CASINOBEATS SUMMIT Intercontinental Malta, Malta May 23-25, 2023
Stifling regulation is frustrating players
What have been the major obstacles and challenges establishing a significant presence within the industry?
I don't want to sound too cliched but regulation. As environments get more regulated it becomes harder to do business in the way we used to and still manage to keep a profitable business.
Anyone following the UK market will have seen quite a few operators leave because they are used to very big profit margins and ways of doing business that are no longer allowed. We are only going to see this trend increase as the years go by.
Tere are two main challenges. Keeping up to date with the increasing numbers of laws that apply to us as a gambling operator and being a multi licensed operator we have the UK, Sweden, Malta - and all are trying to be quite active in the space. It takes a lot of resources just to keep up to date with developing the compliance necessary for a 24/7 business.
Te second challenge in our business is that increased compliance necessitates decreased revenue. Players get frustrated with increased intrusion into source of wealth and funds. No player likes to spin slower or have their games affected.
Sarah Gardner, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Gambling Commission, recently said she doesn't believe there is a threat of the black market. I agree with the overall premise she was conveying in the interview - that the black market shouldn't stop them eliminating bad practices by regulated operators- but you cannot believe for one instant that a black market doesn’t exist.
I think some of the biggest operators are unlicensed and unregulated. Some of these operators are very big, nor do they shy away from marketing. Te truth of the matter is that if you go on gambling forums, you'll quickly see players encouraging others to go to these unregulated landscapes because there are no questions or rules.
I think the principle of regulations and laws is to protect players. Abandoning players to an unprotected landscape is counterintuitive. Introducing some of the recent laws and regulations only serves to frustrate players and
P156 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
In an interview with G3, L & L Europe CEO Christopher Dalli
explains why increasing regulation is only serving to frustrate players - making it harder for regulated
businesses that make the effort to follow the rules.
Some of the biggest operators
are unlicensed and unregulated. Some are very big, nor do they shy away from marketing. The truth of the matter is that if you go on gambling forums, you'll quickly see players encouraging others to go to these
unregulated landscapes because there are no questions or rules.
made it harder for regulated businesses who make the effort to pay taxes, undergo audits, have licences and follow the rules.
To then say the player losing all his funds in an unregulated manner isn’t a threat? I think this is contradictory.
How do you individualise each brand? For instance, what differentiates Yeti Casino from Yako Casino, and Casino Casino from No Bonus Casino?
We started out with a geotargeted brand approach where each would have a unique look and feel appropriate to a particular jurisdiction. We used to have All British Casino, All Irish Casino, and so on. It was our intention for players to feel more familiar with a certain aesthetic.
Nowadays we've abandoned this approach quite significantly and opted for a multi- jurisdictional and multi-currency approach on the brands – with All British Casino being the obvious exception.
Christopher Dalli Chief Executive Officer L & L Europe
Te way we now operate is a lot more common. Most operators tend to go for the whole brand approach, and this is quite evident to see. It would be quite unlikely to see big multi- jurisdictional operators now targeting those multiple jurisdictions with a localised casino feel.
How is the variety of content on offer in today's market different from when L&L Europe started out?
Tere are a lot more game suppliers. Innovation is very low in the space when it comes to slots. Whenever there is one form of innovation such as Megaways or a new style of Crash game, the whole industry gets overexcited and beats it to death. In a very short space of time, it gets overused, and you start seeing that mechanic being used by multiple suppliers, losing the distinct feel.
Te point of difference between operators is moving away from the product. Any established operator would have the most wanted games, then reverts to traditional customer priorities such as excellence in customer service, how well the website performs, good product and so on.
Would you say iGaming has already achieved its breakthrough moment in game mechanics, or is the best yet to come?
Players go back to the classics for a reason. Suppliers can keep trying to find that elusive evolutionary shift and disruptor, but I don't think iGaming truly needs it to survive. Tere is always going to be tweaks that make it better but it seems that what is being done is catering to a different type of audience.
L&L Europe:
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