Public Gaming International May/June 2020

80 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 sorts can open within the next few years, given the economic damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, continued concerns about problem gambling and the conditions Japan plans to impose on casino operators. Adelson had been a particularly important gure in Japan’s e orts to grant a maximum of three casino licenses to three host areas. U.S. media reported that Abe and Trump met with Adelson in Washington in February 2017, during which time Trump mentioned Adelson’s e orts to build a casino in Japan. In addition, Adelson attended a breakfast with Abe and other American CEOs. e next casino-related deadline is July 26, when the government is supposed to release its nal version of the National Basic Policy, a draft of which was agreed to last year. At present, the government says the deadline is unchanged despite the social and economic e ects of the pandemic. IGT Introduces Cashless Gaming in Sweden with IGTPay™ Tech- nology IGT's dedicated payments team supplies cutting- edge solution for retail payments, in preparation for the post-COVID-19 era. "Launching IGT's cashless product provides our players with a reli- able, cutting-edge cashless solution that connects directly with the Swish mobile app, helping us drive e ciencies while responsibly advancing the player experience," said Magnus Lannersund, Di- rector of VLT Operations, Svenska Spel AB. "IGT has been instrumental in our enterprise-wide modernization with solutions such as the Quasar VLT, the INTELLIGEN™ central system, our responsible gaming functions and now through their next-generation IGTPay™ cashless technol- ogy. is retail project was among the rst of its kind in Sweden, enabling a retail business owner to return funds to a consumer's bank account via a consumer's mobile app. Svenska Spel is proud to be at the forefront of retail innovation especially when the need for cashless options for the post- COVID-19 era is more crucial than ever." OPAP: Jan Karas will assume responsibilities of Acting CEO Following the departure of CEO and Board of Directors member, Damian Cope, the OPAP Board of Directors announces today that as of 1st of June and until a new CEO is appointed, Chief Commercial O cer, Jan Karas will assume re- sponsibilities of Acting CEO, with the exception of the Human Resources duties, which will be exercised by Deputy CEO, Odysseas Christofo- rou. Kamil Ziegler, Executive Chairman of the OPAP Board of Directors, will continue with executive responsibilities assigned to him. Jan Karas and Odysseas Christoforou will directly report to him. Visa to halt payments services for online gambling sites in Germany e third amendment of the State Treaty on Gambling states that online gambling in most of its forms in Germany is illegal, with the exception of sports betting and the state-run lotteries, as well as within the geographic constraints of the Schleswig-Holstein province, where there is a special law that allows it. Most of the o shore casino operators already reacted to the warning by Visa, removing the deposit and withdrawal option from their pay- ment methods. Tipico has removed the Visa logo from its website, while Bwin states that the Visa payment is only accepted for sports betting. INTRALOT Delivers eSports Bet- ting in Peru e eSports games are o ered in cooperation with Sportradar and include Counter Strike, League of Legends, Dota2, Star Craft II, Call of Duty and Overwatch. In addition, the o ering includes Electronic Leagues of Fifa20 and NBA2K. Additional games will be introduced to the Intralot de Peru’s portfolio in order to further engage the current player community and attract new players. Sweden regulator sees no online gambling surge during pandemic Sweden’s online gambling activity hasn’t increased during the pandemic, undercutting the principal argument used to justify the government’s pro- posed new limits on online deposits and losses. Sweden’s Spelinspektionen regulatory body issued a report that said its online gambling licensees’ turnover in the month of March was 5.9% below March 2019’s gure and preliminary gures for the month of April show a 5.4% year-on-year decline. Spelinspektionen cautioned that it hasn’t yet been able to determine whether the overall decline re ects sports bettors going dormant follow- ing the mass suspension of major sports due to COVID-19, or how much of their activity may have been transferred to online casino or poker products. Spelinspektionen analyst Magnus Granlund told local media that, because of the way that online licensees report revenue, “we cannot say that [online casino activity] has increased, but we cannot exclude it either … It is very di cult to read anything.” Whatever the reality, Sweden’s Spelpaus gambling self-exclusion program has yet to report any surge in customer registrations since the lockdown began. All of which questions the urgency behind last month’s proposals by Social Security Minister Ardalan Shekarabi for a weekly deposit limit of SEK5k (US$500), along with loss limits for online casino play and a cap on bonus o ers of just SEK100. Sweden-licensed operators have pointed to studies showing that the government is losing the ght to ‘channel’ gamblers to locally licensed sites, while claiming that Shekarabi’s proposed curbs would only accelerate this trend. Spelinspektionen submitted a proposal to the government regarding a licensing regime for online gambling B2B suppliers, a plan that some Swedish-licensed operators believe would force suppliers to choose between locally licensed sites and internationally licensed operators that continue to serve the Swedish market without local permission. Spelinspektinonen’s proposal has been given the thumbs-up from Gustaf Ho stedt, CEO of the Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), which represents Sweden’s online licensees. Ho stedt said his group has long supported a B2B licens- ing regime, and told local media that these pro- posals “should have been introduced yesterday.” Spelinspektionen also revealed that it is working on possible regulatory injunctions against some 20 international operators who continue to serve the local market, while also conducting a survey to better understand the role of marketing a li- ates with these international rogues. Dutch Justice Minister orders online operators to wipe existing player databases Operators will be required to delete their existing customer databases when they receive a licence for the country’s iGaming market. e Netherlands Remote Gaming Act is set to come into e ect from January 2021, with the actual market going live in July. is legisla- tion will open up the country’s online gambling market to international brands. It’s estimated that currently, one million gamblers in the Netherlands use unlicensed sites. P U L S E