Currently, the company has active partners across Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, and South Africa, and is working alongside strategic consultancy Adam Bradford Agency to implement its action plan for the region. The consultancy, whose team has decades of experience in the industry, is interested in preventing individuals from suffering from gambling addiction in Rwanda and has been running hackathons to explore these issues.
Crucial Compliance successfully ran interactive hackathon events since January, bringing together young people, industry professionals, and others to explore the topic of gambling-related harm and how gaming can constructively contribute to the communities in which it operates. They held another Hackathon in Kigali on 19th April that provided real investment, mentorship, and support to youth-led tech initiatives and programs that safeguard against the pitfalls of gaming and gambling and strengthen the sector.
Crucial Compliance also powers ‘BetProtect,’ a digital therapy tool accessible by phone or web, which provides an additional layer of awareness and support to people who might be at risk. The tool, expected to be rolled out in Rwanda in the near future, uses artificial intelligence and algorithms to observe one’s playing patterns, including the time spent playing, frequency, and spending. When it notices that one’s gambling habits are getting out of hand, it warns the player and the companies they are playing with to keep them in check.
Crucial Compliance is also investing in research aimed at looking into the prevalence of gambling and the attitudes of Rwandans towards it and addiction, which his team has observed anecdotally across communities in the country.
Speaking at a shareholder’s meeting held at M-Hotel in Kigali on April 20th, 2023 Paul Foster, CEO and Founder of Crucial Compliance, highlighted that safe gambling can be achieved through making people more aware that gambling is not a way of making money.
He noted that Crucial Compliance seeks to promote player safety either by helping regulators or operators or hosting events that bring the community together. Foster emphasized that gambling should be considered as entertainment and not means of earning money or solving problems.
Among others, Crucial Compliance seeks to contribute to the development of a more responsible and trustworthy industry by ensuring that people can gamble safely, which can be achieved through different ways, such as limiting the amount of money a person can place in a bet, implementing age restrictions, or prohibiting people with gambling addictions from participating, among others.
Foster underscored that more efforts are underway, and the company is leveraging partnerships to come up with customized solutions in Rwanda. “We have really found the support of the government and we are creating a group of people who will provide support going forward as we make Rwanda a safe market for gambling,” he stated.
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