Casino responsible gaming

ICRG Firewall

The ICRG’s research program is funded primarily by companies involved in the gambling industry. Because of concern about undue influence or bias, the ICRG created a firewall to insulate the research from industry influence. First, all of ICRG’s funding initiatives are developed and approved by the Scientific Advisory Board, an independent panel of prominent scientists in the addictions. Second, calls for proposals are distributed to more than 1, scientists around the world. Third, grant applications submitted to the ICRG are vetted by independent peer review panels composed of leading scientists in the gambling field. Fourth, their evaluations are then reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Board, which makes the final funding decisions. Neither the governing board nor the donors have any input into this process, and research findings are not announced until published in a peer-reviewed journal. The successful publications records of ICRG-funded investigators—more than articles in peer-reviewed journals since —demonstrates that quality is what drives the ICRG research grants program.

History

Prior to the establishment of the ICRG in , the field of gambling research was undeveloped and lacked a substantial number of peer-reviewed studies on gambling- related risks. From its beginning, the ICRG was committed to reversing this trend, becoming the first serious funding source in the area of gambling research. The ICRG introduced a commitment to rigorous scientific standards into the field, including an insistence that, to be taken seriously, all research had to be peer-reviewed. As a result of this commitment, ICRG-funded studies have yielded more than scholarly articles published in highly competitive, peer-reviewed scientific journals.

With approximately one-third of the total amount of research on gambling risks published between and , much of what we know about gambling risks today has been learned only in the past few years. This is due, in part, to the availability of funding from the ICRG. The ICRG is proud to have played a role in this dramatic increase of knowledge about the potential health consequences of gambling. To learn more about the many accomplishments in the ICRG&#;s history, visit the ICRG Milestones page. For a listing of donors who helped to establish the ICRG, visit the Original Donors page.