Regulatory Hurdles Persist in Delaying Technology Adoption in the Asia-Pacific Gaming Sector
Industry suppliers have been reporting that there are still regulatory obstacles that continue to hinder the advancement of technology within the Asia-Pacific gaming industry, and they are calling for better cooperation between the two parties to minimize the obstacles. The matter was discussed in one of the sessions held during the G2E Asia event held on Wednesday.
Light & Wonder managing director for international Jamie Dorbian and Aristocrat chief revenue officer Kurt Gissane said the industry could do more to work with regulators before products are released. Both also questioned whether regulators fully understand some of the technologies they oversee, arguing that the gap is slowing practical use inside gaming operations.
Regulators And Innovation
Dorbian said the industry could improve the way it partners with regulators when developing new products. He noted that companies often prefer to keep projects confidential, but said that approach can lead to products that may not work as intended once they are brought forward for approval.
He pointed to cashless payments as one example. While consumers now use phones to pay for everyday purchases, he said the version used in some casinos can still be cumbersome and complicated. In his view, the difficulty lies not in the technology itself but in the regulatory process surrounding it.
Gissane described gaming as heavily regulated around the world, not only in Asia, but said the barriers to entry in this region are more pronounced than elsewhere. He said that is especially true in online gaming. He added that the technology is already there in places such as Australia, Singapore, and Macau, but that regulatory barriers continue to limit what can be done with it.
Online Business Challenges
On the same panel, Shaun McCamley, president of Euro Pacific Asia Consulting Ltd and founder of social gaming platform GameWorkz, said operators in the Philippines are not helping themselves when it comes to online expansion. He said many land-based integrated resort operators that have launched online platforms under PAGCOR’s PIGO scheme are likely to struggle because they have not built proper in-house teams to manage them.
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McCamley said technology is improving, but capability remains a problem. He argued that many land-based operators across the region have very little understanding of how to run a digital business. In his view, the way many major properties have structured their digital operations makes failure more likely because they do not understand how the business should be organized internally.
He said some operators hand digital operations to casino teams, who treat them as an extension of the casino floor. Others place them under IT because they see them as a technology product, while some put them under casino marketing and treat them as a branding exercise. McCamley said none of those approaches is sufficient.
Structure And Capability
McCamley said operators need to set up digital operations as an independent department staffed by professionals with experience running a normal business. Until that happens, he said, operators will continue to fail. He stressed that the issue is not the technology itself, but the capability inside the organization and the understanding of what is required.
He also said one of the biggest mistakes land-based operators make when entering the online space is using white-label operators to run their business. According to McCamley, that approach is often adopted because boards and shareholders expect quick results. But he said handing the business to a third-party provider means giving away the most important asset, the database, and turning it into a liability because the operator no longer controls it.
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Source: Inside Asian Gaming
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