As Gambling is Legalized in More — And More — States, Players Need Resources that Allow Fun but Help them Stay Within their Limits. Enter OnlineGamblers.com, Which Educates and Empowers Gamers for Responsible Play.

Though California recently voted down two different measures that would have expanded gambling in the state, legalized gaming in other states is expanding. According to AmericanGaming.org, “the U.S. commercial gaming industry in January extended its multi-year expansion with a 4.9 percent increase in commercial gaming revenue compared to the previous year.”

This marked 35 consecutive months of year over year growth and January 2024 was the third highest-grossing single month. The combined revenue from traditional casino games, sports betting and iGaming reached a $5.82 billion for that month.

In Texas alone, the state taxes from betting in January were $271.8 million and more than $400 when you add February, per Sportshandle.com, in the first two months of 2024. This puts the year on a trajectory to be a record setter.

Catie Di Stefano has deep roots in the gambling industry. Her primary focus now is one of the parent company’s many gambling websites, OnlineGamblers.com. It was founded in 2022 with the intent to educate Americans on how to gamble safely and legally. Online Gamblers’s motto is “Safe and legal for the win.”

Catie Di Stefano with George Rover, who helped build the regulations for online gambling in NJ

Though Di Stefano and her partner, Liga Tarasova, are based in Spain and Latvia, respectively, they remotely run Online Gamblers and are fully focused on the U.S. audience. They create all content – blogs, images, videos – and do marketing, research, state licensing, strategies, trends watching, etc. and are committed to inform and encourage players to play responsibly. They have equity in the brand and are being supported and guided by Nordic Affiliates, who own Online Gamblers.

“The way I was brought to the industry was unexpected – I was born in Indonesia and grew up in Sweden,” says Di Stefano. “I was robbed at my first job when I was only 18 but I blamed myself and I felt like I wouldn’t be hired if I stayed where I was, so I began to look for jobs abroad. A Google search let me know it was very easy for Swedish people to get customer support positions in Malta. I thought I would just do it a short time but I ended up staying in Malta eight years. For those not familiar, Malta is an island between Africa and Europe in the Mediterranean that has many gambling companies based there because it’s a tax haven. They also hire people that live in Malta to work there so they get tax benefits.”

She’s been in gambling 13 years but entered the U.S. market after the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was repealed in 2018, when she helped Hard Rock launch its new casino and sportsbook app in New Jersey. Since then, she has been active in the U.S. gambling industry, continuing as a marketing consultant with Hard Rock until early 2022 before making the transition to Online Gamblers.

“Starting out in customer support really gave me strong knowledge of what players go through,” she says. “I spoke to a lot of players, including those addicted, and many made a powerful impact. One of my early calls was from a player who said he was suicidal. I was 19 and didn’t know what to do but since then, I realized I didn’t ever want to experience something like that again. I want to help players and make sure I can do whatever I can with my experience to make sure it’s prevented as much as possible, and players are aware of the consequences. My work with Hard Rock helped me take that piece and make it even more responsible, where we have more levers to educate players about the dangers and how they can prevent them. For starters, you can’t expect that you’re going to win. There are never any guarantees you’ll win.”

Di Stefano is well aware of the negative perceptions of the gambling industry and wants to change that.

“I believe that the governing industry, especially the companies I have worked for, aren’t that way. We’re not out to have vulnerable players at risk or dictate to players what’s not going to be sustainable in the long term and, again, I don’t want that on my conscience. I believe the industry has to do – and what I’m trying to do now with Online Gamblers – is trying to change it to where we are sustainable.”

Part of that strategy began by speaking to several high-level players and building relationships. In Europe, contact and an open dialog with the players is very common.

“We regularly ask, ‘Are you you’re forced to play this much?’ ‘Are you comfortable?’ ‘Are you aware of how much you’re spending?’” She says. “When I started working in the U.S. five years ago, I noticed that no one really talks about it in the same way.

As they began to build out the strategy and content of Online Gamblers, a primary focus was to teach players about proactive, responsible gambling. The goal was to encourage players to constantly check in with themselves and set deposit-, time- or loss-limits before they start playing.

“Many casinos might not have liked this approach back in the day, but we believe that it’s important to be proactive with vulnerable players and that gambling should only be a form of entertainment,” says Di Sefano. “Generational knowledge and health will create generational wealth when it comes to online gambling.”

Catie Di Stefano with with Senator Joseph Addabbo from NY and NJ lobbyist Bill Pascrell III

She’s continued to broaden her reach by speaking and moderating panels at gambling conferences about online casinos, sports betting, U.S. gambling regulations and tech. She has worked worked on panels with gambling figures such as Martin Lycka, Bill Pascarell III, Senator Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., George Rover and more. This May, at SBC Summit North America 2024, she is moderating a panel that includes key figures from NBA, MLB and the NY Jets.

“It’s going to be very interesting to learn about how gambling is being looked at from the sports side,” she says. “Companies are doing a lot of sponsorships and official partnerships are forming – such as with NASCAR and Draft Kings. I think different sports entities will eventually be connected a gambling company in some way, somehow.”

Online Gamblers is focusing on the U.S. because that’s where the partners believe players need to be educated the most. It’s also very focused on broadening a technology piece to help – particularly with online gambling sites. Much like social media companies, they have access to a wealth of player data and they can create strategies, such of having ways to preset limits as mentioned above. But also, how much time or money they’ve spent, etc. to help players gain insight and awareness.

Bottom line, gambling is a massive industry that’s continuing to surge and it’s certainly not without risk. But many pastimes, such as travel, adventure sports, concert going, regular attendance of professional sports, can be very expensive as well. Being transparent with players about the risks and encouraging them to know and identify where they may be vulnerable can make the companies more respected and sustainable.

Susan Belknapp, Senior Writer, California Business Journal

Susan Belknapp is a Writer, Editor and Corporate Communications expert with 15 years of professional writing experience across a wide variety of disciplines, including monthly print and digital magazines, social media, marketing and brand development. A graduate of University of Southern California with a degree in Fine Arts and Filmic Writing, Susan was Editor of OC Metro Magazine, which became part of the Orange County Register. Susan is also the Founder of Chonubusu Toffee, an online/direct-sale English toffee company specializing in custom orders, events, personalized labeling and dangerously delicious product prepared with the finest ingredients.