Progressive and business-friendly regulation was a recurring theme in the debate at the Juegos Miami trade show that took place last week in the Florida city.

Miami

Organiser Clarion Gaming created a forum for debate during the show and its head of content, Ewa Bakun, said: “Fred Gushin, founder of  Spectrum Gaming Group, made the central point that, while regulation cannot be seen as a ‘cure all’, it is however an important first step. He argued that a robust licensing system which transcends political parties needs to be in place and that we could not have a situation in which a legal regulated industry was having to compete against an unregulated industry.”

Bakun added: “There was much interest in developments impacting Colombia, where the government is using the creation of a healthy business environment to encourage the development of a regulated and sustainable gaming economy. Colombia is also working closely with the cybernetic unit of the police to block illegal online gambling sites. In the panel entitled Benchmarking, Tropicalisation and Uniformity, the advances made by Paraguay where the government has been working closely with the private sector was held up as a model for other jurisdictions.”

The situation in Brazil was illustrated by lawyer Luiz Felipe Maia, who provided an incisive analysis. The illegal market in Brazil is larger than the legal one, said Maia. He said that he was "not proud of the current scandals in Brazil", but believed that they are a sign that the country is changing.

The regulatory environment, he said, was a "mess." He felt that the bills currently in the process of debate were trying to do too much and encompass all of the gaming verticals, thereby limiting the chances of progress. A punitive tax on players would prevent the VIP market from travelling to Brazil, although its sports betting bill, announced during the London ICE show, is expected to be released this year.