The International Social Games Association (ISGA) is releasing a set of best practices for social gaming operators that are aimed at setting a standard for quality in the booming social gaming market.
At its core, the guideline is designed to help insure that social operators are:
- Adhering to relevant regulatory structure.
- Maintaining transparent functionality.
- Handling payouts and deposits in a proper manner.
- Managing player privacy in an appropriate fashion.
- Using approved advertising models.
According to ISGA CEO, Luc Delany, the new guidelines symbolize a maturing industry that’s keen on self-regulation:
The launch of our best practice principles reflects our industry’s need to ensure games are developed and operated in a responsible way at a time when the way people play and pay for games is changing.
Along with the best practices, the ISGA has commissioned a study by Harvest Strategy to determine what role social games will play in the digital economy. Harvest’s research should be completed sometime early next year.
ISGA executives are hoping that the two documents will raise the industry’s trust level with both end-users and investors, as Chairman, Paul Matthews pointed out:
We’re proud to release our best practice principles and begin working to understand how social games are changing the way people play games – we look forward to sharing research findings with the industry and interested stakeholders, and hope that the arrival of robust research will help address concerns about hypothetical risks associated with social games.
Given the explosive growth of social casinos and the larger role they’re playing in real money gambling, these documents should be well received.