eGaming Review March 2013 | Page 3

EDITORIAL TEAM Head of Content, eGR James Bennett T: [phone] E: [email protected] Head of Content, eGR North America Tom Washington T: [phone] E: [email protected] Reporter Tom Victor T: [phone] E: [email protected] Reporter Robin Harrison Millan T: [phone] E: [email protected] PRODUCTION Head of production Claudia Honerjager E: [email protected] Art editor, eGR Toni Giddings E: [email protected] Sub-editors Rachel Kurz?eld Eleanor Stanley COMMERCIAL Group commercial manager Ben Robinson T: [phone] E: [email protected] Commercial manager Sam Compagnoni T: [phone] E: [email protected] Publishing account manager Debbie Robson T: [phone] E: [email protected] Publishing account manager Jonathan Vintner T: [phone] E: [email protected] Group head of content Gwyn Roberts CEO Charlie Kerr Circulation manager Fay Muddle Content sales Emmanuel Nettey T: [phone] E: [email protected] Jeff Molina Diaz T: [phone] E: [email protected] Product reviewer Catriona Campbell E: [email protected] Reviews were carried out by Catriona Campbell at Foviance, a customer experience consultancy that has worked across a wide range of online gaming products areas and helps companies understand online customer behaviours. [E D I T O R ' S LETTER ] eGaming Review is published monthly by Pageant Media, Thavies Inn House, 3-4 Holborn Circus, London, EC1N 2HA ISSN 1742-2450 Printed by The Manson Group © 2013 all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used without the prior permission from the publisher As always in gaming, things are never simple. Threats can be transformed into opportunities in a heartbeat. On one hand things are looking rosy across the pond with positive news (at long last) coming from the New Jersey Governor’s office in Trenton (see p29). It may have taken the form of a conditional veto but Chris Christie – a likely Republican candidate for the US presidency in four years – this time gave his blessing to what he described as a “historic moment” for the state once its politicians, as expected, push the revised bill through the Senate and Assembly in a few weeks’ time. On this side of the Atlantic, however, matters couldn’t be more different. Despite two select committee hearings in the last month quizzing the Remote Gambling Association, Gambling Commission and DCMS (see p24) appearing to diminish justi?cation for a point-of-consumption tax and regulatory changes, from speaking to a number of senior sources here and in Gibraltar, the UK government is more determined than ever to push through its Draft Gambling (Licensing & Advertising) Bill by December 2014. The facts speak for themselves; the government has crossparty support, the economy is in dire straits and gambling companies are, and have always been, an easy target – particularly pure online operations that have never been based here and crucially never paid UK tax. If it passes, as expected, there will inevitably be legal challenges lodged against the government with the outcome unclear. One thing is for certain however, as Per Widerström, MD and chairman of Gala Interactive (the last large operator to leave the UK for Gibraltar in 2011) explains in our interview this month (see p32), the impact of the bill is likely to change the underlying dynamics of the UK market with larger companies such as Gala viewing the change as an “opportunity” rather than a threat. 03