Opening the World Gaming Executive Summit in Madrid last week, Praesepe CEO Nick Harding described gaming as a "soft tax target" that is treated as a "cash cow" by some governments.
However, during the Big Casino Debate, the panel of expert speakers discussed the new opportunities for growth around the world driven, in many cases, by local treasuries’ desires to raise tax revenues. Although undoubtedly in some jurisdictions taxation is stifling the industry, in others it is opening doors to expansion.
"We see lots of opportunities still out there for land-based casino offerings," said Peter Hoetzinger, co-chief executive officer of Century Casinos. "The typical drivers for land-based casino products, in terms of legislation, are tax and employment. We see in the US, for example, any community that has a casino experiences a drop in welfare payments and in unemployment. It is a great driver for economic impact in those communities so there are still a lot of reasons for countries, provinces or states that don’t have casinos yet to legalise them."
August’s issue of InterGaming will include a full report from the World Gaming Executive Summit.
