May Infinity Gaming Magazine

LATEST NEWS BETFAIR SAY NO TO CVC OFFER

LATEST NEWS NJ COURT SAYS AC CASINO FREE TO FIND NEW BUYER

LATEST NEWS GALA BINGOS UP FOR SALE

InfinityGaming

www.gaming-awards.com | ISSUE MAY 2013

It’s Audit Time

And it’s not always bad

NEW JERSEY LATEST

Find out the very latest in NJ

Women in Gaming Awards

Find out what happened on the night

FINDING BETTER WAYS

Educating New Players

FOCUS

Ireland’s Crying Game - review of the sector

contents InfinityGaming

EDITOR’S LETTER

3 4th Women in Gaming 4 The BiG Conference 13 Gala Bingo’s 15 Ireland’s Crying Game 16 EDITOR LETTER

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Welcome to the May edition

All the winners and images

Up for sale

Our new writer J.J. Woods

FEATURES

24 Finding Better Ways New Jersey latest 27 28 The Great Shift Betfair say NO 31 32 It’s Audit Time Partouche leaves 36 online business Resident writer Rohin Malhotra

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Online regulations announced

Feature Writer Ellen Learmonth

Ireland’s Crying Game

End of the road for CVC

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Martin Baird gives you a full Audit

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Phil Ivey cheated at Casino???

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All the latest PR

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EDITOR’S LETTER Lana Thompson - Chief Editor

by

InfinityGaming CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Martin R. Baird Rohin Malhotra Ellen Learmonth J.J. Woods

What a unbelievable evening last Thursday the 16th May was, the Women in Gaming Awards was the most popular ever and everyone who was there agreed.

The daytime BiG Conference had some superb sessions and want to thank all who was involved.

In this edition of the May Infinity Gaming Magazine we have all the pictures from the Women in Gaming Awards and the BiG Conference. I want to say congratulations to all the ladies in the finals, you are all winners and to the winners themselves, well done to be named this year was a real achievement, we had more nominations than ever and our judges had a very difficult time deliberating.

Apart from the WiG Awards we have of course all the latest news and developments within

the gaming industry as always. I would also like to welcome J.J. Woods to our Writers rosta. J.J is a well known and respected consultant within the industry and J.J. kicks off his tenure with the Infinity Gaming Magazine with an indepth look at the Irish gaming sector.

J.J joins us along with our other great contributing writes Rohin Malhotra, Ellen learmonth and Martin Baird in this edition with some superb articles.

Finally, I just want to mention that we are nearing the launch of the 7th International Gaming Awards (IGA) and we will have the very latest in the June edition.

Enjoy the magazine.

Lana

CONTACT US Clever Duck Media Suite 105 Park Plaza Point South Hayes Way Cannock WS12 2DB UK Tel: +44(0)1543 578 689 claire@cleverduckmedia.com PRODUCTION Clever Duck Media Suite 105 Park Plaza Point South Hayes Way Cannock WS12 2DB UK PUBLISHING Infinity Gaming Magazine is operated by © Clever Duck Media Ltd ® Company Reg. No. 687 1018 (Registered in England) ADVERTISING: Sponsorship Opportunities Colin@gaming-awards.com Business Partnerships Svetlana@gaming-awards.com JOIN US InfinityGaming • ISSUE MAY2013

EDITORS NOTES

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WIG4 Winners

Winners and memorable moments

All the

from the 4th Women in Gaming Awards

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The fourth Women in Gaming Awards took place on Thursday 16th May at the glamorous Jumeirah Carlton Hotel in Knightsbridge, London. Attendees from both the online and land based gambling industry gathered to celebrate and cheer the successes of the year for women within the sector.

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t is always a great celebration and the 4th Women in Gaming Awards did not disappoint as the ladies gathered at the exclusive Jumeirah Carlton Hotel in Knightsbridge to recognise the women within the gambling industry who had outstanding successes over the year. All attendees said that the 4th WIG Awards were by far the best, winners this year included Pree Patel from GB Group who scooped the prestigous ‘Industry Pride of the Year,’ Alison Brincat from Betsson won Affiliate Manager of the Year. Entrepeneur of the Year was won by well known industry consultant Melissa Blau, the Customer Service Award was won by

the Customer Experience Team at Paddy Power, Industry Achiever of the Year was awarded to gaming veteran Sue Waldock from Rank. PokerStars won two awards with Claudia Aviles receiving Inspiration of the Year and Kirsty Thompson and the UKIPT Team, winning Team of the Year (iGaming). Team of the Year land based was won by Lesly Clifford and Team at Rank. Leader of the Year iGaming was awarded to Elen Garth from Unibet and the land based version went to Cath Burns at TCSJohnHuxley. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists, you are all winners at the WIG Awards.

WIG4 Winners

Affiliate Manager of the Year Alison Brincat Betsson

Entrepreneur of the Year Melissa Blau iGaming Capital

Customer Experience Team Paddy Power

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Customer Service

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WIG4 Winners

Hidden Talent of the Year Robin Becker Europartners

Industry Achiever of the Year Sue Waldock Rank Group

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Innovator of

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the Year Clare Anderson (received by Richard Smith)

Aspers Group

WIG4 Winners

Inspiration of the Year Claudia Aviles PokerStars

Leader of the Year (iGaming) Elen Garth Unibet

(land based) Cath Burns TCSJohnHuxley

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Leader of the Year

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WIG4 Winners

Star of the Future Therese Carlzon Mr Green

Marketing Excellence Award Grace McMillan bwin.party

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Team of the Year

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(iGaming) Kirsty Thompson and UKIPT Team PokerStars

WIG4Winners

Team of the Year (Land Based) Lesly Clifford Rank Group

Industry Pride of the Year

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ongratulations to Pree Patel for receiving the Industry Pride of the Year for 2013. Also thank you TCSJohnHuxley for our headline Sponsor.

The fourth year of the Women in Gaming Awards was a huge success, with more companies attending than ever before. The awards process saw more ladies taking

part in nominations than ever and our Judges had the most difficult of times deciding on the winners. We would like to thank all our judges for their time, expertise and fairness in choosing these outstanding ladies for the awards. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2014.

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Pree Patel

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WIG4 Highlights

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01 The Paddy Power girls and Michael, we do not know her name but the girl in the black dress had an exceptional evening and did not stop dancing

02 The Unibet girls and award winner Elen Garth

03 Stella Dalton (left) and Marieanne Carmody Weir

WIG4 Highlights

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01 The TCSJohnHuxley Team showing off the award won by Cath Burns.

TCSJohnHuxley was also our lead Sponsor for the 4th WIG Awards.

02 Garcia our Salsa teacher and the WIG Girls all having a serious boogey, the dance floor has never been so busy all night.

03 We cannot disclose who our male dancer is in this photo that is accompanying bwin.party winner Grace McMillan.

All guesses send to us

via email and the winner will win a dance with our mystery guest.

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WIG4 Highlights

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01 PokerStars table at the WIG Awards with one of the two awards they picked up on the evening

02 Women in Gaming Awards Founder Lana Thompson with the Vegas Boys, which were a huge hit with the attendees.

03 It is goodnight from him and thank you all that took part in the raffle raising funds for Break Through Breast Cancer. Our Vegas Boys

worked hard to collect all donations and you are all stars. From all at Clever Duck Media thank you so very much.

BiG Conference

First ever BiG Conference covers major topics for gambling industry

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research on gambling addiction, how operators can see improved profits from implementing socially responsible programmes.

First to be discussed was future technology and where the industry can hope and expect to energise their business and customers. Next was a hard hitting discussion on where the industry, both online and land based is heading over the next 5 years and of course what the US will look like then. A 10 minute presentation was given by Industry gaming expert on the US, Melissa Blau.

The conference ended with a Question Time format, covering all aspects of the industry, including discussions on Japan and gambling in the country, was the WSOP really up for sale, will the US ever bring in a federal law for online gambling, the state of european gambling and the new proposed bill in the UK for point of consumption tax.

Clearly the BIG Conference was a hot with all whom attended.

iscussions during the day took a variety of topics with leading speakers from all areas of the gambling industry, both operators, suppliers, manufacturers and consultants.

One of the most popular as ever was the post lunch session on Affiliate Business and Social Media, with leading figures from Unibet, EuroPartners, ComeOn! and Comufy, giving the delegates insight into where the sector is going and how to really make the most out of Social Media for your business.

The BiG Conference also included a session on Social Responsibility with Teresa Tunstall from GamCare, Katie Simpson from Gambling Therapy and Malcolm Bruce from Gambling Integrity Services. Topics included whether companies should be legislated to donate to

InfinityGaming • ISSUE MAY2013

The first ever Big Ideas in Gaming Conference took place in London on the 16th May at the prestigous Jumeirah Carlton Hotel in Knightsbridge. The Conference is unique as it covers both the online and land based gambling industries in a one day power packed event.

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GAMING NEWS

Gala Bingo now up for sale Now with the Gala Casinos deal completed with Rank having taken full control of the casino estate last week, it is now the turn of Gala Bingos to be put up for sale by the owning company.

Gala Coral are now looking to sell its bingo halls before a proposed flotation of its core betting shops.

Gala bingo currently has around a 45% share of the land based bingo market, but decision follows ‘the Andy question’.

Controversy is still raging over

Coral managing director Andy Hornby’s role in the near-collapse of HBOS bank.

So rather than attempt a flotation of all their business at this time, the group is thought to be focusing on offloading the Gala Bingo chain in the until such time as the controversy dies down.

A buyer for the bingos is unclear at this time, with Rank the other major player in the market with Mecca bingos believed not to be interested in any purchase at this time.

PokerStars lose fight over New Jersey The Atlantic County Superior Court has ruled against The Rational

The ruling means that the Atlantic Club is within its legal rights to terminate the contract agreement they had reached with PokerStars to purchase the struggling casino back in December.

The parent company of PokerStars, the Rational Group, had agreed to fund over $30 million in employee pension shortfalls to the Atlantic Club as part of the $15 million purchase. Rational had already given the casino $12 million to help the casino continue to operate, and its owners want the remaining $4 million as a termination fee.

“Rational took the risk they could get it done,” Atlantic Club lawyer Tariq Mundiya said, according to an Associated Press report in The Washington Post. “Now they want to rewrite the contract. Once that date came and went, all bets were off.”

Group said it believes the Atlantic Club ended the agreement so they can get a higher price for their casino after New Jersey approved online gambling earlier this year.

The Superior Court judge said the contract allowed both sides to end the contract if PokerStars had not received New Jersey’s approval by April 26. In 2012.

Unless there is a renewed deal by both sides, which seems unlikely PokerStars has lost at least $12 million in the deal and the struggling Atlantic Club, which could not find any interested parties before face an uncertain future for all working there.

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PokerStars, in their attempt to purchase the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, after the online poker giant failed in time to gain New Jersey regulators approval for a gambling license by the deadline day for the agreement with the casino owners in late April.

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SPECIAL Feature Ireland

“Ireland’s Crying Game”

By J.J. Woods We welcome to our writers rosta, J.J. Woods, an industry veteran with a wealth of experience in the gambling industry and now offering you exclusive insights to working and tackling the Irish gambling question.

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he purpose of this report is to give a brief overview of Ireland’s Gaming Legislation situation. While I am well aware that there are other forms of gaming and issues within the framework of the long awaited Gaming Legislation, I have decided to concentrate on Land Based Casinos/ Private Members Clubs, Slot Machine Arcades and Online gaming for the purpose of this report.

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Present Legislation dates back to 1956 and of course does not deal with any of the trends or issues of the Gaming market today. One example of the 1956 Act was the setting of stakes or coinage that machines were allowed to accept; we have since changed currency and coinage a number of times.

Regarding pay-outs, jackpots etc. the 1956 Act and any amendment to it since has little bearing on what is actually going on today as we now have progressive jackpots being offered. With the advancement of technology over the years

we also have Note Acceptors where our machines today can accept €5 notes and up to €500 notes. One might ask what are the authorities doing about this and the answer is that they are turning a blind eye. It is also worth pointing out that the Government or Local Council have no way of assessing returns made from the profits of slot machines, they take what they are given, since there is no Department or officer trained in the checking of these apparatus and as for the operators it is a case of ‘making hay while the sun shines’.

Slot Machine Locations: Slot machines are located all around the country in buildings normally referred to as Arcades or Amusement Arcades. There are approximately 250 of these establishments varying in size. The largest of these are located in cities and also in coastal holidaying areas where they are invariably attached to Amusement Parks, the building must have an Arcade License and each machine must be licensed. Regarding the

Amusement Arcades they will have slot machines and machines/games for children and young adults that is amusement only, hence the name Amusement Arcade. The reality of this mix for many years, was that the hard gaming and the soft (amusement) shared the same floor and it is only in recent years that operators are beginning to separate the two forms.

This unusual mix could be blamed on the Government itself because back then they had concerns that the Building/Location where the operator was seeking a license would become a hard gaming location (Gambling Den if you like).So they would agree to the license only if the operator offered other forms of amusement in the building. The candy floss and children’s amusements etc were born out of that ideal!

On reflection, most people would agree that the two forms should never have been mixed in the same building and it’s ironic considering

Slot Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers: It is interesting to note that the slot machines themselves seem to move freely when it comes to them being imported here.

different approaches from the slot manufacturers and I will leave it up to the reader to decide which one they would back to have the best outcome when the Legislation arrives.

Unlike other countries that have up to date gaming legislation and where suppliers require licenses etc. and government approval; a lot of History: Up until 2002 there was machines in Ireland are assembled Private Members Clubs/Casinos: only a handful of these Clubs in or manufactured in eastern block are technically illegal in Ireland but the whole country but they quickly countries. For this report I don’t they have been allowed to flourish. became very popular. The existing think it is necessary to mention Clubs until then were run like the the names of the manufacturers Location and Size: Today there are speakeasies of prohibition time in or suppliers present in Ireland but a total of 36 Private Members Clubs America, word of mouth, no real I have spoken to two of the major / Casinos around the country that advertising and rarely was the name manufacturers of slot machines are registered with the Minister of ‘Casino’ used in any form to identify who are not present in Ireland and Justice office and approximately 30 the club in a commercial way. asked them why they were The Government or local councils not doing business here , The first Club to change that they responded with similar style of operating was a Club have no way of assessing returns answers: which was that that opened in Dublin in made from the profits of slot matheir lawyers had advised 2003 which was called Silks them against it, until proper chines, they take what they are and was aimed at the racing legislation was passed here. fraternity. Silks was a Georgiven, since there is no department When I told them that other gian building with the finest of officer trained in the checking of companies were here, they Italian made gaming tables, these apparatus and as for the oper- equestrian art covered walls, explained that they had liators it is a case of ‘making hat while waitress service (new at the censes in other jurisdictions that they wanted to protect. the sun shines’ time) and benefited from quality advertising includIt is my opinion that the ing radio commercials. This companies who have their slot of those Clubs are operating today. casino became a venue for upmarmachines here would normally The majority of the clubs are small ket parties, launches and celebrity find it difficult to compete with the in size and a typical table games visits including Miss World, Rosanna major slot machine manufacturers mix would be 1-2 Roulette Tables; Davison. Silks presented a new elsewhere. There is a lack of com2- 3 Blackjack Tables; and anything customer/client experience that petition between the various slot between 2 –6 Texas Holdem Tables. matched the enormous prosperity manufacturers and the ones already The larger Clubs are in cities like that characterised that period in Ireestablished here in Ireland seem Dublin and Cork would have twice land. The fact that casinos weren’t to feel that new legislation will be or three time the table compliment legal added to the experience of an kind to them when it eventually quoted. exciting night out. arrives. So we have two completely

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that the first rule of gaming legislation in any jurisdiction is to protect the young and the vulnerable!

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SPECIAL Feature Ireland

“Ireland’s Crying Game”

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rogress and Trends: Between 2003 and 2006 Irish people started to get a real appetite for this new social engagement and ‘casino’ became the buzzword, which coupled with the ever-increasing rise in popularity of Texas holdem.

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The whole concept of Private Members Clubs became a great alternative to a normal night out, not to mention, that some clubs gave their clients complimentary drinks, as it is illegal to sell alcohol in a Private Members Club.

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Charity Balls, Product Launches, and 21st parties all wanted a Casino Night. Towards the end of 2005 Financier Dermot Desmond (of Sandy Lane Hotel, Barbados) opened a Private Members Club/Casino in Dublin with a gaming area of 12,000 sq. ft and by now there was approximately 22 Clubs spread across the country.

The journalists and media were all hungry for stories or photo shoots

of the events in the clubs and some of the more serious journalists wanted to write about the legal issue regarding this new form of business that had erupted. However, most club operators were cautious about speaking and the one or two who did speak usually got none or little reply back when it came to the government’s position. But then there was a dramatic turn around…

Dealing with the Issue: In March 2006 the then Minister of Justice Michael Mc Dowell announced to the press regarding Private Members’ Clubs the following statement: ‘Their number is up’, going on to say that he intended to change the law on Gambling Clubs and secure prosecutions in the closing down of establishments of such operations across the country. He made no secret that he was vehemently against the Private Members Clubs/ Casino and made several references between then and July 2006 of his intention to change the law if necessary to achieve the closure of the Private Members’ Clubs. There was

even talk of a ‘Special Task Force’ specifically set up to raid the clubs and prosecute those running them.

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The concept of private memebers clubs became a great alternative to a normal night out, not to mention, that some clubs gave their clients complimentary drinks, as it is illegal to sell alcohol in a private members club.

The effect the U Turn and the understanding that legislation was on its way had the effect that many new clubs opened over the next couple of years, almost doubling the original amount when McDowell was set to close them! The prevailing attitude was to open a casino, wait for legislation and be rewarded with a casino license. The fact that the Minister had not forced existing clubs to close opened doors for those who wanted to get involved in the private members clubs.

Online Gaming: Ireland had an opportunity to push through with a New gaming legislation during the UK’s shambles of deregulation back in 2005 and in many ways have possibly missed another opportunity with online gaming. There was in my opinion a window of opportunity for Ireland to become a central hub for the online gaming sector given our labour pool and eco-

nomic infrastructure but like all of the other Gaming issues it relies on a New Gaming Legislation.

We have recently heard that Cyprus is to legalise gaming to help with it’s tourism and economic decline . Italy revenues from gaming last year was reported to be €200 million and Spain as €140 million. It is also reported that the UK is to reduce it’s online gaming taxes to attract the major companies to set up there. With this increased competition Ireland will find it extremely difficult to enter the market and when they finally do I believe they will have to offer extraordinary incentives to attract interest.

On Going Legislation Issue: A Research Committee was set up as McDowell promised and the public were invited to make submissions to the Minister of Justice, after almost two years the report Regulating Gaming in Ireland was released in July 2008 and can be viewed here www.justice.ie A Gaming Control office was set up soon after within the Minister Of Justice Office and further submissions were invited and a further report Gambling Options which again took approximately 2 years to complete

was released in December 2010.and can be viewed here www.justice. ie A Gaming Control office was set up soon after within the Minister Of Justice Office and further submissions were invited and a further report Gambling Options which again took approximately 2 years to complete was released in December 2010.and can be viewed here www.justice.ie. On a separate issue, but probably the only issue that has really driven the Legislation to this point is: The Third EU Money Laundering Directive (Known as 3MLD): Ireland has been under pressure for some time to comply with the above Directive issued by the EU. Casinos have always been seen as a target for money laundering and as they are included on the Directive there is pressure on the government to make sure that our Casinos/Private Members Clubs are complying with this directive. So in June 2010 the Anti MoneyLaundering Dept. at the Minister Of Justice Office asked if all Private Members Clubs would register their respective clubs with the Dept. so as to comply with the 3MLD. The reality is that none of the clubs themselves are regulated here or follow any procedures issued by the government, yet they have been asked to register and comply with the Money-Laundering Directive and a refusal is imprisonment or a fine of €5000, that said the operators have no training to spot if money is in fact being cleaned on

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The U Turn: In the months that followed Minister McDowell carried on making statements on his dislike of the Private Members Clubs but that was all about to change. In July 2006 Michael McDowell was interviewed on RTE, national radio and he announced that he wanted to set up a Regulatory Body that would research and investigate the Gaming Business and a plan to legislate.

This was a dramatic turnaround and a complete change of strategy by the Justice Minister. To this day his about turn has never been explained.

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SPECIAL Feature Ireland

(Continued) their premises. So I guess what we have here in a nutshell is cart before the horse policy and politics. I have included a part of the registration form below: It should be noted that while this registration process makes private members’ gaming clubs amenable to the full rigour of our anti-money laundering statute, it does not purport to endorse or regulate the gambling activities of those clubs.

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Registration for money laundering control purposes, therefore, cannot be taken by private members’ clubs as a licence to engage in gambling generally, or to extend their gambling activities beyond their club memberships. Neither does it guarantee that such clubs will be offered licences in any future regulatory regime, should the Government decide that such a regime is warranted, following the settling of policy in relation to a new gambling architecture for the State.

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To emphasise further how the 3rd Money laundering directive is not being properly exercised we must consider the following : According to the Minister of Justice office in Ireland, Slot Arcades/ Amusement Arcades are not required to register or comply with the 3rd MLD ,yet the E.U. have included casinos on their list and assumed quite rightly that a large part of the casino business is slot machines, but that is not the case in Ireland as the businesses are separated and the reality is that the largest revenues and cash transactions are actually in the Slot Arcade business and much more in my opinion than the Private Members Clubs who must comply. On

a separate note the real areas for laundering money are obviously betting shops where cheques are regularly issued to settle winning bets and these establishments are not covered by the Anti Money Laundering policy.

The VAT (Value Added Tax): Over the last two years the latest battle that the Private Members clubs have had to deal with is the fact that the Revenue Commissioners has formed the view that as registered private members clubs they are liable for VAT payments.

Whilst bookmakers and much of the gambling industry are exempt from VAT, the Irish Tax authorities now want the Casino Clubs to pay VAT at 23 per cent. A number of assessments in respect of VAT have already been made on some clubs and there is also the issue of backdated payments. When I communicated with the revenue on this I was told that VAT must be paid on the following: Membership fees, Entry fees, Fees to take part in a game, and Net receipts from Gaming!!

One case has already been taken to the European courts ruled in favour of the Revenue and this is sure to have a knock on effect to the other operators of casino clubs.

My own opinion is that this really is the final countdown, I certainly do not agree with this taxing system. If we compare the VAT as it used in other businesses for example if you tell a customer that the price of a product is €100 the profit margin is included in that figure and then the VAT is added to the €100 afterwards. If the revenue really wanted to treat the clubs the way it says it treats other businesses (then they certainly have not done their homework). They have requested they want

(Continued) 23% on membership fees, entry fees etc then why have they not requested 23% when the Gaming chips are bought!

Unfortunately the only thing now that will change this type of taxing is gaming legislation or is it possible that the Tax issue is being used as a whipping stick prior to legislation? By that I mean there is no doubt that the opening of Private Members clubs some years back has been the main driver to push the whole issue of legislation followed closely by the money laundering directive but the reality is how many of these will exist when full legislation arrives and if major casino companies arrive and plough millions of euros into 5 star structures, has the clean up already begun?

The Future and Opinion: The last Elections took place on the 25th February 2011 and a new government was formed, the new line up gave us our fourth Minister of Justice since the Gaming issue began and we really have not progressed.

The Betting Amendment Bill 2012 was due early in 2013 and we know now it has been put forward to 2014. But the overall question is, has the present administration the political will to see the new gaming legislation through? The country itself is in economic free fall and proper legislation and regulation not just for the casinos and slot arcades but for other issues including online gaming etc. could bring in massive badly needed revenues. After all other jurisdictions all over the globe are earning substantial revenues why not Ireland?

I also believe that Ireland will benefit from proper legislation in that the major Casino Corporates may come here and set up business. The majority of Casinos in Ireland lack the ‘experience factor’ and whilst this could be down to lack of investment within the clubs and the uncertainty of the business, the fact remains they are not Palaces and the customer is certainly not getting the ‘wow factor’.

Casinos require excellent customer service above all, an ambience mixed with an air of excitement and a theme always helps so let’s hope when we do have gaming legislation these vital ingredients are restored to the industry.

On a final note ,whilst Casinos are deemed illegal by virtue of the 1956 Gaming Act, the Government not only taxes them but also requires them to register with the Justice office and to comply with Anti Money Laundering Policy ? This surely is the Crying Game!

JJ Woods was born in Ireland but left in the 1970’s to live in London and he started his career in banking. After four years in Banking in London JJ trained in the Casino Industry. Over the last 30 years JJ has dedicated his career to the setting up, including: design, opening and management of Casinos around the world.

Throughout his time in Ireland JJ has also done several Radio, Television and Newspaper interviews on the subject of Casinos and gaming, he is above all extremely passionate about the Casino Industry and Completed a gaming submission to the Irish Government during Legislation Research. He is a leader in respect of the responsibility of customer care He was responsible for the following Casino designs and set ups in Ireland : Macau (Cork), Silks (Dublin). www.atlanticcasinoconsultants.com Email: info@atlanticcasinoconsultants.com

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About J.J. Woods

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GAMING NEWS

ASA received over 800 gambling ad complaints in 2012

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he Advertising Standards Association (ASA) has said they have received 6 times more complaints regarding gambling Ads in the last year, than ever before.

In 2012 there was a total of 855 complaints about gambling adverts to the ASA, compared to 148 in 2011.

One particular complaint to the ASA which was upheld was against the Health Lottery, which stated in an advert: “Mortgage? What Mortgage?”

The ASA said the commercial was “irresponsible” for implying that playing the lottery “was a way of solving financial concerns or achieving financial security”.

Anthony Jennens, chief executive of the charity GamCare, said: “There is always a risk that people will imagine they can gamble their way out of debt, and this is obviously wrong”.

Rebecca McAdam new PR Manager for FTP

The ASA said that almost half of all the 1,879 complaints received so far since advertising on gambling was allowed in 2007 have been registered in 2012 alone. Last year, there were complaints over adverts perceived to be socially irresponsible, indecent or misleading.

Mark Griffiths, a professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University, said there was a significant growth in the number of problem gamblers since such adverts were permitted six years ago.

He said: “Problem gambling is only a very small proportion of all gambling in this country, but there was a 50 per cent increase in problem gambling between 2007 and 2011.”

The Rational Group has named Rebecca McAdam as Senior PR Manager for Full Tilt Poker. Rebecca will lead PR for the Full Tilt Poker brand and will be the key point of contact for media. Rebecca is based in Dublin, while working closely with the marketing and events teams, supporting the companies campaigns and driving pro-active coverage of Full Tilt Poker.

Rebecca is a well-known poker journalist, presenter and player, she has worked in many areas of the poker from writing and media consulting to presenting, commentating and producing poker multimedia around the globe. She was most recently the deputy editor of Card Player Europe and also known her from her role as presenter and commentator for the Irish Poker Open.

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He added that every other English-speaking country requires gambling adverts to direct people to helplines.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

Finding better ways

To Educate Online Poker Players

Just before my daughter’s birth, I assembled a cot which arrived flat-packed with detailed instructions but I was not keen to read the entire booklet prior to getting underway. Instead, I just started but soon settled for having the instructions by my side.

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There were mistakes caused by my reluctance to read that damn booklet beforehand but it all worked out. If one steps back we can see remarkable parallels between this and online poker’s ongoing attempt to educate new players into the kind of depositing “fish” that marketers crave.

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Online poker has since inception been faced with the need to educate poker players. This is not a onedimensional goal to teach them to play but instead to teach them to play well. Definitions of “well” depend upon one’s role is in players’ universe but generally it is important that players enjoy their experience. If they deposit and play loosely like highlights of final tables watched on TV, they will likely lose and leave. Players do not mind “paying” (or losing) money for an entertaining poker game but attacks that pillage them of hardearned money without entertainment results in early exits for what are expensive acquisitions. It can cost operators over $150 to acquire a real-money gambler only to lose them after one poor short-lived experience.

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Poker is not simply a game of chance. A player’s actions and skills are important - they should understand games, adopt strategies, explore odds and leverage psychologies. Moreover, the education is ongoing with beginners needing educating and experienced players requiring advancement.

The poker community has not ignored this need and has for years offered players clever ways to educate players. including books, websites, TV shows, instructional videos, free-play sites, tutoring, forums, boot

By Rohin Malhotra

camps, private tournaments, live training, software analysing gameplay, software guiding players during games and, more recently, beginners’ tables.

As entertaining and fun as poker is, becoming a good player requires commitment, study of games, practice and a willingness to seek information as part of an ongoing commitment to learn. For many this is worthy of the goal. But for many this does not sound like fun at all.

I have been the CEO of WPT and have worked for PartyPoker, Chilipoker and Pokerstars and, even for me, this need to get educated does not sound like much fun.

One would prefer a real-time education allowing me to learn whilst playing. As one gamer told me, “I have a day job, I’m keen to learn but I come here to have fun!”

This is not to say all forms of education out there are flawed but to simply identify that most tools are not properly geared to operators’ most burning needs.

Further education of proficient players into advanced ones arguably creates sharks who become empowered to prey upon fish.

Marketers typically do not target sharks as they seek out the fish themselves. Most online players globally do not spend money as gambling sites can comprise over 80% of people playing for free and huge products like Zynga Poker tend to comprise over 95% of free players so there is much to gain from a better approach.

PartyPoker and FullTiltPoker have been particularly impressive with recent launches of beginners’ tables limited to players within 45 days of first deposits or less than 2,000 cash-game hands and 75 tournaments or sit’n’go events. Slower play on these tables amongst people of similar competency allows players to learn under easier conditions, be more aware of options and more protected from getting burned too quickly. And although not actually educating players, it does provide a school-like environment within which players can learn during gameplay. Albeit prone to abuse, evidenced by forums with sharks claiming to have set up accounts to gain access to beginners’ tables, they are intelligent solutions and indeed something more poker rooms should be embracing.

The key to educating most new players is to educate them during live gameplay sessions via something that wraps around their gaming experience and identifies those “moments” when they can be taught effectively.

Many just want to play. They want to learn but expecting them to “study” is unrealistic. Any time on poker applications should be spent playing poker. They may lack time,

be lazy, believe they know all they need to, resistant of encroachment on playing time or just bored with thought of studying but assuming they are wrong and forcing upon them conventional methods would itself be foolish in an increasingly consumer-centric world. So let’s give them what they need within a package of what they want. Don’t send these players to schools, take the schools to their games!

Putting aside tools requiring players to stop playing, there is not much left. There are informative tools like odds calculators and operators presenting user-friendly options available to players but real-time educational tools that meet both consumers’ and operators’ needs are rare.

Established software that helps players while they play, like PokerTracker and Hold’Em Manager, are geared towards competent players wishing to become very successful players. However, there appears to be only one product, called Magicholdem, which caters

want to gamble but require educating in layperson’s language without sacrificing their entertainment from their game-time.

Whilst Magicholdem appears to also offer an array of tools that educate players pre-game and postgame, at the heart of their offering is a little-known but excellent product for less experienced players to get educated and guided during a game. Instead of just providing information like basic odds and options, it offered a window with some form of advanced calculator that is actually integrated with the online poker table and thus offered actual guidance and comments on actual gameplay whilst playing.

Players can just keep on playing and the window educates them about their playing style, summarises events and identifies strengths and weaknesses in addition to a bunch of stats.

But this begs a question, especially if software like Magicholdem is as they claim integrated into over a hundred poker rooms. Why on earth is this not being used more by operators and why is there no alternative to it available in other poker rooms?

The key to unlocking the vault of tens of millions of new poker players and enabling the gigantic number of free players to gamble more competently is not to just educate them but to educate them where they play...while they are playing!

for casual and free players who just

Rohin Malhotra is Managing Director of Boofel Enterprises, an international gaming and media consultancy.

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After all, how does Zynga intend to convert social players to real money gamblers without educating them in the more bespoke manner that they need to learn? New players need educating but many just rush to the product and seek to learn on the job.

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GAMING NEWS

bwin.party announce 17% revenue drop for Q1

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win.party have just announced their first quarter results for 2013 showing revenues dropped by 17%, but the company said the results were in line with forecasts.

The drop in revenues was attributed to the companies current round of cost cutting.

The plc company said the 5% tax on sports betting in Germany and a decline in marketing spend seeing fewer player sign ups contributed to the revenue fall.

CEO of bwin.party Norbert Teufelberger said: “The drop in revenue in the first quarter reflects our tactical shift from ‘volume’ to ‘value’ that we announced at the time of the full year results, as well as lower than

expected player activity in poker and casino following the dotcom migration in December 2012.”

“As previously announced, our shift in tactics will see us optimise the shape and size of our business, a process that is expected to reduce total revenue in 2013 by up to 10% compared with 2012.

However, our programme to reduce costs is on-track and we remain comfortable with our previous guidance on clean EBITDA margins having identified total savings of approximately €70m per annum to be delivered in 2013 with more to come in 2014 and 2015.

“Whilst seasonality and the absence of a major football tournament this year mean that revenue trends are unlikely to improve until the second half of the year, a series of new product launches and the anticipated opening of poker and casino in New Jersey coupled with a detailed programme of cost savings and a greater focus on regulated markets mean we remain confident about the group’s prospects.”

NJ set to publish online gambling regulations

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EW Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement have announced their plans to publish the regulations for online gambling within the state, the date to remember will be the 3rd June when all will be revealed.

A draft of the regulations posted on the divisions website say that licensees will pay an upfront fee of

That sixty day period would take the consultation period to August and there is a minimum of 45 days after that where there must be notice of any websites for online gambling going live.

It is looking increasingly likely that New Jersey will not make their target of 2013 to launch live online gambling in the state, for any opposition to the regulations will then incur another delay.

Most observers already believed that the first quarter of 2014 is most likely to see online gambling live in New Jersey.

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$400,000 for the state permit and an annual fee of $250,000 to support problem gambling programmes.

Once the regulations are posted on the 3rd June there will then be a sixty day period for comments and discussion of the proposals, which means that they could change even after publication.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

“The Great Shift ”

– have we been left to our own devices!?

By Ellen Learmonth

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ociety is changing and the way we behave is changing too. When was the last time that you switched your phone/iPad off and went out totally un-contactable?? Exactly!! We are never being parted from our mobile devices and are constantly seeking digital communication, information, and entertainment.

This change in our day to day activities is also changing the landscape for marketers.

about it some years ago. I read that in 2011 more than 0.5 billion smart phones where shipped worldwide and 70 million tablets were sold. This number has been growing and now the switch away from the desktop is palpable. Gaming companies are declaring their biggest growth in the mobile sector. So why is the affiliate not embracing this move? Why are there only a few of them dedicating one of their pages to mobile or publishing a mobile keyword rich domain which is not even using mobile friendly coding?

I believe the problem is 2-fold:

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1. For some the change to the faster growing mobile movement is something that requires investment. The affiliate pages that have been growing over years with experience and strong reputation and tons of content cannot easily be switched to responsive design pages. It is a bit of a risk to change the design; too many questions still need to be answered with regards to the effects on SEO, usability, and tracking. Which brings me to the second point:

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Management has noticed that the times when affiliate marketing was the main contributor to the revenue growth are gone. Affiliate Managers are struggling to see anticipated growth rates and affiliates are looking at secondary incomes to support their families.

How do we rejuvenate in stagnating times? The latest glimmer of hope for affiliates and operators alike are the mobile gambling applications or responsive design webpages that serve multiple devices. Yes, we all knew

2. Tracking, affiliates do not trust mobile tracking yet.

There are a lot of solutions out there and some are being used by operators, but are they really covering all devices? Or will the affiliate lose 50% of his traffic to non-track-able accounts? They know that the old web solutions simply do not work as well as cookies are or are not stored; and other device identifiers are random and not universal and very much manufacturer dependent.

– have we been left to our own devices!?

So what can the operator do to put some credibility into mobile tracking?

Some ad networks offer their solutions to operators for tracking 3rd party activity but for me there is not a single one that covers all concerns. The many variables that need covering to ensure reliable tracking are so plenty - with examples like the influences by relationship to carriers, or the Apple supplied Safari browser having cookies disabled by default and what about cross device conversion? – that it is difficult to be 100% sure or even 98%.

To conclude: For now it feels like we are left to our own devices when it comes to mobile tracking. How can we and affiliates gain the trust in mobile tracking solutions? It is fair to say that operators should concentrate some of their R&D time, money and resources on this subject to not miss the boat because my feeling is that affiliates are waiting to support this move.

“

Management has noticed that the times when affiliate marketing was the main contributor to the revenue growth are gone. Affiliate Managers are struggling to see anticipated growth rates and affiliates are looking at secondary incomes to support their families”

Ellen Learmonth has been active in digital media for over 14 years covering all disciplines of online marketing with strong expertise in acquisition and affiliate marketing.

She is passionate about innovation and new technology with a strong drive for creativity. Her 2006 World Cup Campaign earned two prestigious creative design awards at the New York Festival (Bronze) and The International Davey Award (Gold). Now living in London, Ellen is lending her expertise to some of the major gaming operators.

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There are many companies that are developing universal ad tracking solutions that go beyond cookie tracking. They are working around using UDID and other IDs that might become obsolete with the privacy issues these tracking options create.

Recently Apple introduced a new tracking standard with IFA which allows the user to accept or reject tracking thus answering the privacy issues their UDIDs have. However, the only way to get marketers to dig much deeper into their pockets and offer a solid solution for advertisers and affiliates would be a universal approach.

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GAMING ASIA NEWS

Japan to open casinos in two years

Reports in Japan say that a pro-casino group of Japanese lawmakers are pushing for plans to be submitted this year for legislation aimed at opening the world’s third-largest economy to land based casino gambling.

Currently gambling in casinos is illegal in Japan, but a large portion of the population do gamble on a pinballlike game called pachinko, which generates an estimated $200 billion in revenue each year.

Japan having a large and wealthy population along with the geographical location to Shanghai and Beijing means that Japan could become a serious gambling

location in competition to Macau and newly opened Singapore.

It is estimated that Japan’s gaming market could be worth some $10 billion if two large-scale integrated resorts are approved – more than Singapore’s $5.9 billion and Las Vegas’ $6.2 billion in 2012.

The cross-party casino group aims to submit a promotional bill to parliament in the autumn, which could be followed by concrete laws within two years, Takeshi Iwaya, the deputy head of the lobby of more than 100 lawmakers said to reporters.

SJM receive approval for new casino Melco announce 56% slide in profits

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JM Holdings the largest casino operator in Macau has received official approval to build a new casino resort.

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SJM said its contract for land in the Cotai was officially approved on Wednesday 15th May. The new projects which are

centered on the Cotai Strip is a patch of former swampland that authorities there intend to be Asia’s version of the Las Vegas Strip.

Las year the former Portuguese colony turned over $38 billion in casino revenue, which is approximately six times more than

Las Vegas.

SJM which was founded by billionaire Stanley Ho, plans to build a 2,000-room resort with 700 gambling tables, the date for completion has not been announced yet.

Melco Crown Entertainment has reported a 56% drop in its first quarter profits for 2013, net income fell to US$53.8 million (MOP430 million) from US$122.1 million a year earlier for the January-March period.

The Macau based gambling company said the slide in profits was attributable to financing costs of the company’s new Cotai project, Studio City.

However the good news was that net revenue increased in the first quarter by about 11% yearon-year to US$1.14 billion.

GAMING NEWS

Betfair reject final offer from CVC Betfai has terminated talks regarding a buyout for the company by CVC Capital Partners.

Betfair had requested an extension to the takeover panel of 24 hours to continue talking to CVC, with hopes that the two companies would reach an agreement, however this was not the case and Betfair have now officially rejected the improved offer from CVC. The company argued that the group was experiencing ‘accelerated growth’. Unsurprisingly, following the release of the update, the group has revealed it received an updated offer from CVC of £9.50 per Betfair share with the understanding this to be a ‘fair and final’ offer.

Many observers believed that Betfair would have ac-

cepted the £10 per share discussed last week, but CVC obviously felt this was to high.

That said, Betfair has confirmed this morning that it has rejected this final offer on the basis that it ‘undervalues’ the group and its future prospects. While the bidders were offered another chance, reportedly, to amend their offer and go higher no agreeable proposal could be reached and therefore talks have been officially terminated.

Betfair chairman Gerald Corbett argued that ‘none of the proposals represented adequate value or acceptable execution risk’ and added that new management direction – which is already in place – was sufficient for the group to continue making ‘excellent progress’.

Paddy Power Q1 results and no change in

P

addy Power has announced its first quarter results with revenues increasing by 20% in the first 3 months of 2013, as the Irish based operator said its online betting arm continued to show increased performance.

In the companies interim statement, it said online revenue had risen 29% so far this year, while high street betting rose 8%.

The report said its Irish retail operations performed well with like for like stakes up 3%, however revenue declined somewhat due to a return to what the company called ”normal sporting results”.

Paddy Power chairman Nigel Northridge said last year’s strong performance had continued into 2013.

“Sports results have been favourable overall, with the group’s sportsbook gross win percentage above our normal expectations and above the equivalent period last year, notwithstanding a record number of Irish trained winners at Cheltenham.

“Within online, net revenue has grown by 30% in

outside of Australia. This was driven by continued strong growth in online active customers of 33%. The strengths of that business is being complemented by leading positions in mobile betting, with that component of revenue up 112% to an industry leading 42% of total online revenue. The Board looks forward to the remainder of 2013 with confidence given the strong momentum in the business and substantial ongoing investment.”

In other news from the company regarding its advertising, Paddy Power said it has “no” plans to pull back from running their controversial advertising and claims it’s on the way to becoming one of the leading consumer brands in the country.

Patrick Kennedy, Paddy Power’s chief executive, said recently: “What the team do every year is think about how they are going to surpass what they did creatively the previous year and they do that. Our spontaneous brand awareness continues to rise.”

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advertising style

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ARTICLE

It’s Audit Time!

Wait, This Is An Audit That’s Good for You Our feature writer Martin Baird looks at audits this month and they are not all bad. The most important thing is to be prepared, but do not fall into the trap, Martin will explain why and how it is possible.

By Martin R. Baird

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t’s time for your audit!

Talk about striking fear into people’s hearts. Most of us would lose sleep for weeks if we knew there was going to be an audit of our taxes or accounting books. But for casinos looking for a way to pinpoint customer service problems and move forward with improvements, an audit is very much in order.

Let’s start with a definition I found on the Internet.

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au•dit n. (1) An examination of records or financial accounts to check their accuracy (2) an adjustment or correction of accounts (3) an examined and verified account. This definition points to the area of financial accounts but it starts with “records.” Look at your guest service records and see what has worked and what has not. In very simple terms, that is your audit.

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When you do your audit – or have it done for you – don’t fall into a trap common at many companies and say “it looks good to me” and then move on. You should tear your guest service records apart so you know every detail. This will help you determine your investment in service and the return on that investment. If you or the auditors who are doing your audit are not using a very critical eye, it’s a waste of time and money.

Look at your marketing records for clues to service problems. If your marketing isn’t doing a good job of getting guests to come back, you may have a service issue. I heard from a fellow who was directed by a casino

employee to the wrong parking lot. His car was towed.

When he talked with the casino, they refused to help or offer some comps to ease the pain of the $130 fee the man paid to retrieve his car. The casino argued over a measly $130 and lost that man’s business forever. That’s poor service that undermines marketing.

During your audit, challenge your way of thinking by proving everything to your auditor. No sacred cows allowed. We are in a very challenging economic time and if you aren’t digging in to find out what’s working with your customer service, you are missing opportunities!

What can you do today so you are prepared? Let’s say a client asks me to do a service audit for them. Here is what I will ask for and what I will look at.

First – What are all the guest service materials you used or created the past year? These would include your customer service plan, your training materials and rewards and incentives. I would want to see records that show who among your staff was targeted for customer service training.

Second – What was invested to improve service? How much did you invest in training, rewards and incentives, etc.?

Third – What else do you include in customer service expenses that may not really be related to service? What about comps, player parties, community relations? Are those really service expenses or are they marketing

ARTICLE

(Continued) expenses?.

Fourth – What is your return on investment by item? This will take some time and many people will skip this step. Don’t make that mistake. It’s critical that you go through this exercise to know what’s going on in your service-related efforts. Do it right. If you aren’t willing to invest the time to do the research, you will get the best answers only if you are very lucky.

After I have those four groups of data, I will look it all over. Then comes prove-it time. I will ask question after question to find out what worked and why. And why is a very important question. Why do you do training the way you do it? Why have you taken a particular approach to incentives? For example, if you decide to give your employees a five percent across-the-board raise this year, why not tie raises to customer service to get your employees more interested in giving guests a great experience at your property?

When the stream of questions start, people squirm.

They’re being pushed to prove whether their investment in guest service did or didn’t work and that can be a very challenging situation. No one likes to be proved wrong.

Once you have the results of your audit in hand, take a look at the results. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of your customer service efforts were complete flops.

Before you throw these ideas out, you should first look at why they didn’t work. You can often learn more from things that didn’t work than you can from things that did.

bers who have direct contact with guests are an obvious target. But what about other noncontact employees? If a cook in the restaurant didn’t prepare a guest’s plate to their satisfaction, that guest had a poor service experience and the cook never had contact with them.

An audit may sound like an exercise that you don’t need to do. You could be very wrong. Great service happens from doing it. Your audit could very well uncover some mistakes, but it could also reveal efforts that work – efforts that you want to keep doing.

Martin R. Baird is chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based consulting firm to the global gaming industry that is dedicated to helping casinos improve their guest service so they can compete and generate future growth and profitability. Robinson & Associates is the leader in casino guest experience, management and improvement.

For more information, visit the company’s Web sites at www. casinocustomerservice.com and www.advocatedevelopmentsystem.com or contact the company at 208-991-2037.

Robinson & Associates is a member of the Casino Management Association and an associate member of the National

Next, take a look at the offer. Were the rewards and incentives strong enough to get employees to change old habits and start focusing on service?

Did you target the right people for training? Staff mem-

Indian Gaming Association.

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First, what about the critical element of timing? A guest service program may have failed if you kicked it off when something happened in your community, your region or even the country that got in the way. Did your program come up against something that diverted people’s attention?

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PRESS RELEASES

Press ReLEAses from around the industry

William Hill Online has this launched “Show Me The Bunny” a hybrid skill/slot game on its Vegas Casino website marking the first of many releases of next-generation casino games created

by Nektan.

POSITIVE RESPONSE OF INTERBLOCK’S G4 ORGANIC PRODUCTS IN FRENCH MARKET Interblock is proud that beginning of new cooperation with French distributor SFC2A company have already shown some results by placing G4 Organic Live Roulette™ in Casino les Pins.

Another great installation together with one of

TCSJOHNHUXLEY APPOINTS TODD CRAVENS AS CEO FOR THE AMERICAS TCSJohnHuxley is delighted to announce the appointment of Todd Cravens as CEO for the Americas commencing 1st May 2013. Todd reports directly to the Group CEO, Cath Burns, and will be based in Las Vegas.

Realistic Games believes tailoring content to Mobile is powering success Realistic Games has won contracts to provide content to Ladbrokes, Bet 365 and Boylesports in the last 12 months, as well as recently launching their games on Paddy Power’s new Mobile Games site.

CARNIVAL CITY CASINO NOW OFFERS DOUBLE THE FUN WITH INTERBLOCK’S TWIN AUTOMATED ROULETTE

Sun International’s colourful Carnival City Casino now offers their players even more excitement and variety with Interblock’s stylish G4 Organic Automated Roulette™ with Twin Wheels. by

GameAccount announces record Q1 GameAccount Network announced record trading in the first calendar quarter 2013 driven by new product launches in Italy’s fast-growing regulated Internet gaming market and mobile gaming in various European markets.

Got a Press Release to tell the

TCSJOHNHUXLEY G2E ASIA PREVIEW

media@cleverduckmedia.com

TCSJOHNHUXLEY will be showcasing a full range of innovative products at G2E Asia 2013. These include Gaming Floor Live the Real-Time game optimisation tool designed to maximise key performance areas and profitability, now available across Baccarat, Sicbo and Roulette games.

World about? Then email our team and we will place it in the Infinity Magazine FREE:

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William Hill Vegas launches first Nektan game online

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GAMING NEWS

Partouche to

Genting to buy

close online

LCI?

business Visa & Mastercard allow US online gambling

E

urope’s largest land based casino operator, Group Partouche has announced that it is closing its online gaming business because “of the difficult market and tax environment.”

The company has already requested that it repealed its online license from the French gaming regulator ARJEL. Partouche are now working out the logistics of closing the 3,000 plus player accounts and migrating them to one of its partners MyPok.fr

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Partouche have said that their site will close for good on the 17th June after three years of operations.

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It is a blow for the French based gaming company, but with the market being so saturated and tax and regulations in France so restrictive, the cost of operating was too great while their land based operations also struggle.

I

t seems that the US is opening up a little more to online gambling as now Visa the world’s largest payment processing and acceptance provider company has now stated to its affiliated merchants that in some cases accepting online gambling transactions will be legal.

According to reports there was an email sent from Visa to its merchants informing them that “in part” not all transactions with the code MCC 7995, which is the code for online gambling transactions is now not always unlawful.

Normally this code in the US is automatically blocked following the 2006 UIGEA bill that introduced significant fines and penalties for financial institutions that facilitated financial transactions between their members and gaming sites. Both Mastercard and Visa will be issuing alternate coding for legal online gambling sites, which currently are only in Nevada, however with New Jersey expected to be operational later this year, it is clear that using your credit card in the US again is iback.

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alks at last weeks Big Ideas in Gaming Conference centered around the possible purchase of London Clubs International (LCI) by Genting the Uk’s second largest casino operator.

It has been well known for sone time now that LCI which is owned

by US casino giant Caesars has been looking for a buyer for their UK business, but has been unsuccessful in reaching any meaningful agreement for the casino estate which has been suffering huge losses for many years now.

However it is now understood that Genting who have recently lost their status as the Uk’s largest casino operator will purchase LCI for as little as £80 million for the nine casino operation owned by Caesars whom need the funds to push continued development in the US. The deal is believed to be completed by the end of 2013 and will mean the departure of Caesars from the UK market after the purchase of LCI back in 2006 Caesars purchased LCI for £279.3m and that investment grew to over £300m when LCI had operated 13 casinos, until the closure of less profitable operations.

NEWS

Playtech name new boss of Social Gaming Playtech have announced that Dan Wiegenfeld as new Head of Social Gaming operations for the company, Wiegenfeld was formely CEO of Diwip & Best Casinos.

Phil Ivey spotted marked cards as casino responds

Ben Affleck did not lose $500,000

Kim Dotcom launches new site The internet entrepeneur Kim Dotcom boasted on Sunday that his new file-sharing service, Mega, was the fastest-growing startup in internet history.

Jack Media cements partnership with MC&C Jack Media and MC&C have formally united under the MC&C banner.

The two companies have successfully shared offices for the last six months and by working together. The combined team brings a breadth and a depth of skills seen in few other agencies – particularly within the gaming industry.

Crockfords the exclusive gambling club say in their dispute with Phil Ivey over his unpaid winnings of £7.6 million, that he used flaws in the cards to win at Punto Banco.

The dispute dates back to last August when Ivey played at Crockfords’ casino in Mayfair, Ivey and an unidentified woman were playing in the private VIP room. Ivey who is regarded as one of the best Poker players in the World, started his betting at £50,000 (about $77,000) per hand, and later raised that, with the casino’s agreement, to £150,000 (about $230,000) per hand.

Over the course of three nights, Ivey and his companion lost around £500,000 at one point ($770,000) but turned it around and ended up winning just under £8 million. The casino says that Ivey had spotted tiny imperfections in the cards’ designs, and used that knowledge to help identify when certain cards would be on the table, even when face-down.

The casino says that Ivey was not responsible for the card defaults but used this to his benefit in recognizing and memorizing the best card to play. Number cards eight

and nine are very good in Punto Banco.

The case will almost certainly end up in court proceedings, at present Phil Ivey and his legal representatives have not commented on Crockfords accusations.

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acau record 13% revenue increase

Macau continue raising records with the latest one being for last month’s revenues figure for casinos in the Chinese gambling hub.

Casinos in Macau took MOP28.3 billion (US$3.54 billion) in the month, official figures released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau show.

This is a 13.2% increase over the same period last year, so far this year gaming revenues have reached MOP113.6 billion, a 14.4% increase over the first three months of 2012.

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Actor and Director, Ben Affleck representatives say “that is nowhere near the case”. Affleck did lose some money in the scandal but it was nowhere near the $500,000 claimed and the money was refunded.

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