Margaret McGee
When Margaret McGee walked into the gaming industry five years ago, she had hardly any experience of gambling or even buying lottery tickets. But, from the start, she was committed to the principles of corporate social responsibility and determined to make the industry more responsive to the needs of the community. That commitment led to Nova Scotia achieving several milestones in responsible gambling and being recognized as a global leader.
"Nova Scotia Gaming Corp., [NSGC]has a dual mandate to balance the social and the financial, so it's an interesting role to be an innovator," says Ms. McGee, of her own responsibilities.
Ms. McGee wanted to address the growing numbers of underage youth who were using online gambling sites. "We did a study that showed youth were gambling three times more often than adults," says Ms. McGee, a former radio and television journalist who hails from Sutherland's River, N.S.
In response to the problem, Ms. McGee led the development of Betstopper, filtering software that is designed to keep kids off gambling websites and alert parents if children try to gain access. Betstopper software has been made available by NSGC to any Nova Scotia family free of charge since last fall.
Ms. McGee was also responsible for leading the NSGC in becoming the first organization in the North American gambling industry to adopt a Corporate Social Responsibility Charter. "All the operators in the province signed on," she said.
In due order, Ms. McGee designed a CSR assessment template, or a filter for every new product and marketing program. Launched in 2007, it ensures that gaming products are sold in a responsible manner by all of NSGC's operators, such as Casino Nova Scotia. "As a result, there have been products that have not been launched, or they've been modified to meet the guidelines," says Ms. McGee. "It's a tool that has teeth. I'm proud it's raising the bar for the industry."
Ms. McGee, who became a Harvard Business School alumna in 2008, is also a fitness buff who helped organize last year's Bust a Move for Breast Health fund drive that raised more than $1.1-million to buy a digital mammography machine for the IWK Health Centre Foundation in Halifax.
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