VIGE 2017 – RECAP FROM E-GAME SPECTRUM | IMGL Masterclass

The first ever gaming exhibition in Vienna took place last week – the Vienna International Gaming Expo (VIGE 2017) organized by EEGEvents - Part of EEG. Our media team attended the event and we have prepared short recaps about the seminars from the first two days of the expo. We also had the chance to talk to some of the speakers, all of them experienced professionals and visionaries  from the gaming industry.

The regulation talks were followed by the IMGL Masterclass where the attention was delivered to risks and challenges for affiliates, operators and platforms working in regulated markets. 

In the discussion took part the President of the National Gambling Office of Romania – Odeta Nestor, Robert Skalina, Senior Advisor to WH Partners, Assaf Dor, CEO at CELLXPERT, Yoav Dotan, Founder of Genesis Global/Affiliatecruise.com, Tal Ron, Founder of Tal Ron, Drihem and Co. and Morten Ronde, Director for Education and Association Development of IMGL, CEO of Danish Online Gaming Association. The panel was moderated by Dr. Joerg Hofmann, immediate past President of IMGL, Partner with Melchers Law Firm.

The panellists discussed the different aspects of online gaming and how different regulations are trying to cope with illegal online gambling: blacklisting of operators, penalties for players, ISP blocking, payment blocking and affiliate blocking measures. Odeta Nestor introduced the main principles of the new Class 2 license applied in Romania that can be granted to suppliers. 

The main question that the speakers discussed was weather the gaming suppliers are liable for offenses committed by the gaming operators and how this impacts the affiliate industry. 

We talked with Richard Leather from Gambling Compliance about how different jurisdictions adapt to the fast development of technologies and how crucial it might be for operators if regulatory bodies fail to adapt. 

It is a problem for both operators and regulators. There need to be an acceptance that technology will usually outpace regulation. However, a lot of regulators spend a lot of time talking to the industry and understanding what trends are coming through, and putting in place regulation to meet the new ways of offering gambling products, for example DFS. There will continue to be new types of gambling products out there and I think that both operators and regulators recognize that having sensible and effective regulation is the best way forward. Some regulatory frameworks are more flexible and more easy to change than others. So there can be challenges in some jurisdictions that don't exist in others.

Is it possible that in recent years online gambling will completely displace land-based gambling?  

As Gambling Compliance which is the definitive hub for regulatory and compliance information across over 100 jurisdictions including online land-based is placed to analyze these kind of trends, I think that the simple answer to that is no. I think Online and increasing mobile are very popular platforms and ways for people to gamble, but they won't completely affect land-based gambling. I think what is interesting in the industry is that we're seeing a merging of land-based and online. Land-based operators are starting to have more online presence.  

Author: Hristiana Petkova

Associate Editor