LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM–(Marketwire – Oct. 22, 2010) – Virgin Games, a leading online gaming company, is pleased to announce that it has been shortlisted for the Socially Responsible category at the prestigious eGaming Review (EGR) Awards that is due to take place at The Artillery Garden on Wednesday 24 November 2010.
The criteria of the Socially Responsible category identifies operators that have done their utmost to implement procedures and safeguards for consumers. Among other issues, the judges will be assessing age verification, availability of problem-gambling assistance, responsible gaming safeguards and comprehensive KYC procedures.
Since inception Virgin Games has put social responsibility and player protection at the very heart of the business. It was one of the first casino operators to attain Gamcare certification and since then has continued to work closely with them, and other organizations, to promote and encourage responsible gaming and player protection. Virgin Games also has a Category 1 operating licence issued by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, arguably the preeminent jurisdiction in terms of player protection through rigorous online age and identity verification.
Virgin Games has worked closely with its partner the GB Group to build a business model that centres on the principles of age and identity verification, together with monitoring, to ensure that any customers who may be at risk are identified and managed appropriately.
Commenting on the nomination, Christina Thakor-Rankin, Operations Director at Virgin Games, said:
“When we set up Virgin Games we knew that we wanted to emulate the core values of the Virgin brand into the business. Trust and fun are key to the customer centric business that we have now created. It is important to us that we provide entertainment without pushing our customers into gambling, which is why we offer a large proportion of our games for free to casual players wanting five minutes of fun. The trust element is about putting in place the best of breed procedures to ensure customer protection and service at every stage of their user experience with Virgin Games.
“We are so pleased that our hard work has been recognized in this EGR nomination, and we all have our fingers crossed for 24th November!”
Virgin Games’ corporate social responsibility is not only apparent in its day-to-day running of the business with its adoption of a green data centre strategy, but also in the efforts of its employees at every level. All employees are encouraged to take time off to work with the ‘Kids Company’ charity and have completed sponsored marathons and bicycle rides for the cause. In addition, Virgin Games’ customers are able to redeem their loyalty points, known as V*POINTS, with Richard Branson’s Charity, ‘Virgin Unite’, the value of which is doubled by Virgin Games.
Founded in 2004, Virgin Games has over 1,000,000 players and over 200 games on its site. Through the introduction of a custom built Virgin Games platform in 2008, Virgin Games seeks to provide its players with the widest possible choice of casino games. A growing selection of games can be found at Virgin Games from a number of producers including Microgaming, WagerWorks, Cryptologic, Freemantle and Ash Gaming.
Notes to editors:
About Virgin Games:
Virgin Games (www.virgingames.com) launched in June 2004 and has quickly established itself as one of the leading gaming websites in the UK. Virgin Games comprises three distinct offerings:
- Virgin Casino, offers content from a range of games suppliers including WagerWorks, Microgaming, Cryptologic, Freemantle and Ash Gaming, bringing consumers classic casino games like Blackjack and Roulette, as well as great feature slots like Monopoly, Rubik’s, X-Factor and the highly popular MegaJackpots progressive games.
- Virgin Poker, part of the Boss Media network, offers a huge array of games and content for beginners through to experienced pros – as well as the most generous loyalty scheme in the industry
- Virgin Bingo, part of the Virtue Fusion network, offers cash prizes worth thousands of pounds in the progressive jackpots, as well as Virgin prize bingo and a range of unique Virgin Games bingo games.