Online gaming is making an important contribution to the Isle of Man's growing economy, Garth Kimber, head of egaming development for the Isle of Man Government, told iNTERGAMINGi.
The island presently has 25 licence holders and, according to Kimber, seven companies have been approved for licences and a further five have submitted applications. Additionally, several others are also preparing their applications.
More than 600 people are employed in the sector, ensuring the Isle of Man benefits from strong technical, legal and financial expertise. Taking an office in central Douglas, Kimber said, means you’re just a short walk away from the people you need to see in the industry.
So how is the island adjusting to becoming a centre for egaming?
"You’ve always got people at both ends of the spectrum," Kimber explained. "The Isle of Man is a relatively religious place and there are people who feel that, morally, gaming is wrong. However, the majority of the population, including the majority of politicians, believe that what we’ve got to do is grow our economy in as many different sectors as possible so we’re expanding into areas, rather than being reliant as we have been to some degree on banking. When you look at it, we’ve got a vibrant space sector and manufacturing is also a major part of what we do on the island - ebusiness and egaming are just a part of that.
"We’re now looking at egaming being about five per cent of the economy and my personal feeling is that we’d have no problem taking that to 10 per cent if we were lucky enough to be able to do that.
"It’s all part of the overall strategy to make the island varied and not reliant on one or two sectors."
