Merkur casinos maintain a culture of open communication, maximum transparency as well as discreet, multi-channel information sharing in terms of educating its players and providing information relevant to gambling. It also provides information about the legal provisions regarding protecting young persons and gamblers, the risks involved in the games of chance offered, and about the available help, counselling and therapy facilities.
Protection of minors, identity checks and reconciliation of every player against the OASIS barring file are fully ensured by the IT-supported admission procedure, which is installed at the reception desks of all Merkur casinos without exception.
Upon entering the casino, all guests are checked in the foyer by trained staff using an official identification document; minors, barred persons or persons subject to a legal ban on gambling or internal house ban are not permitted to pass through the technical access control system.
As the “eyes and ears of the casino” and in view of their often very close relationship with the players, our trained casino staff play a key role in detecting incipient gambling disorder. They reliably and directly perceive changes in individual gambling behaviour. For this purpose, it is essential for reliable information about a guest’s gambling behaviour to be obtained in order to create an overall picture that is as accurate as possible.
In particular, employees who are in direct contact with guests are made aware of their social responsibility by attending comprehensive training courses and are regularly reminded of this again at follow-up/repeat training courses.
Moreover, a technical warning system informs the person responsible at the casino by issuing an automated notification in the event of continuous gambling being detected on a gaming machine over a period of three hours. This ensures that individual players’ conspicuous gambling behaviour is reported.
In classic gaming, the observations recorded by the responsible employees replace the gaming machines’ electronic warning system.
Furthermore, Merkur Spielbanken, together with Austrian company Neccton (www.neccton.com), have developed the “Mentor” player protection monitoring tool. This is integrated into the reception module and continuously analyses the guest data recorded upon entering the casino in order to provide, where necessary, employees with system-supported information on how and in which areas the respective players’ behaviour exhibits relevant changes.
The trained casino staff reacts immediately to all reported anomalies.
Trained staff members are there not only to inform guests about the games we offer, but also to make them aware of the potential risks associated with gambling in particular. They also provide advice on the available information media and its key contents. Our information materials are:
Is gambling more than just a harmless pastime for you? If so, you should reassess your gambling behaviour by completing this self test. If you answer “yes” to one or more of the questions in our self test, please contact us or a help centre.
Go to the online self test.
Would you like to self exclude yourself? Then you can obtain a banning order, something that has been available nationwide and for all common forms of gambling since 01/07/2021. In addition to casinos, the banning order also covers arcades, betting shops, slot machines in restaurants, online slot machine games and sports betting, plus many more. If you would like to self exclude yourself, you or a third party should contact MERKUR SPIELBANKEN in person or you can also obtain a banning order directly from the Regional Council in Darmstadt.