GGRAsia – Fight against illegal iGaming a focus in 2025: Spectrum

Fight against illegal iGaming a focus in 2025: Spectrum

Dec 10, 2024 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, Top of the deck

Gaming industry consultancy Spectrum Gaming Group LLC, a specialist in topics linked to legal compliance of the regulated casino sector, has issued its “International Top Ten Trends for 2025” list, previewing the likely direction of the sector in the next calendar year.

Spectrum expects the “growing focus” from regulators and the gaming industry regarding “risks from the black market, especially in the online space,” to extend into 2025.

“Illegal offshore online gaming continues its inexorable rise despite regional law enforcement’s cooperative efforts to crack down on organised syndicates operating across the region,” stated Spectrum.

The consultancy observed: “The debate has started to move on from arguments over the size of the black market to better understanding the reasons for displacement.

It added: “Regulators will become proactive in closing routes to illegal websites. Licensed operators are also being challenged to consider whether their own suppliers – including content providers – might be facilitating illegal gambling in other jurisdictions.”

The Philippines is in the process of shuttering offshore online gaming operations in the country.

On July 22, the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr had said that Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) – now known as Internet Gaming Licensees (IGLs) – would need to end their business in that country by year-end.

Last month, the Philippine leader issued an executive order prohibiting all offshore online gaming operations in the country. The ban encompasses existing operators, license applications, license renewals, cessation of operations and illegal offshore gaming operations.

The Philippines is one of the few countries in Asia Pacific to have not only a licensed casino industry open to locals, but also a licensed online gaming sector.

In its lookahead for 2025, Spectrum said the Philippines “will likely be removed from the grey list of money-laundering countries, but it will face further scrutiny in subsequent peer-group reviews”.

The Philippines was added in June 2021 to the grey list of the France-based watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

In late October, the FATF said the Philippines had made eight “key reforms” to strengthen the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering (AML) and combatting the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime.

Such reforms included “demonstrating that supervisors are using AML/CFT controls to mitigate risks associated with casino junkets,” said the watchdog.

Thai legislation

The consultancy highlighted Thailand as a topic to watch next year, as the country became “the latest jurisdiction to throw its hat into the Asian casino gaming ring”.

“Analysts expect legislation confirming the establishment of one or more integrated resorts to pass through the Thai parliament in 2025,” noted Spectrum.

“But the question remains as to whether Thailand will be able to attract first-tier operators in the absence of effective regulation,” it added.

Thailand’s planned Entertainment Complex Bill to legislate for casino resorts could be effective as law as soon as mid-October next year, said last week Thai MP Chulapong Yukate, speaking to GGRAsia on the sidelines of the Thai Entertainment Complex Summit in the country’s capital, Bangkok.

Spectrum also expects to see further progress in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as the country “continues on its march to legalise gaming”.

So far there is only one licensed operator in the UAE. That is casino firm Wynn Resorts Ltd, which is developing the Wynn Al Marjan Island casino resort in Ras Al Khaimah, one of the emirates.

U.S.-based casino operator MGM Resorts International is developing a hotel project in Dubai, another emirate in the UAE. In September, MGM Resorts’ chief executive said the company had applied for a casino licence in Abu Dhabi, another of the emirates of the UAE.

New strategies

In its outlook for 2025, Spectrum also said casinos throughout Asia will in likelihood “continue to see reductions in VIP business”, and “will be required to initiate new marketing efforts to increase the mass and premium mass markets”.

That is due to the “slow, but inevitable, death of the Asian junket business continues as a result of stricter governmental regulation and money-laundering crackdowns across the region”.

Other trend highlighted for 2024 cover the rollout of so-called “smart gaming tables”, which use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for monitoring the monetary integrity of games, stated Spectrum.

The consultancy said: “‘Get Smart’ is the prevailing theme across Asian gaming properties, with Macau casinos leveraging smart-table technologies to counter lower margins and fiercer competition.”

In Singapore, the two casino resorts “are making major gaming and non-gaming investments into their properties, which will continue to pay dividends for the two licensees and for Singapore in years to come,” observed the organisation.

Las Vegas Sands Corp, the promoter of the Marina Bay Sands casino resort in Singapore, expects a US$8-billion expansion project to be completed by mid-2029.

Resorts World Sentosa’s promoter, Genting Singapore Ltd, has pledged a SGD6.80-billion (US$5.07-billion) investment to upgrade the casino complex.