MACAU BUSINESS Do you see that as being applicable in
Macau; would it be possible to have the same separation model here? I think it’s something certainly for the regulators
here to look at and how they manage things, how they protect players and how they make sure that games are correct as well. Because they need obviously to look at some form of checking the random number generator, for example, doing the right job and also, if it’s sports betting, making sure that the regulations are there to check out that there is no fixing of matches and that sort of thing. So all of that is very important.
As part of its business, Equiom helps companies
procure gaming licences. What would be some of the difficulties for a company in doing something like that? They have to, first of all, have a very good business plan, they have to understand what they’re trying to achieve. They have to understand the pitfalls of doing something and not being able to do it properly – and that’s where we would help them and discuss [issues] with them. They have to have the right controls in place. The world is now moving forward very correctly in terms of making sure that anti-money laundering and combating terrorism rules are in place that peo- ple have to follow every single day to make sure that that’s correct. They have to know their customers very well. So we want to make sure that they have those procedures in place and we help them to understand what those are.
How big does a company have to be to procure a gaming licence? Size isn’t necessarily the important factor.
Which factors are? An understanding of what is required. For example;
a number of people who start companies these days have worked in very big organisations before. Now they’ve got an idea about something which is very dif- ferent and they only need a few people to make that come to market. So it isn’t the size that matters, they obviously need the right budget because they have to put the right controls in place, they have to get the right software there, they have to get the right li- cences and they have to be strong about that position – that’s important. But there don’t have to be thou-
sands of people to do that. It goes a different way.
Will smartphone-based and Internet-based gaming eliminate the necessity for land-based casinos? I don’t think it’s ever going to remove that because
there are people who like to go for the experience of a land-based casino […] You look around the floor, you see things, lights are flashing, people are doing things in front of somebody else. I think that will always re- main; but there will be youngsters who are finding a different way they might want to do things with vir- tual reality instead of moving, every day, to a casino […]they’ll want to play some games themselves and they’ll try and replicate that with what’s coming in the market in terms of virtual reality.
What’s the current global status on gaming compliance? If we look at where governments are looking at things like anti-money laundering, knowing your cus- tomer, making sure that these things are under proper control, then around the world governments are getting together, they’re understanding that they have to put in very high levels of control and abso- lutely that’s correct, they need to do that. So they’re insisting that the people in these industries have to teach their staff all these things about knowing your customer, anti-money laundering and reporting any- thing that they see as suspicious all of the time. And those governments will also put people in place to check that each company is doing those checks prop- erly. And that’s absolutely right. So that’s been grow- ing a lot over the last couple of years and I see that growing in the future as well.
These measures can be beneficial to the whole
system – transparency seems like it can only help. The issue that the companies might be having, though, and I understand this, is this is adding to their costs and – wouldn’t it be better if they didn’t have things to add to their costs? – yes, it would, but in fact it has to be there. So these things will grow over time. Yes, it will reduce their profitability but deep down they realise that it’s much better if these things are controlled. And it’s not just gaming that’s going through this, it’s all financial products as well. The same level of controls are being put in on both these areas at least. So it’s important.
AUGUST 2016 19
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