The late-morning slot at ICE VOX was reserved for a panel discussion which primarily addressed the concept of trust among the public, the regulators and gaming operators in Europe. The panel was composed of Monika Racek, CEO of Admiral, David Williams of Rank Group, Wes Himes of the Betting and Gaming Council and Hermann Pamminger from the European Casino Association.
The session began as an examination of the concept of self-regulation as a way forward for the land-based casino industry, but all panellists expressed reservations about the effectiveness of this process. Wes Himes made the point that while full self-regulation might be a difficult concept for all stakeholders to accept, it is important for the industry to set (and improve) standards over time, and made reference to the 22 commitments their members had made across a wide range of areas.
Monika Racek spoke interestingly about the unintended consequences, at the opposite end of the scale to self-regulation, of regulators imposing rules without reference to operators. She quoted the example of one province in Austria, where a three-hour play time limit per customer simply led to customers running out of time, then transferring across the border to another legislative regime, totally undermining the purpose of the law. A number of the panellists cited similar situations, including the fear of over-regulation driving trade to illegal operators, with little or no social responsibility in mind.
All present reached consensus that the best way forward is for regulators and operators to work together in formulating relevant and effective legislation. On the one hand, it’s no good, as David Williams stated, that in an emotive debate like the one surrounding gambling, operators are seen to “mark their own homework”. However, at the same time, as Hermann Pamminger pointed out, the bodies that regulate car production wouldn’t dream of creating rules without speaking to the manufacturers themselves to determine what form of regulation is relevant and important.
This led back to the concept of trust and communication. Hermann pointed out that the key is making sure all stakeholders are well-informed about the situation “on the ground”. Too many people, he pointed out, have assembled all of their casino knowledge from popular culture, rather than live experience, and changing that situation is a key part of the role of trade bodies like the ECA.
David Williams concluded with a very interesting point: that the only way to develop a virtuous circle with regulation is to continually assess whether the process is working. Just adopting new rules at the whim of regulators, who might have picked up a concept from another market, is ineffective; the route to a successful partnership between operators and legislators is to continually check back to ensure new measures are effective in delivering their stated aim. From that continuous improvement process, we can hope for better trust between public, operators and regulators and a future where rules are put in place with a clear objective in mind for the benefit of all concerned.
