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GGB FEBRUARY 2025 •Vol. 24 •No. 2 •$10 Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers IS CANNIBALIZATION REAL? DEREK WEBB AND HIS CAMPAIGN CYBERSECURITY AGA RAMPS UP ‘HAVE A GAME PLAN’ in one of the largest countries in Southeast Asia Standing Tall How smaller game suppliers survive and thrive SPECIAL REPORT SECURITY & SURVEILLANCE Cybercrimes, Miniature Cams, Crisis Leadership, Alternative Games THAILAND IN PLAYVol. 24 • No. 2 COLUMNS CONTENTS february 3 COVER STORY 36 iGaming Cannibalization Debate As internet gaming continues to grow, so does the debate on whether iGaming cannibalizes casinos’ brick-and-mortar revenues. 42 The New Cybersecurity Pioneering vendors are producing cybersecurity solutions designed to anticipate and prevent attacks that rely on advanced technology. FEBRUARY 2025 www.ggbmagazine.com 10 Keep Your Cool 12 Focusing on Growth 4 6 8 13 40 45 46 48 50 53 54 DEPARTMENTS Betting on Thailand As lawmakers in Thailand prepare to debate legislation on legalizing casino gaming in the kingdom, operators and suppliers anticipate the start of what could be Asia’s next important new market. FEATURES SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE SPOTLIGHT Our annual World Game Protection report examines the evolving discipline of securing casino operations. 18 The New Advantage Play As blackjack card counting becomes ever more difficult, advantage players look to exploit poker derivative games. 22 Crisis-Ready One of the most important groups in today’s casino environment is a well- prepared crisis management team. 26 Be Like the Bank Operators can look to the banking industry as a model for effective compliance management that focuses on the human element. 28 The Newest Threat The newest form of cheating in the casino involves teams that use tiny cameras and remote accomplices. Here’s how to guard against them. Global Gaming Business Magazine 14 Competing with Goliath Small, emerging slot suppliers take care to produce high-earning games and capitalize on prior success to compete with the world’s top slot companies.4 Vol. 24 • No. 2 • FEBRUARY 2025 Roger Gros, Publisher | rgros@ggbmagazine.com X: @GlobalGamingBiz Frank Legato, Editor |flegato@ggbmagazine.com X: @FranklySpeakn Jess Marquez, Managing Editor jmarquez@ggbmagazine.com Monica Cooley, Art Director mcooley@ggbmagazine.com Terri Brady, Sales & Marketing Director tbrady@ggbmagazine.com Beck Kingman-Gros, Associate Publisher & COO bkingros@ggbmagazine.com Lisa Johnson, Communications Advisor lisa@lisajohnsoncommunications.com X: @LisaJohnsonPR Columnists Frank Fantini |Joe Maloney Contributing Editors Willy Allison |Muhammad Cohen |Rob Currie Jill R. Dorson |Christian Hunt |Allison McCoy Cole Rush |Bill Sokolic |Bill Zender ______________ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Official Publication W hen I was a kid, I thought I knew what gambling was. I think my first brush with gambling came when I was growing up in Brooklyn. My uncle used to send me down to the corner store with a couple of bucks and a slip of paper to give to the guy who ran the candy store to play the numbers. One day I asked him how he knew whether he won or lost, and he took out the Daily News and opened it to the horse racing results from Aqueduct. The last three digits of “the handle”— the amount race track bettors placed on all the races that day—were the winning numbers. He didn’t win too often. Later, someone from the neighborhood would take a ride to New Hampshire and pick up a pile of tickets for the lottery; New Hampshire was the only state at that time to offer that kind of betting. Now every state has a lottery—except Nevada, Alabama and Utah, a strange trio. We knew about Las Vegas, of course, that strange city in the middle of the desert with a questionable reputation. I clearly remember going to the original Oceans 11movie—in a drive-in theater—and becoming fascinated with that place—and the Rat Pack! Later, my family moved to the D.C. area. When I was in eighth grade, we went to an amuse- ment park called Marshall Hall on the banks of the Potomac River in Maryland. I wandered out onto a pier there, and in a locked hall on the pier were hundreds of slot machines. It was the first time I saw a real slot, and I won- dered why the hall wasn’t open. Later, I found out that southern Maryland, especially the town of Waldorf, was like a mini-Las Vegas with slots and tables. These gambling dens operated sporadically depending upon who they could bribe to stay open. So it was pretty clear to me early on what gam- bling was. Maybe my interest in matching baseball cards should have qualified, but that didn’t involve real money, so maybe not. And I ruined so many cards that would have been very valuable later on in life by tossing them against the wall or clipping them to my bike spokes to make it sound like a motorcycle. And just until a few years ago, I was pretty clear about what gambling was. When online gam- bling became a thing, it didn’t change my perspec- tive. You were risking money to win money; it was just electronic. But then sweepstakes casinos arrived. Proponents told me it’s not really gambling, it’s just taking a chance! You don’t have to put up money to win! But what about gold vs. sweepstakes coins that you bought with real money? You can actually get paid with real money if you win a jack- pot wagering sweepstakes coins, but really anyone could win. My head was spinning with that explanation. And now we have “prediction markets.” We began to notice them during the recent presidential election. After it was over, the participants bragged that their “predictions” about Donald Trump’s vic- tory were more accurate than the professional poll- sters. Isn’t this also gambling? If it is, it’s approved by government entities like the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, because with the prediction markets the gambler buys a type of financial instrument known as an event contract. Lots of companies are jumping into the prediction market. Kalshi was all over the presidential election and recently hired Donald Trump Jr. as an adviser. Crypto.com just announced they are going to offer “sports event trading” in all 50 states. To be honest, Wall Street has been a gambling mecca since it launched in the mid-1800s. Lots of gambling addicts were hooked on stock trading long before gambling ever became legal. Bottom line, however: Gambling is when someone puts money up and bets on an outcome. It’s a risk. Whether it’s the turn of a card, the spin of a wheel, the roll of dice, a pull of the handle, the result of a sporting event or any other predictable event, or the belief that the value of a certain stock is going to rise, it’s still gambling. And gambling can be fixed by people who have dubious intentions. That’s why we have regulations, we have licens- ing, we have oversight. And if some loophole allows people or organizations to avoid that scruti- ny, that loophole needs to be closed. It’s gambling, after all, and it needs to be controlled by honest, transparent, trustworthy people and agencies. What Is Gambling? BY ROGER GROS, PUBLISHER Global Gaming Business FEBRUARY 2025 THEAGENDA Winning isn’t just a result—it’s an art form. At Good Giant, we’ve spent decades working with premier gaming and hospitality brands that play to win. We’re here to blaze trails to new insights, to redefine best practices, and to come up with ideas that’ll leave your competitors saying, “Wish I’d thought of that.” MOBILE | RENO | TULSA | CHICAGO GOODGIANT.COM Advertising that wins.6 Global Gaming Business FEBRUARY 2025 BYTHENUMBERS W hat does $20 a month buy you in today’s marketplace? For most people, that sum equates to some type of util- ity bill, streaming service, gym membership, etc. But bettors in New York now have the option of using that money to pay for Sportsbook+, a new subscription service from DraftKings that will allow users to reap better odds on longshot parlays. The parameters of the subscription are like so: parlays must be two or more legs, and each leg must have odds of -500 or lower. Odds payouts would then be boosted by a certain per- centage depending on the number of legs: two legs would be boosted by 10 percent, three legs by 20 percent, and so on, up to 100 percent for 11 or more legs. It is unknown if the revenue from those subscriptions would be classified as taxable gaming revenue. Given that the bookmaker debuted the service in the market with the most bemoaned tax rate (51 percent), it is assumed that it is another attempt for the company to lessen its tax burden and generate more revenue. In August, the company drew the ire of the betting world by proposing and then quickly nixing a planned surcharge on winning bets in Illinois after lawmakers in that state implemented a new tiered tax structure that caps out at 40 percent. 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% A $20 A moNth SUBScriptioN to DrAftKiNGS’ SportSBooK+ iNcreASeS wiNNiNGS BASeD oN pArlAy BetS U.S. SportS BettiNG Down to the Nitty Gritty S ports betting stakeholders are ready for a renewed push in legislative sessions across the U.S. in 2025. By now, there are just 11 states left without some form of legal online wagering, and the prospects for legislation look different for each. None are ex- pected to be slam-dunks, but that is understandable given that they are the markets that have resisted legalization to this point. Those considered to be possible—but far from certain—are Texas, California, Georgia and Minnesota. The latter two have come very close to legalizing in previous sessions and are expected to do so again this year. Texas and California have long been the holy grail and white whale, but both are generating at least some fresh buzz for this year. In the unknown section there is Alabama, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Of the three, Oklahoma is the biggest gaming market, but tribes might wait until Governor Kevin Stitt term-lim- its out in 2026 to move forward. The other two have historically been opposed to gaming but are seeing neighboring markets ex- pand with new offerings. No one from the unlikely quartet of Utah, Alaska, Idaho and Hawaii is expected to see much progress in this session.8 Global Gaming Business FEBRUARY 2025 CALENDAR “TheyIt” 5QUESTIONS A lan Feldman spent years in the public affairs sector of the gaming industry, first with Mirage Resorts and later with MGM Resorts International. In October, he was inducted into the American Gaming Associ- ation’s Gaming Hall of Fame. In his dual roles at the International Center for Responsible Gaming and the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he continues to influence policy and operations in the gaming industry. He spoke with GGBPublisher Roger Gros in the boardroom of the IGI at UNLV in November. To hear a full podcast of this interview, visit GGBMagazine.com. GGB: Congratulations on being inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. That’s some accomplishment for a PR guy. Feldman: Thank you so much. It was both awkward and humbling for me. I feel as though I’ve had a front- row seat to these last 35 years, and have had the privilege of meeting and working with, or at least getting to know, quite a few members of the Hall of Fame—never once in my wildest dreams thinking that I’d be part of that group. Tell us how you got involved in gaming. Completely by accident! I worked for a PR firm in Los Angeles, and it turns out that Steve Wynn had hired a PR firm, was dissatisfied with them and terminated them, and then went asking for another recommen- dation. So one day the boss comes out of his office, and says, “Feldman, we’re going to Las Vegas.” A few days later we arrived in Las Vegas in late September 1989, and we met with Steve and Elaine Wynn. For six hours we talked. I still hadn’t seen the plans for the Mirage. But I can tell you that the city they were describing was com- pletely different than what was here at that time. They knew that it appealed to only a sliver of the traveling public. Even on opening day of the Mirage, Steve said, if this business model works, a whole bunch of other folks are going to come to town, and look what happened. We ended up completely transforming the town. The Mirage closed earlier this year, and there was a lot of people citing the memories they had of the property. What’s your special memory? For me, it will always come back to the people, the employees who were there. Being physically at the Mirage every day, I’d never worked with people who were that consistently interested in helping and being support- ive and wanting to raise the bar on the quality of what they were doing. The disparity between Las Vegas hos- pitality and any other city in the world came absolutely ringing through. I love the people of the Mirage. When MGM bought Mirage it was a shock, and you became the head of public affairs for the combined companies. Was that the time you first became involved with responsible gaming? That started pretty early on, in part because development was becoming more and more important in the early ’90s. It was an amazing time with the rapid growth of the industry. For Mirage, we were looking at other opportunities. We were in Mississippi, Connecticut, Florida, Vancouver, British Columbia, trying to work on various opportunities. But it didn’t matter where we were, problem gambling came up at every meeting, and it usually came up first. At that time there was very little known about it. And even within the psychological community, there was pretty strong disagreement about what exactly this was. But the federal government still doesn’t acknowledge it. So we were on our own as an industry, and the only way to do this was to find a way for the industry to pull some resources and then step back from it and not be engaged. That became the National Center for Responsible Gaming, now the International Center. How do you think the ICRG is contributing to the cause of responsible gaming? From day one, the message was clear. You’re going to put the money into a pot, and then scientists will take over from there, and we’ll see you later and tell you how it turned out. The thing that I find the most interesting is that no one has been able to point to any work that ICRG has ever done that has been in- fluenced by the industry, despite the fact it was done with industry money. And the results of work that we’ve been doing in the U.S., through ICRG and other means of doing research, have turned out to match the re- sults that we’re seeing in other parts of the world. 1 2 3 4 5 Alan Feldman February 23-25: SiGMA Eurasia , Dubai Festival City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Produced by SiGMA Group. For more information, visit sigma.world/eurasia. February 25-27: SBC Summit Rio , Riocentro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Produced by SBC Events. For more information, visit sbcevents.com/sbc-summit-rio. February 25-27: Africa Gaming Expo , Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. Produced by Africa Gaming Expo Ltd. For more information, visit AGELagos.com March 11-13: World Game Protection Conference ,the Rio Casino Hotel, Las Vegas. Produced by Willy & Jo Allison. For more information visit WorldGameProtection.com. March 10-12: SiGMA Africa, GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World, Cape Town, South Africa. Produced by SiGMA Group. For more information, visit sigma.world/africa. March 12-13: NEXT Summit New York 2025, Convene, New York City, New York. Produced by NEXT.io. For more information, visit next.io/summits/newyork. March 19-20: SAGSE LATAM 2025, Hilton Buenos Aires Hotel and Convention Center, Argentina. Produced by Monographie. For more information, visit sagselatam.com. March 31-April 3: Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention , San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California. Produced by the Indian Gaming Association. For more information, visit indiangamingtradeshow.com. April 15-16: East Coast Gaming Congress ,Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Produced by Cooper Levenson, Evolution, Sightline, and PlayDoIt.Mx. For more information, visit EastCoastGamingCongress.com. May 7-9: Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia, the Venetian Macao, Macau, China. Produced by RX. For more information, visit g2easia.com. Next >