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***GambLux EDITOR NEWS*** |
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EiG Convention Brings Together European Online Casinos
[Tuesday, October 17, 2006]
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This week over 1,000 delegates from quality online gambling companies are meeting at the annual European i-Gaming Congress Exhibition (EiG) in Barcelona. The delegates are representing online casinos from all across Europe to celebrate this year's theme, "Coming Together."
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"One thing you need to realize," said River City Group CEO Sue Schneider in her opening remarks to the EiG, "...is that this industry has always been under siege and probably always will be."
Schneider was referring to the many problems emerging for the global industry of quality online gambling. The United States has achieved significant success in outlawing (for the moment) online casino gaming within its borders - wiping out nearly half of the industry's customer base. On the other side of the Atlantic the European Member States have starting a more aggressive plan of action to limit foreign companies from offering quality online gambling services to citizens of their own countries.
To further complicate matters, several quality online gambling companies are listed on public stock exchanges. The listing of these companies in 2005 and 2006 was meant to bring creditability to an industry riddled with suspicion, but these publicly listed companies are now facing problems such as value loss that unlisted rival companies may be able to escape.
"There are personal risks and there are corporate concerns, and you have to be aware of how those affect decision-making," commented Schneider.
The Unlawful Gambling Prohibition bill was passed through the US congress last week in what many consider to be a sneaky and underhanded method., It is expected to be signed into law by President Bush. The bill, although still far from implementation, has already caused the publicly traded quality online gambling firms to shut down their operations in the United States. Private firms that are not traded on public stock exchanges are taking a stand and operating on a wait-and-see approach with the hopes that the new law will prove unenforceable.
Even before the threatened loss of the American market, expansion into Europe has been a major goal of the online casino industry. It is of special importance to those attending the EiG this year. Online gambling companies have succeeded in expanding their global market in 2006. However many Member State governments are attempting to end this expansion in order to boost their own domestic operators.
Norbert Teufelberger, a CEO of a giant in the European quality online gambling market, spoke after Schneider about his recent brush with the French government. Last month Teufelberger was arrested in France on charges that his casino offered online betting to French citizens without the proper licensing.
The 2006 EiG conference and exhibition is bound to bring about many important changes in the quality online gambling industry during these volatile times. For the moment, customers will be asked to wait and see how the many problems facing the industry can be solved.
According to Sue Schneider, "There is a lot of discussion among the delegates about what sort of changes may need to take place among their companies and how they're going to handle that sort of thing."
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