Peter Brooks, president and COO of Genting UK, today told the World GES conference in Barcelona that it was his company’s experience that the online casino offering “is not materially affecting” Genting’s land-based UK business.
He reported that Genting UK’s own research indicated that the proportion of land-based customers migrating to online gambling instead of coming into the casinos is “under two per cent.”
“Online does not cannibalise land-based, for us,” said Brooks. “The experiences on offer are very different. One - online - is a solo experience and the other is a social experience.”
Ron Goudsmit, president of the European Casino Association, disagreed. “Where online gaming is not legalised,” he countered, “the land-based operator cannot offer a legitimate online product and is therefore affected by the unlawful online gambling available.”
Brooks stood his ground. “Lawful land-based customers will not,” he said, “be drawn to online gambling to the detriment of the land-based industry.”
