ensure that the Ukrainian gambling market will be well regulated, transparent and attractive to international companies and international investments. MS: My name is Matthias Spitz. I’m a gaming lawyer from Germany, representing mostly licensed operators and B2B suppliers. So you’ve heard our regulator on the previous panel. So I’m the one who’s going to give you a bit more of the industry perspective on our country. KS-H I’m Karen Sierra-Hughes. I’m the VP for Latin America and Caribbean for GLI. I’m a Panamanian attorney. Before joining 19 years ago, I was also a regulator for a very brief amount of time, only three years, but it was one of my greatest experiences. And I’m here to share my experience of working with GLI and with all the regulators and the industry in the region. MSy: I’m Australian and German and Swiss and I represent a little bit Lichtenstein. When Quirino welcomed us this morning he introduced the idea of regulation and regulator. I think it’s important to point out that very often, the people that we refer to as regulators are in fact, surveillance people. They’re supervisors, they’re people who are surveying the gaming industry. Whereas regulation involves lots and lots of people. There are people in industry, there are people in government, there are people in Parliament, there’s even the population because in the end in Liechtenstein, and in Switzerland, many questions about gambling are decided by referendum, where the population vote at the end of the day. So there are lots of people involved and I would like to call them policymakers. There are people before who’ve talked about policymakers. And I think it’s a very good way of distinguishing surveillance people from policymakers and I have a long history of policymaking because I work for the Swiss Federal Government. BS: I’m delighted to be here as always among good friends, new faces as well. My name is Birgitte Sand and I used to be the regulator for Denmark. I never saw myself surveilling anyone, but I’m I might have missed out on a few things. I used to be the regulator for 12 years and the last three years I’ve been advising industry and governments on gaming. I hope to be able to share a little bit more without a filter on. JK: So I want to draw on the experience and the expertise of the panel, from the perspective of different cultures, different legal systems, general approach different from countries, big countries, small countries and different continents. So let’s start off with the country that’s near and dear to all our hearts, the Ukraine. As you would have heard from people already, they’re delighted to have you here today, Olena, as are we and the IMGL. We’d like to speak to you now about regulating a new jurisdiction, because I understand that regulation in the Ukraine is quite new. So speak to us a little bit about that, please. OV: Thank you for the question. I have to admit that, from my perspective, the main challenge we had, and we still have is the lack of professionals and lawyers and expert experts, with deep understanding and deep knowledge of specific features of the gambling market. That’s why I think an opportunity like this conference is very important for our commission, because here we can listen to opinions, to expertise from the international gambling community. And of course, the support and expertise from such companies like GLI and experts from IMGL are crucial for the Commission. That’s why I am here, I am happy to be here and to share with my thoughts, my ideas and to hear yours. I want to admit that we are ready for any discussions with our business with international experts to any connections and we are eager to cooperate. JK: Karen, you got a mention there, GLI is doing something to assist in in the Ukrainian jurisdiction. I suspect you have a wider expertise that can travel not just to Ukraine, but to other countries. Tell us a little bit about that. KS-H: Yes, we are fortunate to be able to support governments in their efforts to regulate gaming for different verticals. In addition to what a Olena said about Ukraine, the region that I manage, which is Latin American and the Caribbean, has a special need for this, because many of the jurisdictions still don’t have a regulatory body, not even in gaming law, especially in the Caribbean and Central America. So the role that we have is really important and very meaningful to us as a company. Olena mentioned the challenges of creating a new regulatory entity and it’s really something that we see with our regulators when we discuss the creation of a regulatory entity. There’s always a concern over where do
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