be the politicians or the governments or the administration that is sending a message to our regulators telling them the kind of gaming policies that we want. And the regulators should be executing that message and not the other way around. But it’s the other way around. I mean, it’s the regulator who knocks on the door of the politician, asking them to approve restrictive measures, banning advertisements etc. I spoke with a Spanish regulator a while ago about how he tried to convince the Ministry of Finance to reduce gambling tax five years ago in Spain. I mean, you can imagine that conversation and that negotiation is difficult. Coming back to trade associations, in Spain, we have J-Digital for online gambling, which is one association, only representing the industry and so on. On the other hand, much more mature the land-based industry has an so many trade associations that I will not be able to tell you. Perhaps I can tell you two or three Association, but I’m not sure which one really represents the whole industry. There are associations for casino, for the bingo industry, but there are three, four, I don’t know, for different sub sectors. J-Digital the association for online gaming, gathers not only operators, but also an ecosystem which software providers, certification entities, even law firms are part of. They are making good progress in many fields, like lobbying or whenever there are public consultation. But perhaps the biggest achievement in the last year has been the challenge of the Advertising Decree. And we might see some interesting results in the next two years as a result of that challenge. Aside from that, I’d like to put something else on the table. Have operators done their best to avoid the situation that we are currently facing during the days of caviar, roses, champagne? They were counting the money and paying little attention to avoiding exactly the trend that we have everywhere today. And the second question: has the industry done all it can to improve or have we been enjoying the good days and avoiding any kind of action that makes a better industry for everyone? QM: If you ask me, the answer is obviously no. We were discussing the advertising bans earlier and I put the biggest blame on the industry. They did not take pre-emptive action and we ended up with an advertising ban. The industry is doing nothing, for instance, to redress the reputational issue, which is a big issue. Politicians only understand consensus right? So if you are taking pot shots at the gambling industry because the gambling industry is bad, you’re doing something good. So in the mind of the politician, this is all good. It’s politically correct. If you want to reverse that you need to do a thing that the local industry in Italy never did and I never understood why. Why did they not each chip in €10,000 per operator which is nothing for the whole industry, to pool money to support a major advertising campaign to say we are the good guys, we are the ones holding a license, we are the ones paying taxes in this country. We are the ones implementing AML GDPR privacy regulations and Responsible Gaming. The bad guys are located somewhere else in some fishy jurisdictions and who are using their rods to fish into Italian waters. Did they ever do this? No. Why? I have no idea. Now it’s too late. I don’t know if Germany is different. But in my country and Spain it’s definitely too late. SA: The bad news is that in Spain, like in Italy, the populists were the ones who brought the ban on advertising. But this is a standard. I mean, it’s not just the populists who have this approach to gambling advertising. But even if other political parties have a different view on it they are not going to change things, because it’s popular. QM But until you address the reputation issue no matter who is ruling, you will always have the same problem. The gambling industry will be seen as the bad guys. Now, Germany is a work in progress, a melting pot of regulations, licenses and things, and also illegal gambling. So Wulf the stories that you’re hearing from the UK, Italy and Spain is it the same in Germany, or can you give us some words hope? WH: When I ask my clients they are absolutely not happy with current license conditions, with the situation that they’re facing. The license process has been really complicated and a lot of money has been invested by operators to apply for the first licenses. Then our clients asked us how to withdraw a license and exit the market so this shows it is really not good. But now I want to put some sugar in the water. I want to think about quality with an example. The arcade industry in Germany was in a very bad situation a couple of years ago. They also grew a bit too much from 2006
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