The expected loss is compared to a loss before tax of HK$1.7m for the year ended 31 December 2019, and reflects a decrease in the supplier’s revenue from around HK$82.0m to HK$40.5m year-on-year.
The supplier’s gross profit has decreased by approximately 63%, from HK$28.6m to HK$10.5m for the year.
APE’s board of directors said that the expected loss, and decreases in revenue and gross profit, were mainly attributable to the termination of two of the its finance lease agreements in 2020, and the ongoing impact of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Termination of the two finance lease agreements on 21 May caused a one-off impairment cost of approximately HK$22.9m.
The closure of land-based casinos as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, meanwhile, has led to weaker demand for technical sales and distribution of electronic gaming equipment.
Revenue from technical sales and distribution of electronic gaming equipment, consulting and technical services, and repair services, are expected to decrease by 51%, 42% and 61% respectively.
The board stated that the one-off impairment loss will not affect the supplier’s long-term financial stability.
For 2020, it expects to record positive net operating cash flow of HK$800,000, compared to a negative net operating cash flow of HK$2.7m.
It said the expected increase in operating cash flow is mainly attributable to better management of trade receivables.
The cash and cash equivalent of the company is also expected to increase by around 11%, from approximately HK$43.6m to HK$38.2m.
Results published in January showed that gross gambling revenue (GGR) in Macau was down close to 80% in 2020, as the region suffered enforced closures and travel restrictions as a result of the pandemic.
“If we want our regulators to do better, we have to embrace a simple idea: regulation isn’t an obstacle to thriving free markets; it’s a vital part of them.”
James Surowiecki, Business and Financial Journalist
The gaming industry is subject to a vast array of rules and faces a daily challenge to comply with a maze of varied, often duplicative, and sometimes conflicting regulatory requirements.
Appreciating the scope of this reality, especially for those gaming companies that have a presence in markets spanning the globe, is one of the take-aways from my time as president of the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) – a position I held for two terms.
Beyond the laws that authorise gambling, there are jurisdiction specific regulations that determine who, what, and where gaming operators and their equipment are allowed to set-up shop and conduct business.
Susan Hensel
And once operational, those regulations set forth how businesses are able to proceed. Back when we had such things as in-person conferences, there were numerous panel discussions about how all these rules might be harmonised and simplified for the sake of the regulator and the regulated. Those discussions often never made it past the talking stage, leaving us with disparate regulatory models across the many gambling jurisdictions.
At IAGR, we encouraged our members to use the multi-jurisdictional personal history form and another application that was set in motion during my IAGR presidency – the multi-jurisdictional business form. Still, beyond these applications, there is not a lot of cross-jurisdictional, common-rule adoption. The calls for harmonisation have quieted of late as US gaming regulators have been distracted by the introduction of sports wagering and regulators worldwide are focusing on a range of regulatory issues from pandemic recovery to gambling harm.
It is against this backdrop that I submit this article to reflect on just why it is that regulators regulate.
What prompts all those rules and such scrutiny of an industry that has been around it seems forever even if it is today taking on new twists in the form of expanding verticals?
There is one reason for gaming regulation and it is at the core of every decision regulators make.
The goal is not to cause the industry headaches or create a duplication of effort across jurisdictional lines or see who can be made to submit a record number of personal history disclosure forms.
The goal is in fact a simple one – it is to create a sustainable industry. This is at the heart of gaming regulation and it is important to periodically remind ourselves that it is sustainability that defines our mission and drives the requirements with which we must comply.
Without a sustainable industry, gaming companies would be unwilling to make massive investments in brick and mortar operations or employ the large number of employees needed to operate these facilities, and our online gaming companies would not create the necessary and sometimes redundant technological infrastructures that define our digital markets.
Without confidence that gaming is sustainable, there is no point to governments banking on tax revenue, or job creation or having faith a resort casino will attract tourists and their dollars.
Even though gaming regulators do not necessarily act in harmony on the details of how they do things, they do all work to promote the same fundamentals. As gaming as an industry grows around the world, the common underpinnings of regulation remain constant. These fall within five general areas.
First, regulators are concerned with operator suitability. What do we mean by this? As I tell my Gaming Law and Regulation students at my alma mater, Widener University Commonwealth Law School, it is all about protecting the gaming brand. Regulators ensure suitability by seeking to prevent people with shady backgrounds from being involved in gaming. The fact is that gaming has at times operated in the shadows of illegality. By ensuring that operators have clean backgrounds, regulators help to repudiate the old negative stereotypes.
Suitability is based on the theory that the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. If a company’s owners, officers and directors have reputations for acting with character, honesty, and integrity in the past, they are more likely to demonstrate those traits in the future.
That the suitability effort has succeeded is evidenced by the substantial public acceptance of gaming as a legitimate industry throughout much of the United States.
Fewer than five decades ago casino gaming was only legal in Nevada. Today it exists in a great many states.
The second area regulators need to address is that gaming operations are governed by strong internal controls. The internal control development, approval and implementation process can be complex, but it provides critical protections against behaviour that can range from incompetent to criminal.
When something goes wrong in a casino environment, one of the first questions asked is whether internal control procedures were followed? Did someone leave the property with a key? Were access controls violated? Were the chain of command and the segregation of duties respected?
Most problems that occur can be traced to a breakdown in compliance with internal control procedures. A strong commitment to sound internal controls provides the bedrock for operators to cultivate a culture of compliance – and this is the key towards developing a sustainable gaming model.
The third priority of gaming regulation is to ensure the games operate with a high level of integrity. Random number generators must be tested to ensure they actually generate random outcomes, dice must be properly machined and balanced, and decks must have the right number of cards. Players have to trust the games they are playing or they will not continue to play. One argument advanced for legalising gambling is to put a stop to the black market because players have no one to call if the games are unfair.
With legalised sports betting making its way around the world, there are concerns about insider information impacting outcomes, questions about the integrity of officiating and bettor uncertainty about promotional terms and conditions. These examples of potential integrity breaches must be positively addressed so the public understands it is getting a fair shake. For without acceptance by the public, operations will not be sustainable.
The fourth area of regulatory focus is on making sure all taxes and fees are appropriately accounted for and paid. In many places, gaming is an illegal activity unless it is specifically authorised.
In exchange for granting companies the privilege of offering gambling, a jurisdiction’s citizens want something in return. The price is the appropriate payment of taxes and fees set by the jurisdiction. Operators that obtain a privileged license have cleared a substantial barrier to market entry not available to just anyone and accurate tax compliance along with remitting required fees works to legitimise the existence of the operation in the eyes of the public.
Finally, all regulators share a concern for the protection of the vulnerable. The industry should not target advertising at the underage nor should it offer social gaming aimed at training kids to become gamblers when they grow up. Tools need to be available to help gamblers who recognise they have or are developing a problem. These include user defined controls on deposit and betting limits, as well as time limitations, being built into the platforms. Additional protections allow the customer to self-exclude from being allowed to gamble.
The regulator, by ensuring that there are protections for the small percentage of the population who may suffer harm from the gaming experience, adds to the social and political acceptance of the industry, thereby working to ensure its viability for the long-term.
These are the basic principles that guide gaming regulators. They are the building blocks to creating not just a successful jurisdictional gambling industry but also a successful global industry. While we all may question why the industry is subjected to such a wide range of rules, it is worth recognising that regulation, for all its complications, is in fact aimed at achieving a single, harmonised goal and that is industry sustainability.
Susan Hensel was named one of the ten most influential women in gaming by iGB in 2020. She is the director of licensing for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and is former two-term president of the International Association of Gaming Regulators. Susan, who is an attorney, has spoken around the world on gaming law and regulation. All opinions expressed are hers alone.
Under the agreement, PointsBet will pay US$43.0m (£31.1m/€36.1m) to purchase Ireland-based Banach on a cash and debt-free basis, with 55% of this to be paid in cash and 45% in shares.
PointsBet also agreed to provide Banach with $4.0m in funding to assist with the conversion process of existing equity options, with this amount to be retained by PointsBet after the acquisition completes.
Subject to customary closing conditions, PointsBet said that it expects the deal to go through next month.
Founded by former Paddy Power employees Mark Hughes, Alex Zevenbergen, Rob Reck and Hadrien Lepretre, Banach provides proprietary risk management platforms and quantitative driven trading models for sportsbook operators.
Now, having paid the required licence fees and passed final technical checks, the operator has been formally awarded its betting licence.
“We are the first in the market not only in quality of services and level of technological development but also in compliance with the rules of a transparent business environment,” Parimatch chief executive Sergey Portnov said.
“Parimatch was born in Ukraine, and we are happy to finally officially return and help develop the industry in our home country.
“Legalisation of the gambling business will help Ukraine generate funds for the budget and distribute them where they are always needed.”
Parimatch Ukraine chief executive Natalia Gilevich said she was glad to see Parimatch able to offer sports betting in the country in which it was founded.
“The Parimatch company was originally founded in Ukraine, and we’ve finally come back,” Gilevich said. “This is a particular challenge and significant responsibility for us, so we will provide the Ukrainian audience with the best the gambling industry can give the player.
“Ukraine has great potential to become the leading platform in the Eastern European market, and we are ready to make this concept a reality.”
In related news, Ukraine’s Gambling Commission also issued a notice to players after having received complaints regarding Parimatch’s dot.com site. It reminded players that Parimatch’s licensed site in the country is its dot.ua operation and said that gambling carried out at “another address, under the Parimatch brand, is illegal”.
A Parimatch spokesperson said the goal of the message was “not completely clear” but said the statement “does not affect us in any way”.
“We have a local license and the .com website does not extend activities to Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. “Such a statement does not oblige us in any way to change our product.”
The country’s gambling laws include a clause to block any Russian-owned gaming businesses, or those with Russian directors, from holding a licence.
However, Parimatch had previously confirmed to iGB that this requirement would be of no concern to its operations.
Ukraine’s gambling act – which legalised online gambling, bookmaking, slot halls and land-based casinos located in hotels – became law in August 2020 after receiving the president’s signature. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed the bill in a 248-95 vote at the second reading the previous month.
LeoVegas.news will become the official online infotainment partner of the club.
Fans can now find AS Roma news and features promoted across LeoVegas platforms, along with the latest match reports and highlights.
In turn, the LeoVegas.news logo will be featured on pitch-side LEDs during Serie A home matches at the Stadio Olimpico. LeoVegas.news will also avail of AS Roma’s digital content.
“LeoVegas.news was created with the aim of giving football fans exclusive and entertaining content,” Adele Incerti, head of marketing at LeoVegas.news, said.
“We are proud of this new partnership with AS Roma, not only because it allows us to add to the quality of our offering but because it also allows us to work alongside one of the biggest teams in Italian football and further gain the trust of our public, positioning us as an infotainment service that stands out for the quality of its content.”
The proposal sets out changes to the state’s existing gambling laws, and modifies a proposal from Governor Andrew Cuomo by replacing its centralised procurement model with an alternative structure operating through existing land-based casinos in the state.
It sets out a licensing fee of $12m for each participating platform, and a 12% tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR).
The budget proposal shows a projected fiscal impact of the legalization of mobile sports wagering of $180m in 2022, $86m in 2023, $112m in 2024 and $118m in 2025.
It also sets out a modification to the restriction on lottery draw game offerings, proposing to eliminate a current law restriction which limits the number of daily offerings of Pick 19, Take 5, Lotto and future lottery games to a single daily offering.
Instead, under the new proposal, the games will be authorized to take place no more than twice daily.
The modification of the restrictions on lottery draw game offerings has a projected fiscal impact of $7m in 2022, and a further $9m in each of the following three years.
PS-EDS is a core part of Kindred’s responsible gambling approach, which is designed to detect early signs of problem gambling within players.
In 2020, 58,000 personalized messages promoting responsible gambling were sent out to those detected by the system who were deemed to be problem players.
70% of players detected by the behavior monitoring system were seen to deposit less the next time, and 76% of customers were seen to exhibit healthier gambling habits after they were identified.
12% of Kindred customers were seen to be taking matters into their own hands, by using optional control tools to keep track of their own behavior.
The percentage of players using deposit limits, loss-limits, self-exclusion and products blocks all increased, though the amount of players using reality checks declined. In 2020, 7.3% of Kindred players used deposit limits, 6.15% self-excluded and 1.4% use product blocks.
Players detected in PS-EDS were more likely to use RG tools.
The operator also outlined these figures in more detail in its report. Revealing that around 6% of revenue came from medium-risk customers and around 20% from low-risk, with the rest coming from those classed as “social” players.
“Our ambition to transform gambling includes our approach to marketing. Kindred is a provider of entertainment and we compete for people’s leisure time and spend,” Kindred said in the report.
“We invest in marketing to differentiate ourselves from competitors because we believe in promoting our products and their features. At the same time, we believe that advertising should be carried out in a socially responsible manner, and have adjusted our marketing approach accordingly.”
Ivan Montik is the founder of SoftSwiss, BGaming, and Merkeleon. Since 2009, he has been running a number of projects in IT, fintech and igaming. Montik also founded CoinsPaid and Cryptoprocessing.com, crypto payment processing solutions for e-commerce, PSP, igaming, and streaming.
Montik is a passionate supporter of democratic rights and freedom of speech, collaborating with the OSCE mission at the 2004 and 2008 parliamentary elections and the 2006 presidential elections in Belarus. He became one of the founders of the European Center for the Freedom of Press in Leipzig and signed the European Charter on the Freedom of Press adopted on May 25, 2009, in Hamburg.
The conversation around AI, slowly but surely, is shifting from being theoretical to practical through many different use cases.
From personalisation to automated assistants and anti-fraud, machine learning has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, catching the attention of forward-thinking software and platform providers the world over.
One such company would be SoftSwiss, a gambling software developer that offers a complete igaming solution. We spoke with Ivan Montik, SoftSwiss to learn more about the state of play for AI in igaming.
He begins: “It’s been over 20 years since the world chess master Garry Kasparov lost to the computer. Since then, there has been no doubt that a computer can be a serious partner in games.
“An area where a lot of progress has been made is in design and UX. The world of games has become much closer to reality due to breakthrough AI technologies and smart ML modelling. For example, it’s really hard to recognise the artificial nature of rendered shadows, clouds, or water, which amplifies the presence effect.”
The scope of change
So, with so much on-the-ground innovation already happening, what comes next for AI?
Montik says: “ML technologies are growing very fast. Three years ago doing what we do now was unbelievable, but it is now possible due to the significant increase of GPU processing speed and the massive amount of data that is available for machine learning and deep learning algorithms to feed on. We believe there is no visible limit – the fun has just begun!”
He continues, highlighting security and AML as major focus areas for the development of AI applications: “It is extremely important to know how to recognise unscrupulous players and prevent their fraudulent actions.
“There have been several cases of players making major wins on casino games by applying different probability programs or just using AI bots themselves. When it’s all happening online, it’s hard to track.”
To counter this challenge, SoftSwiss developed its own anti-fraud system using machine learning: “It analyses player’s behaviour in real-time and if any suspicious actions are detected, immediately reports to the operator.
“The system also recognises fake documents which a player might submit at the registration or for cash out, and blocks any further activities.”
Another area of great significance to the rollout of AI is responsible for gambling. While many share concerns about the negative impact AI may have on consumer protection as a result of increased personalisation and retention, the technology can be applied for the greater good.
Montik echoes this, saying: “The progress made in terms of responsible gambling is immense. AI helps analyse user’s actions and detect potential problematic behaviour.
“In this case, the online casino operator can be notified and the user account will be suspended. It’s a real benefit for players with gambling addiction as they can get real-time help.”
Applying AI
Beyond the aforementioned anti-fraud system, Montik details other exciting AI applications in SoftSwiss’ portfolio.
“Several years ago we created our own Research and Development department to focus on implementing AI, machine learning and data analysis in our online casino platform. The team is working in different directions to cover all major aspects of AI in online gaming.
“It’s a work in progress,” he continues, “but certain features are already in production and enjoyed by both operators and players.”
In addition to personalisation and automated customer care assistants, which have become fairly widespread applications throughout the industry, Montik says SoftSwiss have improved casino management by launching customised bonuses and smart free spins.
Additionally, he adds, SoftSwiss have created a lifetime value prediction feature, which analyses the player’s behaviour and predicts the situation in which the player might decide to leave the casino. In this case, the system makes corresponding changes to motivate the player to stay a little longer.
The results have been strong, says Montik: “All of that increased the lifetime value of a player by 7 – 10%, so figures speak for themselves.”
This may only be the tip of the iceberg, however, as Montik continues: “Although much has been done in the last years, there’s still a great potential for growth and improvement.
“From the whole scope of possible AI penetration in all spheres of online gaming, only about 30% has been covered so far. Many software providers still ignore the benefits that machine learning can bring to online casinos and are not implementing AI either for UX personalisation or for anti-fraud systems. In five years, they won’t be able to stand up to the competition.”
Once AI development is in full swing, Montik sees an entirely different landscape for both igaming and land-based casinos: “Casinos will be fully powered by AI with minimal engagement of the operator’s employees.
“As an online gamer, you will be entering an online casino tailored specifically for you, with the design, sounds and content completely meeting your expectations. Amplified by VR, such games will take over the whole igaming world.”
The FanDuel sportsbook, located near Bally’s Atlantic City’s Northern boardwalk casino entrance, features a central 25-foot-wide LED video wall and multiple video displays.
Wagers can be placed at five betting windows or bettors can use one of twenty IGT PlaySports self-service kiosks. The sportsbook will offer bets on all major US sports, including professional baseball, tennis, and soccer.
“The new FanDuel Sportsbook at Bally’s AC is the fifth retail sportsbook we have opened in the last couple years,” said George Papanier, president and chief executive officer of Bally’s Corporation.
The arrangement will see Rose feature in BetMGM’s marketing campaigns and take part in a range of BetMGM fan events.
Rose will engage with BetMGM customers and MGM Resorts’ M life Rewards loyalty members, as well as appear in BetMGM social media content and make guest appearances on radio and television programs.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Rose spent 13 years playing in the NBA, turning out for the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns.
“The excitement around sports and the growth of sports betting, and BetMGM in particular, this year has been special to witness,” Rose said. “I’m beyond excited to go from a spectator to a player joining the BetMGM team, continuing to defy industry expectations.”
BetMGM chief revenue officer Matt Prevost added: “Jalen Rose is an All-Star addition to the BetMGM team. The impact he has had on the game of basketball is surpassed only by the exceptional analysis he provides fans daily.”
