don’t do that as a government. Right now, we are rethinking this issue, because of the opening of the online market, it’s spread around as a normal element of society. So the ministry is thinking about a campaign for the awareness of the risks of gambling. And we are thinking now about the pilot campaign making our self exclusion register, better known to the public so that people who have problems can self exclude, or the operators can exclude them. So that’s the first initiative on that side. MD: Jaime you’ve recently launched online, so this is new to your jurisdiction. Talk about what your experience was online and how you guys are differentiating between your legal online regulated product versus the illegal markets that are competing with your licensees. JR-E Opening up the sports betting market offering online betting has raised awareness and we are starting to see a shift from illegal to legal gaming in a more secure environment. Obviously it depends on what vertical but in terms of the sports betting launch that we already did recently I think that’s going to help, because it’s going to shift from the illegal market to where the player is going to feel safer. And since the advertising of that activity is pretty aggressive, that has raised some awareness that is already there that you don’t have to play illegal, although it does not advertise directly against the illegal gaming is has an effect against the illegal gaming, because raising awareness that there is an alternative of betting safe in a controlled regulated environment. I think that has been good for us. In terms of other challenges on launching the online sports betting, I think licensing has been an operational challenge. We’ve got two types of license, one for operators and the other for service providers and a vendor’s registry as well, so it’s a challenge getting into the licensing process, and also the operational because it’s something new within our gaming culture. What we have learned is that we have to go hand in hand with the operators. As regulators, our main focus is to make sure that they comply with the regulatory framework. But when there is some space, we also act as a facilitator, because I really believe that if we can get together with the private sector, then we can get a better industry. And most important we can fight collectively against the illegal gaming, and all the bad that costs to the society. MD: In listening to the last two days of discussions, you can see this tension that you described on advertising restrictions and the way the industry is responding and saying ‘how we can market our product when the illegal guys aren’t restrained?’ And then Jaime’s talking about the hundreds and millions of dollars a year that Puerto Rico gains from the legal industry and making sure that is still coming into the system. Is there not a place, like what’s going on in South Africa, where you have the industry and the regulator coming together and saying we’re going to advertise a similar message that is, obviously, gamble responsibly. But let’s talk about where you gamble legally. Is there not a middle ground between no advertising at all and advertising the legal market and also achieving the public objectives? Do you see a scenario where you have the public sector and the private sector cooperating on their messaging, you know, wager responsibly, wager legally, here’s how, here’s where you can go. Do you see that coming together in the future? RJ: Well, we do cooperate with operators on the issue because we debate all kinds of scenarios, but I think it would be not understood if we would had joint action on this. We must realize that at least from Netherlands, the gambling industry will be compared to the tobacco industry or to the liquor industry. So it would be really misunderstood if you do that. There’s not really the need right now to do so because our channelization is high, above 90%. So the black market is not that big an issue like I think what I hear from Caroline, in South Africa. I think we should look at what we’re trying to achieve and decide what is most successful for getting nearer to the target, which is playing safely, Responsible Gambling. MD: Alright, one last question. I’ll start with you, Caroline, you look in your crystal ball and just tell us what the future is going to look like in the next year, two years, five years in South Africa. CC: I think COVID was definitely a game changer for the gambling industry. What the isolation did was change bettors’ preferences and behavior and it’s been really a huge shift. So I see us going, you know, more online in the near future. Because of how the betting industry has evolved, basically, we did have punters who were heavily invested in
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