Conference proceedings, Zurich 2023

what is the real impact of certain restrictions. JK: Martin one for you. Is it the case that a regulator’s job in a big country is different from being a regulator in a smaller country like Denmark or Ireland? MSy: It’s totally different and you have to adapt yourself to the situation that you’re in. Coming back to my experience with Australia, there are many Australian jurisdictions and some of them are a bit odd. If we take the Australian Capital Territory and Norfolk Island. These are two jurisdictions that came up with top notch regulation of distance remote gambling. Really, they deal with all the different aspects, everything was really at the highest level that you could imagine. But I believe that nobody has ever applied for a license in either of those jurisdictions. Because it’s just not feasible. It’s not realistic. Nobody can carry out a business under those conditions. On the other hand, I work with Liechtenstein, which is even smaller than Norfolk island with a population of a mid- sized European town, but it’s a jurisdiction with a huge number of applicants for casino licenses, so the industry works very well. Even with three very small jurisdictions, you have very different needs. And then you compare that to the UK or Ireland. Ireland is going to be facing a completely different regulatory environment from a similar sized country like Denmark. The situation is not the same in the two countries. JK: Birgitte, Denmark under your leadership, established a good reputation as getting a lot of those things right. Tell us a little bit about what you think were the key elements in the success that Denmark achieved. BS: You have to realize from day one that you’re not going to get it perfect. You need to have a certain degree of pragmatism, you have to be brave and you have to get yourself in there. It’s very much about earning your status. The thing behind the success behind the Danish model was really the team. All the stakeholders actually shared a wish and willingness to make it happen. As a person, I am both quite collaborative, but also quite stubborn. So, if it takes another meeting, if it takes another discussion, we go there. We don’t leave the room with unfinished business. We try again. And I think that’s where some jurisdictions go wrong. They give up halfway, or they turn to legislators and leave it on their shoulders. You need to be close to your legislators and that’s also part of the story. In Denmark, we were in that lucky situation that we were invited in to write up the legislation together with the legislators. And that, of course, made a huge difference when we had to administrate the whole thing. We knew why it was like it was. You also have to be pragmatic and open. Things change and you will want changes in legislation but don’t expect Parliament every week to change the legislation, it will not happen. It will maybe happen every fifth year or 10th year. So you have to be very sure on where you put the different requirements, right, so you can change them. You have to make sure that you get some kind of power yourself as a regulator so you can actually make this system work in the real world together with the industry when things change. JK: We were talking before about engagement with politicians. Is that an important dynamic in your market, Olena? OV: Yes, we are doing our best to have good connections with our politicians and policymakers. Unfortunately, today, we don’t have enough results for this, but we will do our best. From my perspective, our gambling law needs a lot of adjustments. And we are now we’re working on drafting this. And I hope in the near future, we will have this connection with policymakers and we will convince them to make changes. JK: In Ireland, we have that dynamic as well. As the legislation is going through the parliament, there’s a dialogue with business, maybe not enough of a dialogue, sometimes a politician will choose not to hear you and but the legislation is passed with some element of discretion for the regulator. But how does it work in the bigger jurisdiction. Matthias, how do you see that process going? Is there a sufficient connection between the regulator and the legislator? MS: In a federal country like Germany, things get considerably more complicated. Although we have a federal government that could take the competence for regulating gambling, that’s not going to happen and the reason is

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