EDITORIAL
A view from the top
How time flies. We are already in the fourth year of the IMGL Magazine and I have been gratified by the positive feedback received. I trust we have set a high bar for the quality required of an authoritative publication. That said, I have been thinking for some time about ways to contrast the substantial, sometimes long and technical articles with a lighter format containing personal insights, without compromising the quality that our readers are acquainted with. The result is a one-on-one interview format intended for senior figures in our industry to share perspectives well beyond corporate messaging: personal observations on the industry, developments and challenges and, not least, what it’s like to do their jobs. I am delighted that we are kicking off this new format with Mr John McManus, an eminent industry figure who sits at the top table at MGM Resorts International. While I would love to sit down with John and discuss industry matters over a beer, the reality is that we spoke over Zoom while we were both travelling. I would like to thank John for his willingness to join us in this new format and his generousity with time and thoughts for our readers. There has been a lot of talk about enforcement in recent years. In Europe, enforcement actions by
regulators have often been focused on licensed operators. From the perspective of the licensees, this can be quite frustrating. As a ‘tradeoff’ for the payment of license fees and sizeable sums in tax, licensed operators can feel they end up under fire from regulators, media and politicians, while unlicensed operators continue unimpeded. This can be for various reasons, depending on the jurisdiction and the powers of regulators. The chance to advertise their licensed products legally is one of the few tangible advantages that licensed operators enjoy, yet that this advantage is increasingly being whittled away as advertising bans have spread like a virus throughout Europe. I was interested to read from our Portuguese colleague of industry efforts in his country to agree to voluntary controls on promotional content as a way of avoiding restrictions on advertising. It is not easy to get such voluntary deals to stick especially if companies operating in the grey market are able to do so with impunity. Which brings us back to enforcement. We know from criminology that law-abiding (corporate) citizens feel satisfaction when they see those that break the law suffer the consequences. The opposite is also true: nothing erodes confidence in the law more than seeing corruption and
SIMON PLANZER PHD, Editor in Chief IMGL MAGAZINE
Contents 6
Tackling the illegal gaming market from a UK and European perspective View from the top: interview with John McManus, MGM A fresh breeze through the German online gambling market? Cross-border mergers & acquisitions in gambling and gaming Outlook for M&A in Colombia and Latin America Beating the odds: resolving sportsbook mistakes fairly
10 15 18 22 26 32 36 40 44 48
Gambling advertising in Portugal
15 years of slot machines in off track betting locations in Puerto Rico
Age verification in real-money games: hardly child’s play
Towards the reorganization of the online gaming in Italy: what the new statute says
Betting on security
IMGL MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2023 IMGL MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024
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