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Wednesday, October 3, 2018
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by Andrew Tottenham
Managing Director, Tottenham & Co 
Each September, the UK Gambling Commission publishes its annual survey of gambling behaviour in Great Britain (not the UK). So September is the month when gambling operators hold their breath and gird themselves for the predictable media onslaught. Last year's headlines were certainly as expected: Mr Angry of the Daily Mail wrote "More than 2 million people could turn into gambling addicts"; from the Guardian there was "Number of problem gamblers in the UK rises to more than 400,000".
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by Luke Haward
CDC Gaming Reports
The cartoon version of the UK gambling industry probably would have it as a naughty schoolboy who knows he's done wrong, fearing a severe punishment from the new headteacher. But an alternative might be a dinosaur, set in its ways regardless of environmental changes.
As we consider the possibility of a Labour government for the UK, we can foresee changes across all industries in some form or another. But what the gambling industry essentially fears are interventions from a higher authority which will curb its ability to make the current returns, or to achieve growth.
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Luke says: The Dutch Council of State throws out two gambling appeals this week, concerning fines for running gambling services without legal permission. Co-Gaming and Mansion Online are the operators in question, the former having employed the Dutch flag and language on site, presumably to appear more legitimate whilst operating from overseas. The Dutch regulator, the KSA, has stepped up its game recently, but many of its fines issued for contravening laws governing offering games without a license remain unpaid for years. In many cases the KSA has faced the classic difficulty of penalising rogue online international operators; many of its fines have been levied on entities based out of a former Dutch colony, the Caribbean island of Curaçao. Also of legal note is Betsson subsidiary Corona's characterisation of the Netherlands' gambling legislation as lacking EU compliance.
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Andrew says:
C2, Melco's temporary casino in Limassol, Cyprus, is doing much better than expected. Since opening three months ago, it has averaged almost 2,000 customers a day. The casino will close in 2021 when the City of Dreams Mediterranean opens.
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Luke says: The chair of Scottish Women's Football (SWF) has announced that no team will ever accept either alcohol or gambling sponsors. This is actually somewhat less notable because 80% of the participants in SWF are under 18, but nonetheless it makes for a strong headline. It does apply pressure to a game dominated by men's football in which all the major leagues in Scotland have a gambling sponsor element, and to a United Kingdom in which numerous teams have not once but twice been exposed in the national press for running gambling sponsorships on junior players' shirts and webpages. It's a common-sense decision by SWF, but that doesn't stop it from highlighting a problem in the current state of play in the sport as a whole.
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Luke says: The improvement of Cirsa profits despite current Latin American currency devaluations of €3 million is particularly impressive. There is still growth evident in Mexico, where the peso is currently weak but always follows the dollar, and of course in Spain. The international operator has kept profits up, at €90 million this second quarter, despite the devaluations and having divested its Argentinean business prior. The firm has also been busy redesigning its casinos in Valencia, Marbella, Las Palmas and Gran Canaria, and installing sales points across Andalucía, so there's no lack of action despite a turbulent year for their markets. Cirsa also obtained a major debt note this month, for almost €2 billion.
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Luke says:
We're not quite sure what to make of this one just yet. There's a press release doing the rounds, with big talk of a 3,900-acre luxury hotel and casino resort, and an accompanying "master gaming data centre" which will apparently house operational data for up to 100 online casinos. But searching for further information currently leads in a tight circle around the press release itself. The source website is a bare bones affair with a very recent interview quoted from the CEO, Travis Kasper, in which it emerges that this expansion in resort development is proposed by the World Poker Fund Holdings. WPFH is based out of the USA, where its focus is social gaming, so whether the development goes ahead in reality definitely remains to be seen. There is also chatter about another project WPFH reportedly has in the Dominican Republic. There also appears to be a link to the trademark Greensinos, which apparently will feature casinos with a strong focus on local environmental sustainability. I'm all for going green; hopefully we'll see more news on this upcoming.
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Andrew says: Clive Hawkswood, Chief Executive of the Remote Gambling Association, has announced his resignation. Clive has been in that role for more than 13 years; previously he was part of the gambling team at the Department of Culture Media and Sport. While at the RGA, he has seen the sector grow to become the largest by revenue in the UK.
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Andrew says: Not content with riling up Donald Trump, the North Koreans have also been poking a stick in Vladimir Putin's eye. Russian police recently raided a number of illegal casinos, including one in the North Korean Embassy in Moscow.
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Luke says: Online gambling in Spain is certainly still on the up and up, aided by the relaxation in the tax requirements upon operators, earlier this year. This article speculates upon when exactly the market will hit that long-awaited €1 billion threshold, noting quite rightly that rapid market growth has been the fuel behind this tax change. The hope is for even more funds to flow towards the state overall thanks to the market incentivisation. The conclusion that the threshold will be reached around 2023 is in agreement with many industry pundits, with entry barriers at this time being considerably lower compared with some European neighbours. I'm sure that the industry is also keen to keep a positive spin on their contribution to economic growth, especially as they observe their counterparts in Italy being throttled by incoming regulations.
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