Rebecca Clayton — Gaming Manager & RGO in Focus

Q. Tell us a little bit about your career in the club industry to date

A. I’ve been working here at Central Coast Leagues Club since 2006 — that is 18 years next month. It started out as a second job for me while I was working in an office in an accounting firm, and it was just a second job for some extra money. But I really loved the atmosphere and the flexibility that the hospitality industry offers, and I never looked back from there. I started in the bar, became a bar supervisor, then gaming supervisor. I've worked in cash control, I've worked in functions, I've worked in rosters and then finally settled in as a gaming analyst and now Gaming Manager and RGO — I have been Gaming Manager for almost three years. It is just an awesome place to work, and I couldn't ever think of working anywhere else. 

Q. What is the best part about your current role? 

A. There are a lot of good things about working here. I think the best one for me is meeting people on the floor and on the gaming floor. The community is always so diverse and the people that come into clubs are always such a broad range of people and they've all got interesting stories, and they all want to have a chat and tell you about their lives and where they've been and what they're doing. I think talking to them is probably one of the highlights of the day. I always try and spend at least part of my day down on the floor talking to the people. I think it's also a great way to understand what the needs of the club are and what the members need from the club. If you're not talking to them, how would you ever know what they need or if there's anything that needs to be changed?

Q. What's involved with training to become a Responsible Gambling Officer? 

A. I completed a 30-minute online course with ClubsNSW. The course outlines the responsibilities that I take as a designated RGO at the club. It includes things like monitoring and the internet register, ensuring that all our staff, all the management team and the board conduct the proper training that they need to complete their duties, and reporting quarterly to the board. As an RGO I also had to complete the advanced RCG course — as a result of how useful I found it, we're going to put quite a few of our floor staff members through that advanced RCG course in the next few weeks. This is so everyone has a bearing of what we're trying to do and who we're trying to help and how to help them in the best way. 

Q. How do you approach someone who is showing signs that they may need to step away from gaming? 

A. I would always approach them with sensitivity and respect. I think it's crucial to keep conversations like that private and away from the gaming floor, if that's possible. We've tried to develop and encourage good relationships between the floor staff and the patrons, especially our regulars. I think this allows for more open and honest conversations and dialogue. But we really want to try and minimise the stigma around problem gambling and specifically people asking for help with problem gambling because I think that's a real issue for people, they don't want to come forward and say that they need help because they think they might get judged. I really want to try to stop that from happening, because just asking for help can be difficult for people. 

Q. What problematic signs are you on the lookout for? 

A. The early signs could be as simple as increased visitation to the gaming room, increased spending amount or a change in their behaviour — becoming more irritable or angry. These things on their own might not be translating to a gambling problem but they can be initial warning signs. More serious things would be borrowing money to gamble, blaming the machines or the venue for their gaming losses, lying to family members and friends about what they're doing when they are gambling. This is where I think the relationship between the gaming staff and the patrons can have a really positive impact. If gaming staff witness some of these signs in the early stages and we can intervene in the early stages, we can stop it becoming a bigger problem. I think having those relationships between floor staff and patrons is really, really crucial to helping people get the help that they need and being comfortable to ask for help if they need it. 

Q. Why is your role so important to you?

A. I've had people in my life that I'm close to who have had issues with problem gambling and for me to be in the industry makes me really want to make it better for the people that come into our venue just to be present on the floor. I think just being able to say, “hey, are you OK?” Sometimes that's all people need. Having those conversations is difficult, no doubt for the staff member and the patron, but it's so important.

Q. How can clubs better support patrons and minimise harm?

A. In-house training for me is one of the things we try and focus on the most. Staff are the forefront of what's happening on the floor. I know managers are there and we walk the floor, but we're not talking to the patrons all the time and serving them over and over. If a staff member sees a person sitting on one machine for a long period of time, you know three or four hours, then they have every right to come over and say: “hey, come and get a coffee with me.” Training the employees to recognise the signs of problem gambling is one of the key things that we need to work on, they need to understand the responsible gaming policies and procedures that we have. We also want to promote alternative things to do within the club — we have shows and we have restaurants and we've got a rooftop terrace.  

Q. What do you think the future of the industry looks like? 

A. I think it's going to be influenced by a few things — regulatory changes, technological advancements and economic trends are obviously the classic ones. I think to reduce the dependence on gaming revenue, hospitality venues are going to have to diversify into dining experiences and other amenities to attract patrons and not rely so heavily on gaming. We need to continue the development and implementation of technology to help minimise gambling harm.