Sustainable Interaction teams up with CEGO to provide customers with Care Calls

Danish gaming operator CEGO is teaming up with Sustainable Interaction to provide their Swedish customers with care calls. SI has worked with the method for a long time, and it gained the industry’s recognition when SI’s resident psychologist, PhD Jakob Jonsson, presented his doctoral thesis on the subject of care calls*. This is Sustainable Interaction’s first time providing the care calls as a full service - and the first of its kind in the industry.

Operators who provide games to the Swedish market are required to identify signs of problem gamblers within their player population, and then put adequate measures in place. These requirements are part of the Swedish Duty of Care. The Care Calls provided by CEGO and Sustainable Interaction is one such measure.

The Care Calls are a three step process. CEGO sends information about identified at risk players to SI via a secured system. SI’s team will carry out the Care Call with the customers, summarise it and report back to CEGO via the system. Depending on the outcome, SI will either include recommendations for what proactive RG measures CEGO should take with each customer, or suggest suitable access limitations if there are signs of problematic gambling habits. It’s imperative that the exchange of data is secure and encrypted to ensure the integrity of the customers. 

It’s important to note that these calls are in no way intended to be a form of treatment: it’s a responsible gambling measure provided by CEGO. The purpose is to provide at risk players with an extra layer of support and protection. As shown in Dr. Jakob Jonsson’s doctoral thesis, customers who receive a care call will not only reduce their gambling - they will also stay on as customers and maintain their gambling at a healthier level even 12 months after receiving the call.

The full solution, including the secured system, is at present available to operators with a license to provide games to the Swedish market. For more information, please reach out to Christofer Hagstedt at christofer@sustainableinteraction.se or see here:

*Jonsson, Jakob. Preventing problem gambling: Focus on overconsumption. Stockholms universitet, Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten, Psykologiska institutionen, Klinisk psykologi. ORCID-id: 0000-0003-3908-5841

Sustainable Interaction delivers online solution for treating gambling problems to French Arpej

We are both grateful and proud to announce our partnership with the French association Arpej and SOS Joueurs for the establishment of the first French online therapy for gamblers. This collaboration will provide SELF (French Online Care) treatment adapted to the characteristics of French-speaking players facing gambling problems.

Sustainable Care is the designers and creators behind the online treatment, which includes a secure platform for managing and administering clients and therapists, and an evidence-based treatment program with eight modules, each targeting a different aspect of gambling addiction and treatment. 

Based on methods such as Motivational Interviewing (MI) and CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), the treatment combines information, questions, interactive exercises and a forum for peer support. The closed system allows for efficient client-therapist contact and is designed to let clients progress at their own pace.

–We’ve been working with online treatment for many years now and have seen firsthand the positive impact our model has on individuals participating in the treatment. This positive effect is further supported by the extensive research conducted on our treatment, says Johan Brandsten, CEO of Sustainable Interaction. 

– This will be the first online therapeutic program for treating excessive gamblers in France. We’ve adapted the treatment program for the French market in collaboration with Armelle ACHOUR, Director of the remote resource center, Thierry Ventre, Doctor addictologist and Jean-Michel Costes, researcher attached to Concordia University in Montreal, says Emmanuel BENOIT, Managing Director of ARPEJ and SOS.

– When making these adaptations, we’ve been sensitive to the existing structure of the treatment program and the experiences that have already been gained. We would like to express our gratitude to Sustainable Interaction for their collaboration, Emmanuel concludes.

Criminal sanctions clients in Finland receive online treatment for gambling problems

Hi, Sofia! You offer online treatment for gambling problems to criminal sanctions clients all over Finland, could you tell us more about that?

Sofia Holmberg, project manager at RETS

Studies show that prisoners are 5 to 10 times more likely to have gambling problems compared to the rest of the population. By addressing problem gambling among criminal sanctions clients, we aim to reduce recidivism and individual and societal harms caused by gambling. 

In 2019 the Finnish Criminal Sanctions Agency started strengthening their services for community sanctions clients with gambling problems by cooperating with Gambling Clinic in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. In a pilot project, community sanctions officers in Southern Finland were trained to identify signs of gambling problems among their clients and refer them to the Peluuri’s Peli poikki online treatment program as needed.  The results of the pilot showed the importance of addressing gambling problems among community sanctions clients.

And now you’re building on that in a new project?

As a continuum to the pilot project, RETS (RETS Crime-Free Life Support Foundation) started the RISERaPeli-project in October 2021. In the project we will develop our version of the Peli poikki program to meet the needs of criminal sanctions clients who gamble at a problematic or high-risk level. 

Within the project, you’ll continue training criminal sanctions officers to identify signs of gambling problems?

Yes. In collaboration with the Criminal Sanctions Agency we aim to train all criminal sanctions officers to identify signs of problematic gambling behaviour. According to a Finnish study, 85% of prison workers felt that problem gambling is a serious concern among criminal sanctions clients. They also felt that their knowledge to provide help for clients with gambling problems were insufficient. So there’s really a great need.  

What challenges do you think the online treatment program will help you solve?

In 2019 the average daily number of criminal sanctions clients was higher than the number of inmates in Finland. Working online gives us the possibility to intervene quickly and provide help with a very flexible schedule to be able to prevent gambling problems from escalating. We can reach all clients regardless of where they are located and what type of community sanction they are serving.

Why did you choose Sustainable Interaction’s online treatment program?

Peluuri has been running the Peli poikki online treatment program since 2007. After learning from their experiences and looking into their evaluations of the program’s effectiveness, we felt that the program would be very suitable for criminal sanctions clients. We also got very good feedback from Peluuri about the program and working with Sustainable Interaction.