BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

1

www.gaming-awards.com | ISSUE MARCH 2015

FEATURE Sense & nonsense from Congress

InfinityGamingCarl Icahn takes Taj Mahal

The WIG Awards Welcome to the 6th year

John EdmundsJoins the writers rosta

Dutch founder online gambling act steps down

Finland call for online gambling review

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

PAUL SWADDLE CEO Pocket App

APP MANTHE

Infin

ityG

amin

g •

ISSU

E M

ARCH

201

5

202

EDITOR’S LETTERcontentsInfinityGaming

The App Man Interview .......................................04-07Paul Swaddle talks to Infinity Gaming Magazine

The 6th Women in Gaming Awards ................07-09New Categories announced and launched

Snese & nonsense from Congress ...................14-17Professor Nelson Rose returns with superb article

Sheldon Adelson ....................................................18-21Protector or Protectionist? Tina Thakor Rankin article

Finland politicians call for online .....................22-23gambling review

Poland relaxing ........................................................24-25Country set to ease online gambling laws

John Edmunds joins the family ........................26-28Industry veteran with his superb 1st article

EU Gambling Case Law is an ass.......................32-34Andrew Tottenham article

Marty Baird article ..................................................38-40 Spend and invest but don’t foget people

Caesars lose $1 billion in Q4...............................42-43 Casino giant latest results

Woods Talk ................................................................44-47JJ Woods speaks to Dennis Korthouwer

Connecting with us ...............................................48-49How to follow the latest news

Infinity Gaming .......................................................How and where can you read the magazine?

PROTECTOR?18

THE APP MAN

WOODS TALK

JOHN EDMUNDS

04

26

44FIND US ON

BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

3

Welcome to the March edition of the Infinity Gaming Magazine.

Well can you believe it a quarter of a way through the year already, it only seems like yesterday we were all celebrating the 8th International Gaming Awards! But never fear we have the 6th Women in Gaming Awards com-ing and have already launched the categories and accepting nomina-tions. Indeed let me say a big thank you to all our superb judges for the Women in Gaming Awards, you can see them inside the magazine. As for the magazine this month all I can say is wow!!! What a bumper edition, so many articles from our great writers and we welcome another who joins our ranks in the form of industry veteran John Ed-munds, welcome on board John. To start off we have the CEO of Pocket App, Paul Swaddle, what he does not know about Apps he could write on a postage stamp, so

if you want to know the dangers when developing an App read this first. We have the wonderful Professor Nelson Rose with a hard hitting look at Congress and Tina Thakor-Rankin asking if Sheldon Adelson is a protector or Portectionist, you decide. Of course we have Marty Maird with his never ending line of superb articles on customer service, he really knows his stuff Marty when it comes to keeping the customers happy. Finally but not least contributing wroter come interviewer JJ Woods and his “Woods Talk” speak to Den-nis Korthouwer.

Enjoy!

InfinityGamingEDITORS NOTES

EDITOR’S LETTER

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Christina Thakor-RankinMartin R. BairdJohn EdmundsAndrew TottenhamJJ Woods Professor Nelson Rose CONTACT USClever Duck MediaNewmarket 20 Centrix@KeysKeys Park RoadStaffordshireWS12 2HA UKTel: +44(0)1543 478 889 claire@cleverduckmedia.com PRODUCTIONClever Duck MediaNewmarket 20 Centrix@KeysKeys Park RoadStaffordshireWS12 2HA UK

PUBLISHINGInfinity Gaming Magazineis operated by© Clever Duck Media Ltd ® Company Reg. No. 687 1018(Registered in England)

ADVERTISING:Sponsorship OpportunitiesColin@cleverduckmedia.com

Business PartnershipsSvetlana@gaming-awards.com

JOIN US

byLana Thompson - Chief Editor

Opinion Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed in all external articles are those of the authors and

do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Infinity Gaming Maga-

zine Any content provided by our feature writers or authors are of their opinion, and

are not intended to malign any religion, ethic group, club, organization, company,

individual or anyone or anything.

Infin

ityG

amin

g •

ISSU

E M

ARCH

201

5

4

Q : Paul thank you for talking to the Infinity Gaming Magazine today, to start off can you explain to our global readers what is your

company Pocket App? PS: Pocket App is the largest independent app developer in the UK. Essentially we design, develop and distrib-ute award winning apps and enable ourclients to take advantage of all things mobile with our broad range of solutions. Q: You have been CEO of the company since it started back in 2011 and indeed co-founded the company, what was the reason for starting the company? PS: I felt that other companies were taking the wrong approach. At Pocket App we are a mobile company first and foremost and software developers second. By that I mean that we are mobile experts, we know that the mobile experience is different and that an individual’s mobile is very personal and we understand how to get the best out of the mobile platform. Being early adopt-ers of mobile technology ourselves means that we have expertise across the whole mobile ecosystem working with leading brands, operators, media agencies and device manufacturers. Q: In just the 4 years and some since launching Pocket App what changes in that time have you seen in the sector?

PS: : We’ve seen rapid change! There has been a pro-liferation of tablets, not only for consumer but also for enterprise use. There really has been exponential growth in the enterprise market and since the start of 2010 tablets have clearly established their place as the next generation of digital development with huge growth in sales every year, and now they seem to be more and more adopted by big enterprises. Q: What types of companies request the develop-ment of Apps, is it just technology companies or is there a broader spectrum of companies? PS: Definitely not. The request for app development comes from an incredibly wide breadth of organisations; from consumer led brands, to event companies and from engineering companies to printer manufacturers. Any organisation keen to increase their real time customer engagement through the mobile channel would benefit from a mobile app. Likewise, organisations that want simpler and more efficient customer service and sup-

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Exclusive Interview with Paul Swaddle CEO – Pocket App Ltd

Infinity Gaming Magazine spoke to Paul Swaddle the boss of Pocket App and a man who knows more about Apps than most, you could call him “The App Man”

BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

5

port, or who want to monetise pro-motional offers or even sell prod-ucts or services online could benefit from a mobile app. So requests come from companies in all sectors and range from start-ups to blue chip organisations. Q: Would you say that every com-pany can benefit from having an App or does that company need a clear perspective of what the app is for before just going out and getting their own app? PS: I think it’s important that before acompany builds a mobile app for their business,they set clear objec-tives and then build their strategy accordingly.

That is really the benefit of working

with a specialist company like ours. At Pocket App we provide all of the consultancy and support needed for our clients’ different mobile journeys. We help them understand where mobile fits within existing business functions and processes and, very importantly, how it can deliver real ROI. We think it is es-sential to a successful partnership, for us to guide our clients through their mobile strategy from initial design through to planning and development.

Q: What are the common mistakes by companies wanting to launch their own app? PS: I alluded to it slightly in the pre-vious question, but one of the most common mistakes is that organisa-tions underestimate the complexi-

ties involved in app development and sofail to work with a specialist company.Working with a specialist organisa-tion is more beneficial as not only do we help with design, strategy and consultancy, but also with the development and distribution of the app once it’s ready. Q: The App market has grown phenomenally over recent years, on average every person on the planet has 10 App on their mobile, is that going to become greater in time? PS: Mobile is the future. IDC’s mobile phone forecast predicted that total sales of smartphones would reach 1.2 billion units before the end of 2014, which was a 23.1 percent increase over 2013. Addi-tionally, in 2014 British companies building apps for smartphones and tablets were forecast to generate £4bn in revenues.This trend shows no sign of abating so I would expect to see the app market to continue to grow and for consumers to have more and more applications on their smartphones. Q: Which sector in the App world will see greatest growth, would it be Games, Education, business, which? PS: I think there is going to be growth across all sectors. Simply because regardless of your sector, increased engagement with poten-tial customers will always be key.

(Continued overleaf )

Infin

ityG

amin

g •

ISSU

E M

ARCH

201

5

6

Q: In general what tips can you offer any company wanting to launch their own app, what are the common mistakes made that should be avoided? PS: As mentioned above, my main piece of advice would be to work in collaboration with a specialist organisation and not to underes-timate the complexities that are associated with the development of mobile applications.

A specialist organisation, such as ours, will enable you to harness the latest technology, user interface de-sign and development methodolo-gies, and therefore deliver a mobile app that works across all mobile devices and operating systems. Q: Since Pocket App launched back in late 2011 how has the company grown and do you spe-cialise in any specific areas? PS: Our specialism is mobile and so we help organisations across all sectors. If I had to pick out some sectors in which we are particularly knowledgeable I would say sports,

mHelath, logistics and user activa-tion and retention. Q: You recently visited the Mobile World Congress, what new and exciting technologies were there? PS: As always it was great to attend Mobile World Congress to see what we can expect over the coming months and years.

Wearables and the Internet of Things were still very much high on the agenda, but something else which was also very interesting was the development made around au-tonomous vehicles. I don’t envisage that there will be any significant impact before the end of 2015/2016 but these will definitely be the areas of interest and innovation. Q: Will we all be living our lives on mobile more and more in the future do you think and in what areas is there still expansion pos-sible? PS: It may sound like a cliché, but the only certainty is change. Hav-ing said that, smartphones have

penetrated every aspect of our daily lives. Not only are they the fastest selling gadgets in history, eclipsing the growth ofthe mobile phones which preceded them, but about half of the adult population now owns one and by 2020 it will be around 80%.

The real power of smartphones comes from their size and connec-tivity, realistically, their size makes them the first truly personal com-puter and with that in mind I would expect mobile to continue to enrich lives and reshape industries. Q: Before we let you go Paul, you are a techno geek, if there was one thing you could just make happen in technology to make lives better what would it be? PS: For me it is not the tech per se, but rather what you do with it. For me it’s really about about enabling. So I would like to see more impacts in the education space, as this has the potential for the biggest long term impacts…… oh and a really cool thin computer watch, just because!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW PAUL SWADDLE CONTINUED

BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

7

WOMEN IN GAMING AWARDSJoin Your colleagues for the celebration

CATEGORIESAffiliate Manager of the Year

Affiliate Team of the YearB2B Excellence AwardEmployee of the Year

Excellence in Customer Service AwardHidden Talent of the Year (Online or Land Based)

Industry Achiever of the Year (Online or Land Based)Innovator of the YearInspiration of the Year

Leader of the Year (iGaming)Leader of the Year (land based)

Star of the FutureMarketing Excellence Award B2C

Team of the Year (Land based or Online)Industry Pride of the Year

June 2015The Jumeirah Carlton Tower London

Nominate your colleague or team

Infin

ityG

amin

g •

ISSU

E M

ARCH

201

5

8

6th Women in Gaming Awards

Meet the Judges

Britt Boeskov – COO Unibet

Christina Thakor-Rankin – Gaming Consultant

10 Leading ladies from the World of Gaming will Judge entries in all categories. Nominations are now open, nominations are FREE to enter. The WIG is here to inspire, motivate and recognize the huge importance of women in the Gaming sector.

Emma Lindley – Director of Confyrm Inc

Lee-Ann Johnstone – Head of Acquisition & Merchant marketing for NETELLER at Optimal Payments

Lyndsey Barrett - VIP Operations Director Les Ambassadeurs Club

Onika Russell – Head of Payment Services at Ladbrokes

Rhonda Whittaker – Corporate Com-munications Manager at GTECH

Tammy Schuiling -Marketing and Communications Consultant

Tracy Cohen – TCSJOHNHUXLEY Di-rector of Marketing / AGEM Director of Europe

Una Murga – Online Gaming Industry Executive

15 Categories: Affiliate Manager of the Year - Affiliate Team of the Year- B2B Excellence Award - Employee of the Year - Excellence in Customer Service Award- Hidden Talent of the Year (Online or Land Based)- In-dustry Achiever of the Year (Online or Land Based)- Innovator of the Year - Inspiration of the Year - Leader of the Year (iGaming) - Leader of the Year (land based) - Star of the Future - Marketing Excellence Award B2C- Team of the Year (Land based or Online) - Industry Pride of the Year

FREE TO ENTER - CHECK THE WEBSITE FOR FULL DETAILS

BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

9

2015

FREE TO ENTERNOMINATIONS OPEN NOW

GAMING-AWARDS.COM/WIG

Infin

ityG

amin

g •

ISSU

E M

ARCH

201

5

10

BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

11

S uncity Group which is the largest VIP junket op-erator in Macau wants to invest in a new casino resort in Vietnam’s largest island. The southwest

island of Phú Quốc is 155 miles from Ho Chi Minh City and the CEO of Suncity has already met local officials on the island to bring the companies plans further accord-ing to local reports. The report also says that the province’s vice chair Nguyen Thanh Nghi has welcomed Suncity Group’s inter-est and has invited the group to submit an official plan of the resort for consideration. The move comes as Macau struggles with declining revenues and an estimated two year wait for the world’s largest gambling hub to recover. Suncity which has seen their VIP number plummet are interested in looking at new opportunities and the Vietnam resort is one of those such opportunities.

GAMING NEWS

Suncity looks at Vietnam island casino resort

Carl Icahn takes full control of Taj Mahal

Carl Icahn has been granted full control of the Trump Taj Mahal after a bankruptcy judge in Dela-ware approved the Chapter 11 reorganisation of Trump Entertainment Resorts over to the billionaire property investor.

In total Icahn was owed $290 million by Trump Entertainment Resorts and was their most senior investor, which he has now swapped for all the stock in the casino resort. Icahn says he wants to keep the name of the resort and refurbish it back to an excellent standard along with keeping the 3,000 employees.

“We hope to emerge with a healthy balance sheet, a solid platform from which the Trump Taj Mahal can emerge as the leading gaming destination in Atlantic City,” Trump Entertainment attorney Erez Gilad told the judge.

Safecharge reports “outstanding” year

Safecharge had an outstanding 2014 said Chairman Roger Withers after the payment services provider announced their first annual report as a public listed company.Revenues stood at $76.9 million for the year com-pared to $43.2 million in 2013, representing a rise of 78%. Profits jumped 79% for 2014 to $44.5 million for the year.The payment services firm said that its cash bal-ances at the end of the year totaled $146.5 million, which represents huge growth on the$11.8 million in 2013.“It is a privilege to present such an outstanding set of results in our first year as a public company,” Withers said

“I congratulate David Avgi (chief executive officer) and the whole of the SafeCharge team, for an excel-lent performance during a landmark period for the group.“We entered the year trading strongly with financial strength to pursue our stated M&A strategy.”

Infin

ityG

amin

g •

ISSU

E M

ARCH

201

5

12

BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

13

Bloomberry Resorts the Philip-pine gaming compnay said it would be acquiring a South

Korean Casino Hotel in its first ever venture overseas. The company said it had purchased 92% of Golden & Luxury Co. Ltd the owning firm on T.H.E Hotel & Vegas Casino on the southern island of Jeju.

T.H.E Hotel & Casino is one of seven casinos located on Jeju island a popular vacation destination for Chinese. Bloomberry chairman and chief executive Enrique Razon said in a statement. “This is our first venture outside of the Philippines, and the possibilities for expansion in this

country are promising.” Bloomberry owns and operates the $1-billion Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila Bay that the government hopes will rival Macau and Las Vegas. “Solaire is on a trajectory of growth and we are now slightly shifting our focus to other destina-tions,” said Razon.

T he Dutch State Secretary and founder of the Dutch Remote Gambling Act has

stepped down from his government post and a scandal broke regarding a payment worth millions of dollars that prosecutors at the time paid back to a well-known drug traf-ficker. It was 15 years ago that the then prosecutor in the case Fred Teeven had told lawmakers that the drug dealer, Cees Helman, had been paid far less than the almost $2.6 million he received back from the state, and

that all records of the transaction had been lost. Both assertions were discovered to be false. Teeven had authorized the tax-free payment after authorities were unable to show that the money confiscated had been illegally ob-tained and the funds were returned to Helman. Now that Teeven has stepped down and was the architect of the Remote Gambling bill it is unclear if it will proceed to reform the countries online gambling laws.

Macau report better Febru-ary figures than expected

Macau gaming revenues for February were slightly better than expectations coming in at $2.4 billion a drop of 49% from the same period last year. The drop was caused by VIP players staying away from the world’s largest gambling hub for the Lunar New Year holiday period.

Expectations were between a drop of 51% and 54% for Feb-ruary so the news was better than hoped in what many ca-sino operators know will be a very difficult year with ana-lyst’s calling a drop of 8% in revenues for 2015, this com-pounds the revenues fall in 2014 which was 2.6%.

Founder of Dutch online gambling

act steps down amid scandal

Bloomberry to buy south Korean casino resort

WORLD NEWS

Infin

ityG

amin

g •

ISSU

E M

ARCH

201

5

14

C asinos have always been looking for the next big thing to place on their gaming floors and it is incredible to think that after all these years

Roulette and Blackjack are still part of the main games on offer when we look at the live game sector. There really have been no changes to the way these games are played or dealt over several decades. Whilst on Blackjack we have seen several different in house promotions for example ,any 3x 7’s or 3x 7’s same suit qualifying for a special prize etc there have been no major changes to how the game is promoted and blackjack tournaments have had only minor success . The same can be said for roulette as yet again there have been no major changes to this game over many years. Now if we look at Add –Ons for these games there are

several on the market and in the case of roulette they are usually found on the last number display unit where they nominate a bonus number which might pay double your stake etc and similar systems are available on Black-jack where a lucky card is nominated on a display system again paying a prize should this card be dealt to you. Most Casino operators are wary of any bonus system if it slows down or interferes with their normal percentage hold on that particular game and rightly so. In my expe-rience the success of any Add-on or new bonus system must take heed to the following principals. Attract more players to the game, Increase the player’s time spent at the table and not interfere with the speed of the game or how the game is administered normally.

WOODS TALK

Exclusive Interview with Dennis Korthouwer MBA (SCL) MSc Inventor Founder/Developer and Chief Executive Officer of Hit Utopia Ltd

In this new section entitled “Woods Talk” our contributing writer and now intrepid reporter JJ Woods will be speaking to some of the lead-ing figures in the gaming industry. In this inter-view JJ speaks with Dennis Korthouwer from Hit Utopia.

“Woods Talk”

ABOUT JJ WoodsJJ Woods Director of Operations founded and set up Atlantic Casino Consultants to deal specifically with the Irish Market and the impending Casino Legislation. He was born in Ireland but left in the Seventies to live in London and for a career in Banking that lasted nearly four years after which he joined the Casino Industry in London where he trained and has over the last 30 years been involved in the setting up, design, management, and open-ing of Casinos around the world. JJ is also an Author on Gaming and has written for several magazines, spoken at gaming conferences and has appeared on TV and Radio discussing Gaming issues and can be contacted through his website... www.atlanticcasinoconsultants.com

BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

15

Q: Can you tell us about Hit Uto-pia and the services it offers to the Casino Industry? DK: Hit Utopia developed a product that instantly and without cost at-tracts first-time-visitors and players. Since starting in the casino industry in 2000, I have both been working in Holland Casinos as a part-time croupier during my studies and vis-iting casinos in over 80 coun-tries selling casino products. In my talks with so many decision makers, all were dreaming of more customers, so that’s where I focused on when creat-ing Hit Utopia. Q: How competitive is the market? DK: The market for attracting players with casino products is very competitive. The market for attracting ‘first-time-visitors’ – which on average is 95% of the population and where we mainly focus on – is not com-petitive. Of course you cannot attract first-time-visitors with a new type of slot machine or table game. Because if that were true the 95% untouched market would not exist anymore!

Q: It is widely known that In-dia has the expertise and the certainly the manpower when it comes to software solutions and I understand this was your preferred location for developing your product, were you satisfied with the final outcome? DK: : In October 2012, shortly after we raised nearly a million dollar in our 2nd round from former online and land-based casino industry CEO’s and 5 private investors from

The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Israel, and the USA, we managed to get Anton Hofland on-board. Anton is a top IT executive with an amazing track-record at Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, UBS and Arcapita. It was due to his relationship with the top of TechMa-hindra that we decided to develop the software in India. With around 100,000 employees we could quick-ly fill and continuously update the

skill-set we required for each part of the development process. The team of 25 developers and project man-agers – under the supervision and continuous management of Anton – was able to develop the product we required. The guys and girls from TechMahindra even added certain features which we had not thought of but which made the product a lot more useable. It was really a great achievement of the team and in particular of Anton because without him, I really doubt this project had ever been developed. Just as an example, try doing what we do on

cruise lines, or have your system with your money and the RNG live at someone else’s property in a country that is not known for its reliability. Q: The unique Prizes that Hit Uto-pia offer seems to be a major part of promoting the System , what did you base this on ? DK: Experiences people dream of are often out of reach. Most unique

experiences are not for sale; even not to the rich-est persons alive. Hit Uto-pia makes people unique by making its winners ex-perience the impossible. With our customized and continuously updated “experiences you can’t buy” prizes, we target and attract the 95% of the population that has never seen a casino from the inside. Making these special prizes and the highest cash prizes available is simple, but to do it prof-itably and on a continu-ous basis you can only do when you operate on a globe scale with lots of scale of economies. We

are the only company that offers these cash prizes and experiences you can’t buy on a global scale; effectively empowering small local casinos for the first time in history to compete with big global ones. Q: What Gaming shows, exhibi-tions do you feel are the most important to demonstrate your product? Continued on next page

Infin

ityG

amin

g •

ISSU

E M

ARCH

201

5

16

DK: I first wanted to proof the prod-uct technically and operationally in the market before showing it to the public. Now that we have done that, we might consider showing it in Vegas at the end of the year.

Q: Hit Utopia is unique in that you undertake to pay the prizes that are won at the Casino, Do you think this is the major factor in your appeal to Casino operators? DK: Our scale of economies allows casinos to offer huge jackpots without the inherent risks while we guarantee and pay them. Of course that also improves the competitive edge, but I see it more as an extra service rather than a USP. It’s similar to our free installation, free main-tenance, free marketing materials, and continuously updated free graphics. Q: Hit Utopia is relatively new to the market but you are already in-stalled in 15 independent casinos around the world including the U.S , Is your ambition to be a truly global product ? and where do you see emerging markets? DK: If you want to offer the high-

est cash jackpots or “experiences you can’t buy” you need to be truly global. We focus on new markets which we can enter relatively quick-ly at this stage of our growth. That does not mean that we do not also sign up casinos in highly regulated markets. We already have deals in for example Colorado, Mississippi, and New Jersey. Q: My understanding is that because of the unique design of the system it can be fitted to any table game, what game is proving the most popular? DK: Actually the product is de-signed to fit not just casinos, but any industry. In effect what we have is an extremely flexible and highly secure global gaming/gambling platform that increases market share of companies in general. In casinos we are currently active on table games where most systems are installed on blackjack and poker; but it can be also installed on for example Texas Hold’em. While keeping the back-end ‘as-is’, we are in the process of designing the Hit Utopia slot machine.

Q: As an AD-ON the Hit Utopia seems to tick all the boxes in that there is no cost to the Casino owner, it attracts players to the table, it extends the players time at the table can you mention any other? DK: Our main focus is attracting players and first-time-visitors. These have to play the underlying game in order to participate for Hit Utopia prizes. New players playing the underlying game is really where the casino makes the money. One of the great features we have is our level 2 prizes. Here casinos can let us know which prize they want to give away on the system. As an example, big casinos in Las Vegas herewith can extend their entertainment into the casinos and so cross promote and cross-sell the entertainment which it has already paid for! Another feature that casinos love is our instant dealer tracking capability. This on the one hand allows us to make a judgement on the dealers’ performance and on the other hand it is the basis for our unique global dealer incentive program.

WOODS TALK

BUSI

NES

SMAG

• IS

SUE

MAR

CH 2

015

17