Editor's Letter

Gambling.

It's a word that has so many different perceptions and connotations, depending on who you ask.

Within our industry, gambling is the lifeblood and livelihood. Customer lifetime value and portion of entertainment budget spend quickly turn into monthly gross gaming revenue reports, and quarterly financial presentations for multi-billion-dollar public companies.

For a CEO, Product Owner or Sales Manager, gambling is business, gambling is numbers, gambling is what they travel to trade shows around the world for.

But, unlike so many other perceived 'safe' sectors – finance, insurance or IT, the word 'gambling' can elicit so many negative reactions around the world.

For some, it is a sin, for others an 'evil' industry. Even in my personal experience, taxi drivers have proceeded to spend a whole journey explaining why the sector is the devil's work, not necessarily registering that I would know infinitely more than them about this very sector. People close to me, meanwhile, may still say 'be careful placing that bet, you'll be addicted in no time.'

And, of course, I know none of that is true. I know placing a £10 ($12.65) bet on Liverpool to a win a match will not lose me my mortgage, even though some claim that's where every bettor will automatically end up one day.

The product, though, and the nature of gambling, is intrinsically linked with addiction issues and can end in tragic circumstances for problem gamblers that are not looked after.

We who work in the industry know both of the above ends of the spectrum to be true: that casual betting can be carried out on a huge scale and enjoyed by millions across the globe (hence such growth for the industry), but that gambling issues can have destructive consequences for individuals. So, in this issue of Gambling Insider magazine, we ask in our cover feature: how do we find the line? If a gambler deposits £1,000 and loses it overnight, whose responsibility, ultimately, is this?

There is no one single answer but there are so many factors to consider: how much is down to the player and personal choice? How much is down to the operator to intervene? And how much is down to the regulator or legislator to ensure both of the former enter into a more protected environment?

As those who have truly thought about the conundrum of gambling will know, you cannot simply 'ban' the activity – one conducted by humans for millennia. Banning anything, as the Prohibition era showed so aptly around a century ago, will not discourage the activity; it will simply send it underground, where protections are weaker and the stakes, literally, so much higher. In today's society, regulated gambling markets are the only forward – but, morally, practically and in legal terms, where does the responsibility for safer gambling truly lie within these environments?

Elsewhere in our March/April edition, we review the winners of the Global Gaming Awards EMEA – during the first-ever ceremony to have taken place in Barcelona. Soft2Bet was a three-time winner, while, on theme with the topic of safer gambling, Betsson claimed victory in the Social Responsibility of the Year category once again.

We also review panels from ICE Barcelona, explore updates from Brazil, Sweden, the UK, US sweepstakes and more.

Another jam-packed issue, then, with plenty of food for thought as ever in gambling. A word that has so many different perceptions and connotations, depending on who you ask...

TP, Editor