Guest: Ewa Bakun, Director of Industry Insight and Engagement, Clarion Gaming
Hosts: James Elliott, Founder, Gamecheck | Elisabeth McDermott, Partnerships Manager, Gamecheck
Ewa Bakun explains how the Sustainable Gambling Zone went from a hidden corner at ICE in 2018 to a headline fixture, and what changed when the industry stopped treating player safety as a cost.
In 2018, the Sustainable Gambling Zone launched at ICE tucked into a corner so far from the main halls that attendees needed directions past a competitor's stand just to find it. Today it sits in a prime spot on the show floor. Ewa Bakun of Clarion Gaming built it from nothing, and in this episode she joins Gamecheck Founder James Elliott and Partnerships Manager Elisabeth McDermott to talk through how she did it.
The conversation covers why the internal fight to reposition the zone was harder than winning over sceptical operators, what the ICE Research Institute is funding across six live projects, how the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is mapping AI governance across iGaming, and GamBrain, a five year project with the Dual Disorder Foundation aimed at detecting risk in vulnerable populations. Ewa also puts out an open call to game studios to build safer design in from the first line of code.
When the Sustainable Gambling Zone launched in 2018, it occupied space that had been rejected as unsellable. Ewa Bakun describes the internal resistance at Clarion as the harder battle, more so than convincing operators the zone was worth their time. The turning point came as attitudes shifted from treating player safety as a compliance box to tick, to something the industry wanted to be seen backing.
That shift is reflected in where the zone sits today. It has moved to a central position on the ICE floor, a change Ewa frames as evidence that ICE itself has repositioned itself from a place to sell products into a place to raise standards across the industry.
The ICE Research Institute now backs six funded research projects looking at different corners of player protection and industry practice. Ewa outlines how the Institute was set up to give researchers a route to funding and industry access that didn't previously exist in a structured way.
One strand of that work is a registry run by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) mapping how artificial intelligence and machine learning are being used across iGaming, giving the industry a shared reference point for AI governance rather than a patchwork of individual approaches.
GamBrain is a five year project run with the Dual Disorder Foundation, building a tool aimed at detecting risk in vulnerable populations. Ewa sets out what the project is trying to solve and why a multi year timeframe was needed to get it right. The conversation also turns to safer gambling by design, with Ewa making the case that studios should be building protective features into games from the first line of code, rather than retrofitting them once a product is live.
Ewa talks about what she's most proud of in building the zone, including the charity fundraising that has grown alongside it, and where she sees the industry heading over the next two years. Her closing message frames operators and regulators as collaborators rather than competitors. As Ewa puts it, progress on player protection depends on treating it as shared work rather than a point of difference to compete on.
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Ewa's route into gaming and Clarion
02:22 2014, 2018 and the corner nobody wanted
06:37 Do operators comply because they must, or because they want to?
08:44 Elisabeth on her first ICE Barcelona
10:31 Repositioning ICE from a place to sell to a place to raise standards
13:12 Inside the ICE Research Institute
17:05 AI, machine learning and the UNLV registry of use cases
18:46 GamBrain and detecting risk in vulnerable populations
20:04 The message to grey market operators
21:30 Building safer gambling into game design
24:36 What Ewa is proudest of, and the charity fundraising behind it
26:51 Where the industry goes in the next two years
28:16 Collaborators, not competitors.
The Sustainable Gambling Zone is a dedicated area at ICE focused on player protection, safer gambling research and responsible industry practice. It launched in 2018 and has grown from a peripheral space into a central feature of the show floor.
The ICE Research Institute funds independent research into player protection and safer gambling. It currently backs six projects, including work with UNLV on AI governance, and the GamBrain project with the Dual Disorder Foundation.
GamBrain is a five year research project run with the Dual Disorder Foundation. It aims to build a tool that can detect risk in vulnerable populations, supporting earlier and more effective player protection.
The Gamecheck SEAL is a trust badge that online casino operators display to show that Gamecheck has checked a sample of their games in collaboration with the original providers and found them to be real. The SEAL includes a domain-linked QR code that players can scan using the Gamecheck App to check its authenticity. Copied seals are blocked and flagged simultaneously.
The Gamecheck App, Gamecheck Search Tool, and Gamecheck Chrome Extension are all free to download and use. Visit Gamecheck.com to check any online casino before you play.
Run any online casino through the Gamecheck Search Tool before you deposit.
Gamecheck Insider is the official podcast from Gamecheck, the independent game integrity platform for online casino players and operators. Each episode features candid conversations with industry figures, player protection advocates, and the Gamecheck team on the subjects that matter most: fake games, fair play, and the realities of the online casino world. New episodes are available on YouTube.
