CR65-p16-Comment:SJC-Casino Review 16/2/08 23:04 Page 1
casinoreview
“It’s been a crowded, busy show as always. Every year it gets bigger and “ICE 2008 has proved, once and PokerTek have
better, and again the success has not been unexpected to us. It’s brilliant. again, to be a unique succeeded on all three
The show attendance has been excellent and the reaction has been great, platform to launch new accounts - the show has
and some of the visitors have been calling our stand Earls Court 3. ICE is products, stimulate the been a great start to 2008.”
the most important show for Novomatic, the international part of the show is market and strengthen
getting bigger and better every year, which is what we're looking for.” relationships with our Nick Khin, executive
customers in the region. I’m general manager of
Max Lindenberg, marketing and business development pleased to report that Europe, the Middle East
at Austrian Gaming Industries Aristocrat, ACE Interactive and Africa for Aristocrat
COMMENT
Why casinos
should welcome
online gaming
have to be the competi-
tion or threat that so
many people, operators
and regulators alike,
believe it to be.
People who go to
casinos do so because
they enjoy playing the
games, certainly, but also
for the atmosphere and
society. How many of them
would really rather be at
home on their own? In fact,
as the poker phenomenon
has shown, those who
learn to play games on the
comment net are only too eager to try
BY HUGH SORRILL the ‘real thing’ live with
other people.
Online casinos are a terri- From a commercial
ble threat to their land- point of view, therefore,
based counterparts, aren’t online casinos and poker
they? They are the very rooms expand the player industry, you never really know everything
worst examples of unfair base rather than shrink it. and everyone as the operational side of the
competition: largely unreg- With a little thought, they
Writing about the
business moves as quickly as the technology
ulated, barely taxed and can become the nursery behind the games.
with tiny overheads - for a future clientele in a But what an industry to write about. Every
everything in fact that real real venue. And the best
casino business
single month since Casino Review launched
casinos, especially in way to do that is for there has been no shortage of fantastic proj-
Europe, are not. established land-based ects and news stories to write about. And
They also present the operators to have their is a privilege and this must be where my initial thanks goes, to
regulating authorities with own online presence, the operators, for making this such a vibrant,
huge headaches: with the something that would exciting business to write about. The casino
operators of these sites offer huge cross-market- an honour business today creates some of the most
often faceless and difficult ing and player develop- spectacular projects in the world, crossing
to pin down, governments ment opportunities. into so many different aspects of the enter-
are rightly concerned with To have these sites Having won the award for Casino Journal of the Year at tainment world. It would be impossible to
issues of player protection operated by trusted, trans-
the inaugural International Gaming Awards prior to this
ever feel jaded or burnt out writing about
and money laundering. parent, licensed compa- and researching these new projects. The
And as the geographical nies would surely also ease
year’s International Casino Exhibition, Casino Review
news stories are also so diverse from new
boundaries of gaming floor, the pain of regulators. It editor Phil Martin pays his thanks. legislation to takeovers and mergers, politi-
community and country do would offer them a recog- cal wrangles, constant battles against the
not exist, how to uphold nised framework within industry journalists was quite a humbling con men, market trends etc.
the long established princi- which to deal with their experience but one which on reflection The team behind Casino Review is very
ple that local people essential concerns with the puts into perspective the honour of receiv- small and I feel the Gaming Awards reflects
should benefit through tax- sanction of licence with- ing such an accolade. the work ethic put into the magazine from
ation from gambling in their drawal if standards or Casino Review was actually launched on the writers, designers, proof readers and
midst is a vexed question. targets are not met, exactly the back of a visit to G2e in September 2002, sales staff who work on it. These people
There is an almost philo- the same as in the real where we canvassed opinion upon whether often work unsociable hours without the
sophical debate over world. And that means that there was indeed a gap in the publications reward of trips to exotic gambling destina-
where online gambling online operators do not market. The general consensus was no there tions that some of us are privileged to, so my
actually takes place - is it in have to be state-owned were already too many magazines serving thanks also goes to them. Also to the judges
the home or on the server? (take note Germany) in the international casino industry. But with who voted for Casino Review and to Empire
The nature of the inter- order to offer the highest the support of just four original advertisers Recruitment for organising the inaugural
net means that traditional standards of protection. we decided to publish our first issue, which Gaming Awards, which must surely become
approaches to regulation In the end, all that somethingtowritehomeabout at a meagre 16 pages was dwarfed by our a permanent fixture in the gaming calendar,
will not work. The innova- unregulated sites can do VIEWPOINT competitors. Casino Review will be eter- regardless of which publication comes out
tive thinking needed to is give a shoddy experi- nally grateful for the support of those first on top next time round. Finally, a tongue in
find a solution, however, ence to someone who Anyone who picks up an award in any walk four advertisers because without that initial cheek thanks to those governments whose
this does not mean the should be playing on a of life invariably begins their thank you faith that they placed in the magazine, Casino meandering casino legislation have left us
crude imposition of regulated site - online speech with the words ‘it’s a great honour’, Review wouldn’t exist today. overflowing with news stories. Few have
blanket bans. People will casinos only compete with but it is indeed a great honour to be acknowl- The business plan was simple. The maga- benefited from the various u-turns which
always find a way to each other, not with land- edged in this way by a business which is well zine was owned by ICE exhibition organis- have made the headlines on Casino Review’s
break the law, especially if based casinos. If tradi- served by both the printed and online media. ers ATE and by using their ICE database, front pages and I hope we will be able to
a law is almost unenforce- tional operators can offer When I arrived at the Las Vegas Conven- Casino Review had access to the decision write some positive conclusions to them in
able. What is certain is as much of a quality expe- tion Centre for the 2007 Global Gaming makers attending the exhibition and so the the coming months and years. It really is a
that online gaming will not rience online as they do in Expo I was amazed to count 32 gaming idea was to write a publication that they, the pleasure to write about such a dynamic and
just go away. their venues, they should related publications in the foyer. Being operators, would want to read. Certainly the forward thinking industry, even if some gov-
It does not, however, welcome the challenge. greeted by the words of so many expert, learning curve was steep and I believe in this ernments do struggle to keep up.
16 March 2008 comment
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