GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 40- February 2018

1. HEFTY FINES A few of the big operators will get slapped with big fines over the gaming imagery business. This will set a legal precedent for the smaller operators to follow suit. Fingers crossed that karma dictates Skybet is one of those after they closed down their affiliate program late last year. Hopefully, all of Sky’s sports betting advertising will be pulled in the daytime. We know that some operators have already been threatened with big fines by the U.K. regulatory bodies, and other arguably unscrupulous operators have already closed down most of their U.K. affiliates’ accounts as a knee-jerk reaction. We may even see one of the big operators get made a scapegoat and get their gaming license suspended in 2018. Don’t be surprised if some of the big U.K. affiliates receive some heat from gaming authorities in 2018 as well. 2018 U.K. Market Event Happening Odds 0 Operators Get Fined 50 to 1 1+ Operators Get Fined 1 to 10 3+ Operators Get Fined 1 to 4 1+ Operators Get Licensed Suspended 2 to 1 0 Affiliates Get Fined 3 to 1 1+ Affiliates Get Fined 1 to 2 3+ Affiliates Get Fined 5 to 1 2. GAMES WILL BE BANNED The license holders and games providers will rightly clamp down hard on all operators using their games in the U.K., specifically on pre-age-verification demo games. I expect about 30%-50%of the current slots games in the U.K. to be banned as demo games some- time early in 2018. They have already flagged a bunch of specific games, and some do not even look especially child-friendly to me. That sets a precedent that they are going to be ruthless and soon publish a list of banned slot games. 2018 U.K. Market Event Happening Odds 0 Slots Games Banned Pre-Age-Verification 50 to 1 <50 Slots Games Banned Pre-Age-Verification 3 to 1 50+ Slots Games Banned Pre-Age-Verification 2 to 1 <50 Slots Games Banned Totally 3 to 1 50+ Slots Games Banned Totally 20 to 1 3. MORE LEGISLATION FOR ONLINE SLOTS Once the fixed odds betting terminals max stake legislation has properly gone through and settled, it stands to reason they might try and port this over to online. Although the media consump- tion point is different (playing physically in a bookmaker’s or casino vs. playing online), the same moral and ethical principles arguably apply, regardless of where a U.K. player is playing. Hence, we might see max stakes for online casino slot machines in the U.K. sometime in 2018. 2018 U.K. Market Event Happening Odds Max Stake Online 10 to 1 COVER STORY The current U.K. conservative government is quite happy to pick the pockets of nurses , firemen and the disabled , so expect absolutely zero mercy from them in our line of business in 2018. W W W . G P W A T I M E S . O R G 34