Lewis Pek Editor
Comment May 2021
During the second big lockdown in the UK, I succumbed to a terrible sin of gorging on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+, watching all kinds of serious documentaries (honest), alongside all manner of trashy pulpy time-killers. I’m conscious that a younger generation watch box-set programmes such a Friends on repeat as relaxation/ meditation tools to calm anxiety and as a stress reliever. I’m using the same reasoning to explain why I’m now fully conversant with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having watched each and every film over a very condensed timeframe.
Whilst the Friends memes still shoot over my head, I now recognise all the references from the Marvel movies littering popular culture. I appreciate the idea that the villain ‘snapped’ away half of the inhabitants in the universe, whilst the cavalcade of heroes fought and won to bring everyone back. The episode between both snap and return is called ‘the Blip,’ and I’m finding it hard not using this same terminology to describe the period of waiting for Covid to end and the last time I set
THE ECA CONFIRMED REVENUE FALLS OF 50 PER CENT, CLOSURES FOR 40 PER CENT OF 2020 AND 20,000 PEOPLE UNEMPLOYED.
foot in venues, exhibition halls, conference centres and gaming locations. And as the business starts to power back up from standby, the effects of the Blip on the retail gaming industry are stark and extreme.
Speaking to the European Casino Association this month, they confirmed lost revenues amounted to 50 per cent over 12 months and locations were closed for almost 40 per cent of 2020. But it was the 30 per cent fall in the number of employees across its members’ 900 locations in Europe, 20,000 people unemployed as a result of the pandemic, which was truly shocking. So many people no longer work in this sector. I’ve put down the phone to so many disconnections, to emails bounced from people I’ve known in the industry for decades. Covid has caused a reset of the gaming industry unlike anything I’ve seen in 20 years . I’ve not started watching Friends as yet, but I may start.
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G3 Magazine Editor Lewis Pek
lewis@gamingpublishing.co.uk +44 (0) 1942 879291
G3Newswire Editor Phil Martin
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Features Editor Karen Southall
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International Reporter James Marrison Staff Reporter William Bolton
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Senior Designer Gareth Irwin
Production Manager Paul Jolleys
Subscriptions Manager Jennifer Pek
Commercial Administrator Lisa Nichols
P4 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
Commercial Director John Slattery
john@gamingpublishing.co.uk +44 (0)7917 166471
Business Development Manager James Slattery
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Advertising Executive Alison Dronfield
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Contributors William Cammegh, Lawrence Ho, Rui Pinto Proenca, Ben Lee, Andrew Klebanow, Priscilla Roberts, Andres Garcia, Paul Curtis Steelman, Chris Wieners, Alex Igelman, Shaun McCamley, Bob Gdowski, Roy Greenbaum, Jade Daniels, Ivan Montik, Allan Petrilli, Karl Grech, Vladimir Pavlov, Blanka Homor, Antoine Bonello, Javier Sacristan Franco, Laurence McDonald, Deane Hendricks, Marina Ostrovtsova
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