After John Shimmin MHK, the Isle of Man’s minister of economic development, recently alluded to the jurisdiction’s five-year plan for online gaming, the island’s government has outlined its strategy.
Speaking to InterGame Online, Ray Davies, the government’s e-gaming development manager, said the five-year strategy seeks to provide “a clear plan for the development of the e-gaming sector.”
The island intends to keep building on its strengths and many successes as an online gaming jurisdiction while appealing to non-licensable businesses as well as focusing on education and player protection. Davies said: “It is also recognised that a strong element of growth will be directly attributable to the development of existing business and we will seek to work closely with our operators in order to help them succeed and grow.
“The government is proud of its business-friendly reputation and we aim to develop upon the close links that we have established with our operators for mutual benefit.
“We know that economic benefit can be achieved by attracting both licensable and non-licensable business (e.g. call centres and customer support centres or suppliers of downloaded software) to locate their activities to the Isle of Man and our approach will be to develop business within the sector to broaden the scope of business located here,” added Davies.
In conjunction with the University of Chester, the Isle of Man is currently breaking new ground with its online gaming education programme and learning is to remain high on the agenda.
“Education is of key importance when considering future growth opportunities,” said Davies, “and we are working closely with our education colleagues to introduce suitable training programmes to help develop a highly skilled workforce and to provide a bespoke educational route for those currently employed within the e-gaming sector.”
“The island is the market leader when it comes to player protection and we will explore mechanisms that guarantee 100 per cent player protection while providing greater choice for our potential and existing licence holders.”
The operating environment on the Isle of Man is, Davies said, under “constant review” and changes will be considered that would “keep the island on a competitive footing.
“In recognition of the ever-changing landscape for e-gaming the Department of Economic Development continues to support existing e-gaming businesses and attract new licensable as well as non-licensable business to the sector, thus bringing some balance and importantly diversity to the portfolio of businesses that makes up the Isle of Man’s successful e-gaming sector.”
