Niron is an advisor to FBC’s Intellectual Property Practice, providing clients with advice and legal services related to regulatory requirements and compliance in the field of gambling and gaming. Striking the right balance, Niron calls for greater dialogue on compliance as the international industry prepares to meet at ICE London.
You’ve been working in the industry for over 10 years with some of Europe’s key operators – how do you see the future of European gaming shaping up in the face of tighter compliance and AML requirements?
Higher compliance costs and fines, coupled with lower margins due to new advertising bans, saturated markets, increasingly higher taxation rates and wagers’ limitations, will continue to drive the industry to consolidation and constant search of new, less saturated and more cost efficient markets. Many smaller operators will have to give up their licenses, a trend that we can see has started already. Additionally, we will see more and more operators outsourcing their compliance department, triggering a new line of companies offering dedicated, professional compliance services as third party providers, such as LeoVegas.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities stemming from in the next few years?
The United States of America is an obvious answer, but the DOJ’s recent decision reversing the 2011 opinion of the Wire Act is yet another hurdle in the US market. Moreover, some of the states, like Pennsylvania, introduced a very expensive license fee of $10m, triggering a very high barrier of entry, as well as very high taxation rate of 36% of gross gaming revenues. Therefore, I would say, the opening of new European markets like Sweden and the Netherlands, as well as South America, hold key opportunities for the future. Brazil legalized sports betting in Dec 2018 and more and more territories are expected to follow, such as the province of Buenos Aires, which is the richest province in Argentina.
With sports betting and esports set to grow again following the US regulatory changes in 2018, alongside other emerging territories, how can the industry ensure compliance remains at the fore?
I think it all comes down to being open and united as an industry. For example, regulators from around the world should unify and create the same set of compliance requirements and they need to share the information they all have. From an operator perspective, they should implement emerging technologies to assist with compliance requirements and customer management, whilst also adopting better procedures and employing professionals to supervise and control marketing material and channel distributions. It’s also down to operators to pay better attention to compliance requirements and also share information globally.
What role can ICE London play in helping to shape the industry’s future?
Events such as ICE London are very important to the industry, as they provide an insight to the upcoming trends, as well as the most innovative drivers for growth and the popular channels. In recent years, this has been around verticals like lotto, payment providers various players’ optimization tools and sport betting suppliers. Additionally, it’s a great place to network with diverse groups of software providers, operators and third party providers, all of whom are necessary for the operation of online gambling. It’s also a place to hear about the latest regulatory updates and, of course, to socialize and enjoy the parties!
Fonte: GMB
