The eighth World Gaming Executive Summit kicked off today at the W Hotel in Barcelona with a day focused on regulation.
In 2013, the Regulation Day was tucked away in a basement conference room, barely an aperitif to the two main conference days that followed. This year, the Regulation Day has been promoted to the main ballroom.
After opening remarks from Andrew Gellatly, the day began with lively panel discussion about new markets between Clive Hawkswood, CEO of the Remote Gambling Association, and Annette Kok, president of Euromat, the European gaming and amusement federation.
Hawkswood said that many new markets had “something of a Field of Dreams mentality,” paraphrasing the famous line from the Kevin Costner film: “If we build it, they will come.”
But he cautioned that this was not always the case, citing Bulgaria as an example: “It’s simply not that big a market,” said Hawkswood.
“Some governments don’t understand the industry,” he continued. “They tend to think we [in the online gaming industry] are different – in some way controllable. They think they can do what they like in terms of tax and regulation and it will be ok.”
“But new and emerging markets must look at their own market and look at best practice,” he added. “If companies can’t run a viable business there, they will leave the market.
“This leaves the way open to black market operators,” cautioned Hawkswood.
Kok highlighted the main problems facing the land-based industry that she represents, including national regulations not keeping up with technical innovation in the land-based industry.
The Euromat president’s main focus however was on tax issues. “We [in the land-based industry] have licences and are regulated – we are easy to tax,” said Kok.
“There is a disparity between online and land-based tax regimes, in Denmark for example,” she said. A disparity defended “with nonsense reasons” by the government, added Kok.
“The land-based industry has always paid its taxes, has good programmes for addiction etc and is still at a disadvantage.
“And still there are a lot of black market operators in i-gaming,” she added
Hawkswood countered that the online sector is very different to the land-based market. “The lower tax rates [for the online sector] are justified, but it is patchy and only sometimes do they get it right. For example, in the UK land-based bingo has a lower tax rate than online bingo.”
However, Hawkswood conceded that the land-based industry “probably does pay too much tax.”
The World GES continues until Thursday, July 10.
