Caesars Turns Pennies Into $200,000 Gift to Advance Responsible Gaming
Posted on: May 20, 2025, 01:45h.
Last updated on: May 20, 2025, 02:34h.
- Caesars has donated $200K to the International Center for Responsible Gaming
- The ICRG is a nonprofit that issues grants for responsible gaming studies
- The Caesars Foundation made the ICRG gift
The Caesars Foundation, the charitable arm of Caesars Entertainment, recently gifted $200K to the International Center for Responsible Gaming (ICRG).
The ICRG, a nonprofit based in Las Vegas, was formed in 1996 to better fund gambling research to learn how certain players develop gambling disorders and addictions. Since its inception, the ICRG claims to have yielded more than 400 scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has played a critical role in reducing gaming harms.
Last week, the Caesars Foundation presented the ICRG with $180K for “competitive research grants” focused on the biological and psychological mechanisms of gambling. The allocation is to be used to additionally study treatment innovation, public health messaging, and the impact of gambling-related policies.
Caesars also gave the ICRG $20K to host its 26th Annual ICRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction on October 5-6 at The Venetian Expo in Las Vegas.
“This generous commitment from Caesars Foundation underscores their ongoing leadership in corporate responsibility and dedication to advancing the science of responsible gambling,” said ICRG President Arthur Paikowsky. “Together, we are helping ensure that policies, treatment options, and prevention strategies are rooted in rigorous and independent scientific evidence.”
ICRG ‘Firewall’
Since the ICRG is primarily funded by companies invested in the operation of gambling, such as Caesars, the organization created a so-called firewall that’s designed to protect the nonprofits’ studies and grants from being influenced by donors. The ICRG’s funding initiatives must be approved by its Scientific Advisory Board, an independent panel of addiction and mental health specialists.
Neither the donors nor the ICRG governing board has input on which research bids are funded.
The Caesars Foundation is a private foundation entirely funded by Caesars Entertainment. A considerable portion of the company’s annual contribution to the Foundation comes from customers via the Caesars Makes Change program.
Caesars Makes Change is in most Caesars-run casinos. The program allows players to donate their ticket-in, ticket-out (TITO) vouchers instead of redeeming their cash value. The program is popular with slots players who dump tens of thousands of vouchers each year into the receptacles, most worth less than a dollar.
In the 2024 fiscal year, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) said players threw away $24.4 million. As a reminder, it’s illegal in most gaming states for one to pocket a found gaming voucher that doesn’t belong to them.
Caesars Foundation Focus Areas
The Caesars Foundation has several pillars where it’s most interested in allocating its money — social equity & education, climate change and food security, and responsible play and mental health.
Since its formation in 2002, the Caesars Foundation has gifted more than $80 million. Major benefactors include the National Park Trust, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Clean the World, Meals on Wheels, and Second Wind Dreams.
Caesars’ charitable arm is governed by a board of directors chaired by Anthony Carano, president and COO at Caesars and the grandson of Eldorado Resorts founder Don Carano. The board additionally includes Katie Carano-Miller, a granddaughter of the family patriarch who is the senior vice president of communications and government relations at Caesars. Carano died in 2017 at the age of 85.
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