Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2014 24 it jointly with ICE through Clarion events and FICCI, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. It was a great success. We had a full house of senior government officials, Supreme Court advocates, industry leaders, foreign operators and market participants from India outlining the latest challenges that lie ahead for online gambling. We invited the chairman of the IPL Spot Fixing Scandal Probe Committee here in India to speak about sports fixing and how dangerous it is for society to have sports fixing on a regular basis. We are trying to replicate it soon, this time in India. So you’re familiar with Indian government positions on gaming legalization and regulation. What do they see as the key issues? The thing is that the status quo right now is very difficult to change, because, as I said, the underground market is extremely powerful. However, there is a general belief among top policy advocacy groups and the general public that the only way forward is regulation. But, officially, elections are in progress in India [from 7th April to 12th May], and gambling in India still carries a big moral debate even though it’s socially accepted, and no political party wants to be pro-regulation because they’re afraid of losing votes. So for now they are keeping themselves neutral, but they know regulation is going to happen—the big question is when. I’m expecting 2014 to 2015 to have relevant movements in that sense—there’s going to be significant market openings, I would say, especially for games of skill. The government straddles a fine line there, doesn’t it? The BJP, the ruling party in Goa, just threatened that the floating casinos there wouldn’t have their licenses renewed, but they said that the casinos on land would be OK. The Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s anti-casino stand is publicly known—he also opposed casinos when he was in opposition—but he said recently that he would not close casinos in Goa as he cannot afford to lose revenues worth 150 crore rupees [about US$25 million]. It is true that political parties sometimes play the moral debate when needed, and I believe that is a mistake. I also think this is a clear example of why comprehensive regulation is needed. Fortunately, Goa has recently announced the setup of a gaming commission to regulate operations of both onshore and offshore casinos. You might also wonder why the remarks were only about the floating casinos. The basic difference is that floating casinos can hold live dealers—it’s much more entertaining in terms of user experience. Land-based casinos cannot have dealers— they have to have everything electronic. They don’t have poker, for instance; players cannot play against each other, it’s much more like an arcade. The blackjack tables are electronic, the poker is all video poker; they have slot machines. In floating casinos it’s much more entertaining—it’s a proper standard casino operation that you might be familiar with going to Vegas, going to Macau, with live dealers. And my understanding is that in terms of taxation it’s much stricter for the land-based casinos than the floating casinos. What is the pro-gaming movement’s strategy? Right now, it’s to explain to the general public and the relevant sources of influence and policy advocacy groups about the benefits of regulating sports betting and online gambling in India. The current situation is that underground and clandestine operations are running the show. As I said, unfortunately almost all the proceeds of illegal gambling are used to finance other forms of criminality. So it’s about educating the market, educating and convincing the politicians and policy-makers and letting them know that by regulating the sector society will win, state revenues will be generated, the user, the fan and the player will be more protected, and the integrity of sports will be higher. Gambling in India is taking place now and it will in the future, so the sooner everyone accepts regulation is inevitable, the better. Reading media reports, there’s a sense of inevitability that legalization will happen, but not soon. What’s your take? You mentioned 2014 and 2015 would be big years. I’m optimistic. I’m a bit more optimistic than other people looking at the market maybe because I’m on the ground and I can see changes in the line of thinking of groups “Floating casinos can hold live dealers—it’s much more entertaining in terms of user experience.” “The Public Gambling Act in India, which is the gaming law that was written in the 19th century by the British and is still the law that is being used, excludes games of skill as gambling. So, what constitutes a game of skill? That is the big question.” Insights