The annual meeting of the European Casino Association (ECA) takes place this week in Monte Carlo, at the Casino de Monte Carlo and the Hotel Hermitage Monte-Carlo. The event will be part hosted by the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer and will be attended by many of the leading Chief Executive Officers and board members of the land-based casino sector. A good number of related specialists will also be in attendance, including suppliers and designers.
ECA chairman Per Jaldung made the following statement: “(The ECA meeting), which continues to grow, once again offers the chance to share best practices and provide the structured network for our industry that we envisage for our members and partners.
“The issues we will discuss show our ongoing commitment to taking concrete action on some of the key societal challenges of our time in line with our membership of the UN Global Compact and support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals”.
A number of topics on the agenda of this year’s meeting have been flagged by the organizers as being of particular significance, including a look at developments in anti-money laundering systems. There have been a number of recent high-profile failures to prevent money laundering in both the online world and in brick-and-mortar gaming. Another key issue is the growing availability of illegal unlicensed gaming, whether online or in person, and the impact of this on society and the industry.
A specific discussion is also planned around gender equality in the gaming industry, which became a hot topic at this past year’s ICE gaming conference in London when the Head of the UK Gambling Commission indicated that the gender roles on display (which included a pole dancer dressed all in leather and a contortionist with a hoop) were both unequal and detrimental to women, calling them “swimsuit sexism.” The ECA has also highlighted the need to discuss how we can work towards better enforcement of current national gambling regulations.
