Last June, Merrylands RSL reshaped the way it approached gaming services. Merrylands RSL group gaming manager Chris Debrincat revealed at the recent RSL & Services Clubs Association annual conference in Canberra how the club shifted away from traditional tray drink service to self-service drink stations.
According to Debrincat, the move was part of the club’s holistic focus on customer relations and harm minimisation. Through self-service drinks, the club’s intention was to encourage patrons to have a break.
“Previously, we had this wonderful team of staff who were running around literally like chooks with their heads cut off, trying to get a drink to a patron in under three minutes,” he said.
“But we knew they could be having more positive conversations, particularly around responsible gaming.”
He further explained to Club Management the club’s increased focus on customer relations aimed to raise awareness and educate patrons about what the club was doing to increase visitation, participation, and loyalty.
“You’d all be surprised if you went out to your floors and talked to those members who have been members for 10 years or gamers for 10 years. Do they actually know about all the benefits that we offer? A lot of them wouldn’t, and we’re increasing participation, hopefully through more conversations.”
The decision has also had a positive impact on staff.
“They’re more confident now and I’m getting a lot more team members putting their hands up who want to get involved in those customer relations roles,” Debrincat said.
“Of course, if they’re not confident to talk to a patron about a gambling problem, they can just escalate it a duty manager. It a learning process. But there were some staff who couldn’t strike up a conversation with a patron before.”
This forward thinking meant that when it became mandatory for venues across NSW with more than 20 gaming machines to have a designated responsible gaming officer (RGO) on duty, the club was well-prepared.
“They were basically doing the RGO role back from June last year,” Debrincat said.
As part of these efforts, Merrylands RSL launched gaming information sessions in October last year to try and educate their patrons about playing poker machines. An information booklet was also produced to tackle common misconceptions around gaming machines.
“There was common feedback that we’ve all heard – that gaming machines were rigged and how we manipulated the machines so that they would lose … so we looked at that and thought we’ve really got to try and do something about this,” Debrincat said.
Industry experts were invited to explain how gaming machines, jackpots and related systems work, including the legislative framework behind them. Initially, 75 patrons showed interest in attending, however, only 30 patrons attended the first information session. Despite this, Debrincat said the feedback was very positive and staff learned a lot too.
The club plans to continue to run these sessions, with one planned for Monday 28 October and another on Monday 4 November. Registrations will be open from 14 October at the Merrylands RSL reception or at Chrisd@mrsl.com.au.
“Our goal is to try and educate as many of our patrons as possible, so as to allow them to gamble responsibly. We are hoping to get 100 members to each session. We feel that if we can educate people, they’re going to build a trust with the club and that goes a long way to safe gaming and a sustainable industry. We believe that education is one of the best approaches to harm minimisation.”