva Gomes, Sustainability Director at DigitalRG.com, stressed the importance of certification:
“We developed the platform to assess the lottery's impact on society and the environment, and continually measure progress, with the goal of improving this impact.”
Da Silva Gomes underscored the support provided by the WLA to first-time Level 2 certification applicants, including eight hours of tailored support and full premium access to the Platform for three months with resources and training.
Andrea Spolita, DigitalRG Consultant for Impact and Sustainability, demonstrated some of the platform’s features during the Spanish seminar.
North America
During the English language webinar, Mary Neubauer VP External Relations and Social Responsibility at IOWA Lottery, explained the journey to Level 2 certification, noting that at all levels, the right mindset was important to be effective in assessing what works well, what is missing and what your lottery needs to improve.
She underscored how important it was to maintain their Responsible Gambling Overview and Plan which shows what, how, and when the lottery does work for responsible gaming, and greatly facilitated answering the WLA self-assessment.
“DigitalRG provided very useful and transparent feedback, which enabled our lottery to achieve certification and which all applicants should follow.”
In concluding, Neubauer noted that the process helped them see that they can be better organized in their responsible gaming efforts and incorporate them throughout the entire organization which ultimately, would best position them to get the right information at the right time to the right person to provide help.
Andrea Sardinha, Research and Policy Manager at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), which was awarded Best Overall Responsible Gambling Program by the World Lottery Association in 2014 and 2018, and has maintained Level 4 RG certification since 2011, talked about the lottery’s forth time to achieve level 4 certification using the DigitalRG Platform for the first time.
“The platform greatly streamlined the process, saved cost and time, and was user friendly for all involved.”
The Independent Assessment Panel’s (IAP) feedback was used for continuous improvement and strategic planning. Sardinha explained how they conducted an internal debrief to map the IAP’s observations and recommendations to their multi-year RG priorities, identifying areas for enhancement or acceleration.
IAP insights often shape OLG’s continuous improvement roadmap, including upgrades to RG, which are reflected in goal setting at both program and corporate levels.
Latin America
During the second webinar, participants heard from Carlota Figuero, CSR Manager at Loto Honduras, which has been running since 2002 and supports different areas including health and wellbeing, combating poverty, promoting economic development, and improving living conditions.
As first-time Level 2 applicants, Figuero stressed how helpful it was to have eight hours of tailored help. The process assisted those involved to better understand the workings of Loto Honduras, the importance of educating players and employees about responsible gaming, as well as how to go about this.
“The IAP feedback was very helpful to understand where we are, and what we need to change in order to improve, and now we are working for the Level 3.”
Gimena Cano, Responsible Gaming Manager at La Banca de Quinielas, Uruguay, which has achieved Level 4 since 2015, joined the team during its second certification to Level 4.
It was easy to ask questions and use the Platform, which facilitated the certification process. In particular, it was helpful to be able to make the application in Spanish, which was translated into English by the Platform.
The Platform organizes all the supporting documents and makes it easy to select content already uploaded, which may be required for subsequent applications.
“The Platform helped our auditors, because all the documents were accessible in one place and this will make certification much easier from now on.”
Another important issue, which needed improvement and was addressed during the process, was how to explain clearly and promote their work to refer vulnerable players for treatment.
On a final note, Cano mentioned that she participated in the WLA Scholarship Program, which enabled her to attend the WLA/EL Sustainability RG Seminar in Dublin, Ireland, in 2024, which was very important and allowed her to improve her knowledge, learn from others and share the information and experience with colleagues.
Africa
Fatou Keita, in charge of Quality and Responsible Gaming at Ivory Coast National Lottery (LONACI), established in 1970, explained how the lottery supports social work in the area of health and education for the benefit of disadvantaged populations, through its foundation.
It's Responsible Gaming program has been running for 10 years. LONACI first obtained Level 2 certification in 2015, and recertified in 2024.
Some of the challenges faced while undertaking certification included the resources required for the project (human, financial, and technical, etc.) and the difficulty for some players to adhere to the RG program.
Keita talked about the useful best practices learned from other lotteries, such as: training and awareness-raising initiatives initiated to improve the effectiveness of RG actions; the protection of vulnerable populations; sanctions or rewards that have worked elsewhere, and deploying the "mystery shopper" concept as a surveillance and control measure.
She also underscored that it only took three months to make the submission for Level 2 certification in 2024, thanks to the support of the RG experts and the availability of the Digital RG platform, which allowed LONACI to optimize its work time.
Find out more about CSR and Responsible Gaming at WLA
