“Today, a company must take a stand for sustainability in the world and not simply provide lip service when the subject is brought up. There is nothing noble about a company that complies with laws that are in step with sustainable practices—that is their legal obligation. I am interested in the next steps.”
Hi, my name is Floris Assies and am the founder of Better World Casinos.
On this page, I tell a bit about myself, this website and my mission.
For those who have Linkedin, feel free to look at my profile for some more details on my life.
In a nutshell: I have been working in iGaming since November 2016 which I have enjoyed a lot, but I always had a passion for sustainability and the desire to try to make the world a little bit better. What I mean by ‘better’ is that I hope to be able to contribute to less pollution, more equal opportunities and simply a little bit more love and understanding for each other.
After having built and managed many affiliate sites (and still doing so for my clients), I decided it was time to combine my passion and experience into my own project. I noticed that besides responsible gambling, not much attention (at the time, back in 2020) is given to ESG / CSR and I think that’s a missed opportunity. With the global challenges that we face, all industries need to adapt and contribute to the needed change. So also online gambling businesses. I would like to contribute to that.
Read about what is ESG and what it means for online gambling businesses.
On the one hand, with this site, I want to guide players to casino brands that have a more positive impact on society than others, while players enjoy the best gambling experience.
And on the other hand, I build a platform where the iGaming community can discuss and encourage adopting more progressive ESG strategies and encourage their shareholders and colleagues to lead in the transition to more sustainable societies.
I believe that companies can be profitable while simultaneously working toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability. And that companies should be held accountable for their social and environmental impact. Transparency is the foundation for accountability.
So let’s create more transparency in this traditionally opaque industry.
Let me tell you a story…
Once upon a time
Businesses used to be more transparent. For generations, most businesses were conducted locally. If the person with whom you spoke was an employee, you could be relatively certain that the owner was not far away. The owner and, by association, their employees, were held accountable– there was a certain level of transparency that allowed the business to be successful. Good businesses succeeded, and bad businesses failed simply based on reputation.
Then the world changed
With the advent of better logistics, cheaper production, and the streamlining of distribution offered by the onset of the digital age, goods and services became more accessible and less expensive. The corporate world started to shift. Companies did away with their transparency and their intentions changed from providing a service and solving a problem to making as much profit as possible.
Instead of acting as an agent for the local owner and being motivated to help solve customer problems, the person behind the counter became a worker with no greater investment in the workings of the company than an hourly wage. And the company took no great investment in them.
In this transition, the compensation ratio between the executives who made decisions and the workforce became ridiculously exaggerated. The goal wasn’t about the relationships with the customers anymore, but increasingly on short-term profits and rewarding shareholders– those who held ownership of the company.
Companies became less sustainable, externalizing their costs by moving production to countries with lower wages and less regulation, not caring for the stakeholders and society. And they get away with it because most people didn’t see what was going on.
What was lost
Transparency was lost and companies could get away with externalizing costs. But now we start to realize at what costs.
The world once was big and far away meant practically ‘away’. But away is not truly away and just means that it is made someone else it’s problem. What the heart doesn’t see, it doesn’t feel. But with the rise of the internet, social media and cameras everywhere, it becomes harder and harder to pretend not to see the shit that we have created.
I believe in transparency
People don’t see it because most business isn’t transparent. This lack of transparency is what I want to change.
The goals are:
- to build a company that stands for sustainability—to lead by example– to shine a light on companies in the online gaming world and to urge them to do the same.
- to gather, through investigative journalism, corporate information and translate it into easy-to-understand language for consumers and this way create awareness in the online gaming world that would help lead to change.
- to take a piece of the pie and give back to society by donating most of the profits to the foundation called Peas Unlimited.
Players have a simple choice: choose to support companies that hold themselves to a higher standard of sustainability. Provide those companies with their patronage and pass by companies that would only offer lip service or the barest minimum of participation possible—and then only because the laws tell them they must.
I will strive to make more prominent the companies that work hard to fulfil their promises of sustainability. As you stand with me, we can all work toward greater corporate social responsibility. We can focus our economic strength as a group on companies that choose to be transparent and work toward a better world. And we can make these companies work for these greater goods. This change is possible. Now is the time.
I want BetterWorldCasinos.com to be the number 1 gateway to state-of-the-art sustainable gambling and gaming entertainment by building partnerships with online gaming companies that care, not only about profit but about people and the planet.
How to go about working with these companies?
On this website, we publish casino reviews. There are hundreds of online casinos and new ones popping up every month. Most casinos and online sportsbook sites are owned and/or operated by a handful of companies, yet if we tried to oversee and review all those companies every year, we would be overwhelmed. Hence we have to focus. Currently we are only looking at the UK market. We started by shortlisting the biggest, most famous, and most successful casino brands as the starting point in our review process. How we review you can read in on this page ‘how we rate‘. It’s a huge task. Fortunately we are not alone and establishing partnerships with companies who can help.
We will lead by example
What will we do with the revenue generated?
After covering all business expenses including becoming a zero carbon emitting company and paying all employees fair wages and enabling other suppliers to go on a same path, all surplus profits will be put into a fund which will then invest in projects. These projects will cover a wide array of sustainability issues in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals:
- Renewable energy
- Biodiversity
- Global Health
- Education
As well as working to overcome:
- Resource Scarcity and dependency
- Inequality
- Overconsumption
- Poverty
How do you know that you can trust us?
We want to set an example. We live and work by a code of both transparency, integrity and accountability. We are dedicated to regular reporting of our business interactions, earnings, and the distribution of the funds that will use those monies to help create change. We are also open to feedback and discussions on how to better our processes.
We have a salary cap as well as a profit cap for the company itself.
Perhaps the most important step taken to ensure trust between BWC, the companies with whom we work, and the people who come to us to help create change, is that we are taking steps to achieve B Corporation status and become a steward owned company.
B Corp certification is attained once a company has passed a rigorous assessment to prove that its policies and processes are all guided by and dedicated to social and environmental performance.
At the core of certification are transparency and reporting requirements.
B Corp status is not a simple thing to achieve, and we are working towards this. You can read more about B Corps and the assessment process so that you can better understand the level of dedication that we are bringing to this project.
Steward-ownership is a corporate ownership approach that offers an alternative to prioritizing shareholder value. It centers on long-term purpose over short-term profits by emphasizing two core principles: self-determination and purpose-orientation.
- Self-determination ensures decision-making power lies with those directly involved in the company’s operations
- Purpose-orientation means profits are viewed as a means to achieve the company’s goals rather than an end goal themselves.
This model has been successfully implemented by various companies, including Zeiss, Bosch, and Patagonia, providing a proven yet innovative framework that spans startups to large corporations.
Steward-ownership focuses on transforming the essence of a company by addressing ownership’s fundamental role, which in turn prioritises purpose and safeguards long-term independence.
Learn more about Steward Owndership at Purpose-Economy.org.
We hope this page has been able to explain a bit how we think and what we aim to achieve. We welcome your questions and your comments and if you are inspired and interested in becoming part of our journey, check out our ‘join us’ page.
To learn the full story of BWC, read: Make the world better while you play > About us and the goal > How we rate > Casino Reviews > Join us > more in our Blog
