Do you err on the side of caution and say you’ve got to meet these standards? Or do you say, show us that you’re gonna meet these standards for this aspect. But you’ve got something else in place that could work for another aspect and then you’ve got to figure out how to integrate it. From a technology perspective, do you use two different providers? Do you have one provider integrate? There’s a lot more to consider. AL: I think it’s always important when it comes to regulation, that it should be of course balanced. Regulators and operators within the regulated market are in competition with the gray market and the black market, where they don’t care about any regulation. So I think it should be different for different markets. For example, in Austria, we have a monopoly in online gambling, only one company is allowed to provide online casino games and slot games, etc. And 50% of the market is in the gray or in the black market. So yes, market perspective is also important when doing regulation, and then regulators must find a balance. JVD: I agree that the law can often be a challenge when it comes to channeling players from the illegal market to the regulated one, especially if the law hasn’t fully caught up with the technologies that exist. This is sometimes the case in Belgium. For example, a lot of our online licensees are allowed to offer online games of chance. But the rules are strictly tied to what exists in the real world and land based gambling, even going as far as requiring them to have a gambling establishment. So a physical building in Belgium before you can offer your website to Belgian customers. It’s also required that some servers be placed in a physical location in Belgium. I imagine that’s a difficult thing for operators looking to have a platform that’s, for example, supported by web services that are external, maybe in a cloud server. So in that sense, I think, regulators and legislators need to make sure that the law provides the right tools to the sector as well to stay competitive. JK: That’s a perfect example of a really a universal theme; how regulation is often far behind advances in technology. And you make a good point, it’s often the legislation that needs to change. And we’re constantly trying to get regulations to catch up with the tech. There are some jurisdictions that have different set of rules for just about everything in land based and online, and now we’re talking about omnichannel, which really merges those two channels and it’s very difficult to reconcile the disparate regulations. Whose obligation is it? How do we get that done? Right. So, Alexander, and Gabrielle, is it the industry’s obligation to sat to the regulators, we have this new technology we want to implement but it doesn’t fit squarely into your regulation. How do we get that done? And what are your experiences with working with regulators to effect the changes needed to implement the tech? GA: I think it absolutely starts with the industry, because the regulators aren’t the ones creating the technology. They don’t know about it and if they do, they don’t know how it works. I think it’s going to be up to the industry and the operators who have the application, to go to the regulators to have this conversation and say this is what we think is the future of gaming, combining both land based and online. How do we fit this into your regulations? Do the regulations need to change? Is this a legislative lobbying effort to get new legislation written? I think a lot of US regulators are open to innovation and having those conversations but they’re not the ones that are producing this technology. So they need to be educated. It’s up to the industry to come to the regulators to say, we want to do this. What are your concerns about your current regulations? Are there changes possible? Do we need to lobby the legislators? How can we make this work? AL: Simple communication, education and transparency, these are the way, actually to cross the hurdles. It depends on the person, of course. If the regulator is open to new technology, or is closed. They don’t know what omnichannel means and don’t want to know. But in the end, communication, education and transparency are the three elements to have a successful well-balanced regulation. JK: Jonathan, do you agree? And what do you feel the role of the regulator is in helping get new technology into the market? JVD: I do agree with what was said. We try to be open to operators and intermediaries. talking to us about new technologies. We’re often also just an intermediary ourselves in that the regulator, of course, doesn’t create the rules.
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