As 2022 comes to an end, Nicholas Macias, COO of the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association, shares with us his assessment of the year, reflecting on how the gambling industry developed throughout the past 12 months and the work carried out by the trade entity. Additionally, Macias discusses the importance of in-person meetings, the effects of the pandemic on the sector, and what to expect from 2023.
What is your assessment of how the gaming sector developed in 2022? What role did the association play within this context?
We saw acquisitions and mergers (some more notable than others), we saw operators and suppliers seemingly carry-on business as usual, and we saw several ‘start-ups’ commence operations.
We saw employees migrate from one business to another as a result of all this activity, we saw people promoted internally, and people obtain new and varied roles. We also saw employees who had started new roles after losing their previous roles because of the pandemic thrive in their new roles and consolidate their position within their new companies.
We saw regulatory enforcement activity take place, and we saw regulatory development taking place across several jurisdictions, not least Gibraltar where we should have a revised Gambling Act and licensing and regulatory regime next year. All in all, it seemed, at least on the surface, to be business as usual for this resilient industry!
Taking all the above points into consideration, we at the GBGA do not have a role to play, either directly or indirectly, in acquisitions and mergers, and we continue to provide support to our members carrying on business as usual through our various working groups and committees we have on a wide range of topics.
There is, invariably, interest from new ventures in Gibraltar to know more about the GBGA and how it would be of interest and benefit to them, and we are always happy to welcome new members and support them in any way the GBGA can.
We see new faces around the table whenever we meet, as well as faces who have been around for a long time; it’s a good mix of the new and experienced and lays the foundations for new and innovative and realistic and sensible thinking and ideas.
One of the legacies of the pandemic we have seen is the more frequent use of video calls in place of in-person meetings. This has helped hold meetings with increased regularity and at shorter notice.
Notwithstanding, we have seen that there is still an overriding preference for in-person meetings as participants recognize the value of being in the same room as other participants, and, therefore, we are holding in-person meetings whenever we can, and even hybrid meetings.
This year also marked a general return of in-person industry events all over the world. What are your main takeaways from the events calendar in 2022?
I cannot speak for every GBGA member, or even a collective of GBGA members; participation in these events is very much an issue for each member as individual operators and businesses.
I can speak about what we have seen this year at the GBGA, and we have had instances when we have not been able to hold certain meetings or video calls because persons who would normally attend or be scheduled to attend have been unavailable because they have been traveling to and attending in-person industry events all over the world.
We have seen, from the events that we have held for our members, a preference to have in-person events, and the networking element of holding in-person events features rather prominently in the reasons why there is a preference for in-person events.
My conclusion is that the return of these events has been gratefully received, and it stands to reason that this would be for the opportunities (whether it be new business ventures, consolidating business relationships, or networking) it provides.
The GBGA recently participated in the European Safer Gambling Week. What can you tell us about this initiative, and the Association’s efforts to promote responsible gambling?
Most of the operators in Gibraltar now, and historically, are and have been UK-facing operators, and Gibraltar operators, and suppliers, have all known about and participated in the annual Safer Gambling Week campaign to promote safer gambling across the UK and Ireland going back a few years.
The European Betting and Gaming Association (EGBA), with the support and participation of industry trade associations around Europe, has done a phenomenal job in rolling out a European-wide version of this campaign. Supporting and participating in this European campaign is something you would automatically and intuitively do; you do not stop to think about it at all.
The reason we automatically and intuitively supported and participated in this campaign is that the well-being of consumers is at the heart and centre of our members’ operations, and at the heart and centre of Gibraltar as a remote gambling jurisdiction, to the extent that a collaboration between the GBGA, HM Government of Gibraltar and the University of Gibraltar saw, last year, the establishment of the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gambling (CERG) within the University of Gibraltar.
As the GBGA, we were active on various media channels posting safer gambling messages in order to promote and support safer gambling during European Safer Gambling Week this year, and we collaborated with the CERG which held two excellent and very informative safer gambling sessions, one by way of a webinar with contributions from high-level and distinguished academics in the field of safer gambling from Europe and North America; and the other a hybrid in-person and webinar session also attended by high-level and distinguished academics in the field of safer gambling, as well as industry personnel.
I believe, very firmly, that cross-border cooperation with other gambling associations is essential, and the seed that formed the basis for my thinking is that, typically, an operator / the same operator will be a member of more than one association around Europe, and even beyond. If associations do not communicate with each other, collaborate, and work together, it is likely, that work that we do as individual associations will overlap with and duplicate the work done by other associations.
Indeed, what the member operator will see is increased work on the same topics from one association and jurisdiction to another (when they have already carried out extensive work on the topic in one association/jurisdiction or another) and when they already have a very heavy internal workload to manage. It makes sense, therefore, for the various associations to coordinate and cooperate for the benefit of our own association’s members and the industry as a whole.
What is on the agenda for the Association in the coming year? What do you see as the main issues the gambling industry faces at the moment?
At the Gibraltar level, we will have a new/modernised gambling legal, licensing, and regulatory regime, and all the extensive consultation processes this brings around in which we aim to play a prominent role to help both our members and the authorities roll out the regime.
We are looking forward to cooperating further with the CERG, and to help and promote the work that they do and continue to find ways to help better protect consumers from gambling harm, and we look forward to new opportunities for Gibraltar and its licensees in a post –Brexit, post-pandemic, and revised Gibraltar gambling law world.
We are looking forward to working closer together with our fellow trade associations with EGBA providing the platform for us to meet and work together, and we are looking forward to rolling out a program of work for our various internal groups and committees ranging from safer gambling, through AML, to data protection.
And as the rest of the team keeps reminding me – it is not all about work, we need to roll out other more social activities to facilitate networking amongst our members, which brings us back to the networking element I think the industry missed during the pandemic and is now getting back.
In terms of the industry in general and not Gibraltar specific, EGBA continues to be an excellent leader in bringing all associations together and setting topics for discussion such as AML, safer gambling, and data protection that we shall progress further with them and our fellow trade associations across Europe.
We will also continue to see regulatory developments elsewhere (not just Gibraltar), e.g., Great Britain, Ireland, etc., and the work and challenges that this will also bring about.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2022/12/26/65523-nicholas-macias-34crossborder-cooperation-with-other-gambling-associations-is-essential-34
