Rossi McKee on the future of Responsible Gaming
Rossi McKee is Co-founder and Vice President of CT Gaming, CT Interactive and Telematic Interactive Bulgaria, as well as a co-founder of the Responsible Gaming Foundation. With over two decades of leadership across highly regulated gaming markets in Europe, Africa and Latin America, she has been directly involved in licensing, compliance frameworks, product development and market entry strategies.
Rossi is a strong advocate of RG as both a player protection tool and a strategic pillar for sustainable, competitive regulated markets and its positive role in protecting both.
Reduced Player Migration
“When RG is visible, intuitive and embedded directly into the player journey, it builds trust – the foundation of effective channeling into the regulated market. Players feel protected, fairly treated and in control of their entertainment.
“Clear identity verification, age controls, spending and time limits, reality checks, cooling-off tools and effective self-exclusion are not just regulatory requirements; they are confidence builders. In EU policy terms, they support a high channeling rate by making the licensed environment both safer and more attractive than illegal alternatives.
“When players know their funds are secure, their data protected and there is genuine support if risks arise, the incentive to migrate to anonymous, unregulated platforms with zero safeguards drops significantly.”
Clear Market Differentiation
“There are four key factors that create the greatest impact on trust and channelling. First, robust but proportionate KYC and affordability checks, aligned with risk-based supervision rather than blanket restrictions. Second, intuitive in-product controls such as one-click limit setting, time-outs and reality checks. Third, centralised self-exclusion systems that operate across licensed brands, strengthening consumer confidence in the framework. And finally, transparency. Clear bonus conditions, fair terms, public license verification tools and visible whitelists of legal operators.
“Together, these measures reinforce the legitimacy of the regulated market and highlight the clear risks of illegal competition.”
Frameworks Falling Short
”Shortcomings appear when RG tools exist formally but are difficult to find, fragmented across platforms or disconnected from product design. Complex user journeys, inconsistent enforcement or complete visibility loss for licensed operators due to marketing restrictions can unintentionally weaken the legal channel. Illegal operators exploit these gaps with high bonuses, instant access, anonymity and no protective measures.
“RG must be built-by-design into platforms, supported by proportionate regulation. Protection should feel native and seamless, not imposed as a compliance layer. Smart policy strengthens both player safety and the competitive position of licensed operators against illegal supply.”
The Regulatory Balance
“The key is evidence-based, risk-based regulation, a core EU principle. Strong safeguards should be targeted at real risk behaviour rather than applied uniformly to all players. At the same time, the licensed market must remain economically sustainable and competitive.
“Reasonable marketing visibility for legal operators, integrated RG messaging, proportionate affordability checks and balanced tax frameworks are all essential to maintaining high channeling rates.
“Crucially, enforcement must disrupt the entire illegal chain – payments, affiliates, social platforms, hosting services and advertising networks – so illegal journeys are consistently blocked.
“Overregulation that suffocates licensed businesses does not protect consumers; it simply drives demand underground.”
The Role of Technology
“Technology enables risk-based supervision in practice. At Palms World, we use privacy-preserving behavioural analytics to detect early indicators of harm, real-time interventions to nudge safer play and layered affordability checks for higher-risk patterns.
“Across the Group we standardize RG tools, ensuring consistent protection across all channels and products. This creates a predictable, trusted environment that supports sustainable market growth and keeps players within the regulated ecosystem.”
Benefit not Barrier
“Operators must integrate RG naturally into the user experience. Contextual prompts, smart default limits, progress indicators and transparent communication about why safeguards exist empower players rather than frustrate them.
“When RG improves control, fairness and long-term enjoyment, while ensuring secure payments and reliable withdrawals, it becomes a competitive advantage over illegal platforms that offer only short-term incentives and long-term risk.”
Cross Border Cooperation
“Cross-border regulatory cooperation is essential as the illegal market is global. Shared intelligence between regulators, payment providers and platforms, synchronized whitelists and blacklists, fast payment blocking and coordinated takedowns are the only way to meaningfully disrupt illegal supply.
“Bulgaria has made huge progress through constructive regulator-industry cooperation, but the black-market still grows. The latest review by the Association of the Gaming Industry in Bulgaria (AGIB), identifies illegal operators as the primary challenge for regulated markets in 2026.
“We must all recognise that illegal competition expands fastest when legal markets become overregulated. Disproportionate restrictions, blanket advertising bans, excessive affordability controls or unsustainable fiscal pressure weaken licensed businesses and reduce market attractiveness.
“Smart cross-border enforcement must be paired with proportionate regulation that keeps the legal sector visible, competitive and sustainable. Player protection and market sustainability are inseparable.”
Evolving to Stay Ahead
“RG has to transition from reactive compliance to predictive, data-driven protection. This includes continuous risk modelling, omnichannel safeguards, clearer consumer license-verification tools, outcome-based RG metrics and regular independent audits.International alignment on core RG standards will help prevent regulatory arbitrage, while allowing flexibility for local market conditions.
“However, evolution must avoid regulatory overreach that unintentionally undermines channeling. If protection becomes so heavy that it damages user experience or market competitiveness, players will migrate to illegal platforms with no safeguards at all.
“The future lies in smart, targeted intervention, focusing on genuine risk while preserving an attractive, viable licensed offer. Balanced regulation strengthens both consumer protection and resistance to black-market competition.
“We focus on three strategic pillars – embedding RG directly into product and platform architecture, using early-warning behavioural analytics supported by specialist teams and forming strong partnerships across regulators, payment providers, platforms and affiliate networks to disrupt illegal operations end-to-end – from traffic acquisition to transactions and hosting.
“We combine product-embedded protection with deep market localisation – language, customer support, trusted local payments and transparent communication. We treat RG as a core performance indicator alongside financial KPIs and proactively collaborate with regulators on market integrity initiatives. This integrated approach protects players while actively defending the regulated market.
“For us, RG is not simply compliance; it is central to sustaining high channeling rates, protecting consumers and ensuring the long-term viability of licensed gaming markets.”
