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SP: You’ve mentioned uncertainty several times. Would you agree that uncertainty about tariffs is worse than, say, having 10 percent tariffs across the board? DD: Agreed Simon. That’s spot on. Uncertainty makes it much more difficult to plan. When we’re thinking 12 months ahead, 18 months ahead or longer, what are our products going to look like? What new features are we going to bring to the market, to satisfy the customers of tomorrow? When we have uncertainty, we’re only thinking about the next few months and that impacts our ability to deliver the kind of innovation that has kept our industry growing. SP: We are hearing stories of operators scaling back their ambitions due to increased costs due to tariffs. What is the picture that’s emerging from your customer base? DD: I don’t know if we’re seeing that feeding through yet on the supplier side. I think we have heard some companies are delaying capital investments or renovations, because the cost of construction is less certain. If that were to continue, that would definitely feed through to our members. We see this also in the capital replacement cycle. Everybody refreshes the products that they offer to their customers and depreciates their equipment over several years. That’s where the macro effect of trade policies impacts capital decisions. If our operator customers pull back on capital reinvestment that trickles down into what they decide to replenish on the gaming floor. Or it changes the way they do it so more rental or lease activity, rather than buying outright. Those are all financial decisions that we navigate as best we can with our customers. Every customer is different, but yes, I would expect alternative arrangements to be put on the table by our members so they can get their latest, most innovative products in front of customers. For me, it comes down to two issues: how are we going to keep delivering our products in a profitable way that satisfies the needs of our customers, and how are we going to compete against competitors who are not in the regulated space? Those two things are on every company’s mind right now. SP: That is a neat segue to talk about the black market. Your members work in the regulated market but how does the black market dynamic work on the supplier side? And what are you
as an organization, what are suppliers and your members doing about that? DD: When you look at the growth of our industry, that’s come on the back of innovation, great ideas and new players to the point where gaming is essentially everywhere now in some form. That’s a good thing, but at the same time, it gives a boost to those unlicensed, unregulated companies to be more prevalent. That’s the downside, because the industry is highly regulated and we play by the rules when it comes to compliance, paying taxes, providing the public protection frameworks, the responsible gaming and making sure that the games are tested, certified and approved. There are player dispute mechanisms. That’s what the regulated market does but the unregulated market doesn’t provide any of that. So for suppliers, it is difficult when you’re competing on an unlevel playing field, when customers can’t tell the difference between a regulated or an unregulated game. That eats away at the value of regulated products and regulated suppliers and benefits unregulated and unauthorized ones. We work with our partner associations – the American Gaming Association, the Canadian Gaming Association, the European Casino Association, the GTA down in Australia – to keep them focused on the benefits of regulated suppliers. The message is, if you want these things as a regulated industry, let’s work together to find solutions so that your customers are safe, your taxes are secure and we don’t have black market companies benefiting from all of the good work that regulated gaming has done. We are very pro regulation. Wherever you have regulated markets, whether that’s land-based or online, we’re going to participate in them. We can deliver the products we’re going to be there in those markets. So regulate whatever forms of gaming you wish to have in your jurisdiction and let that be the universe of products and available games. We are the established partners of regulated gaming so let’s find a way to participate on a regulated level playing field, and then the customers will decide whose products are the best. SP: It sounds like there are a couple of elements to this. One is unregulated machines finding their way into regulated casinos. And the other is the enforcement part of that where regulators are actively seeking those out and taking action, is that right?
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IMGL MAGAZINE | JUNE 2025
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