GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 3 - January 2008

Making a Difference The headlines surrounding the online gaming industry in 2007 were a varied bunch. While there were plenty of setbacks and some significant triumphs, in our minds, there were five people whose actions stood out from the crowd, led by European Com- missioner Charlie McCreevy, the GPWA’s Newsmaker of the Year. By Vin Narayanan The online gambling industry began 2007 with a glimmer of hope. Still reeling from the U.S. adoption of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, players and affiliates alike held out hope that there would be little practical change for American players. After all, the logic went, if they still had NETeller, they could gamble. But those hopes were shattered on Jan. 15, 2007, when U.S. authorities arrested NETeller co-founders Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre and charged them with money laundering. Two days later, NETeller exited the U.S. market. Several other payment processors fol- lowed suit, and the online gaming industry turned its collective attention – and hopes – to Europe. In Europe, the industry found instant acceptance in the U.K. But the rest of the continent was a different mat- ter. France, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Hun-