As both the President of the International Masters of Gaming Law and the owner of his own law firm based in Missouri, Mark Ellinger is a leading global expert that discussed the latest legislative trends at SiGMA Europe 2021

Introduced by the ever charismatic Trudy Kerr, Ellinger began by describing his presidency of the International Masters.

As an organization, our purpose is to put together the best lawyers and countries that do exclusively gaming law. Then we have the mission of education. We really want to teach folks what the regulatory world’s laws are, what the regulations are, how the regulators operate and what the best practices are, because ultimately that’s how we move our industry forward. The only way we can make gaming a better, stronger industry in the long run. The biggest regulatory issue globally is there’s not one regulatory scheme globally. There’s, there’s, every country has its own regulatory scheme. Some of them are similar. Some of them are very different. And then inside countries, for example, the United States, but there are other countries, Canada, Germany, other countries that have the federal system, every state has a different regulatory system.

Trudy introduced the topic of regulation by arguing that the goal of regulation was to provide the ideal environment and protection for players in the industry. She then pointed out that, logically, there should be a single regulatory regime that covers the entire industry. Ellinger elaborated that the regional approach to regulation was a necessary effect of the diversity of the industry.

Gaming has a different reputation. In some countries it’s been around forever and it’s viewed as just a normal part of the economy. In other countries, it was taboo for many years and it’s only now all made up and when you have that kind of moralistic view, Gaming is bad, then people will regulate it as if it’s bad. If you have the view of gaming as a business and we need protections around it, then it’s regulated in that manner. Ultimately, gaming is a business with Fortune 500 companies all over the globe that are involved in gaming. It’s a big industry in which good comprehensive regulation protects the player, but it protects the industry. It’s really a mutual benefit.

Trudy then moved to the difficulty fragmented regulatory jurisdictions were having on the operations of firms, and how many stakeholders were seeking to break down the barriers between these regimes. She also focused on how many firms were eyeing the United States of America as the market with the most potential.

I think best practices are ultimately the best we’re going to get. We’re never going to get truly unified regulation. The United States is not going to cede its sovereignty to another country, nor are any of the states inside the United States going to cede sovereignty to other states.

He then elaborated that these sets of best practises would include protocols in place for standardised background checks, financial checks and taxation rates. The harmonization between these would lead to a more mature and a more sustainable industry moving into the future. Trudy then moved towards the issue of the future, asking Ellinger what he had planned in the next couple of years in terms of the IMGL and of the industry as a whole.

The US is going to keep opening up. I think there’s no question that sports betting is moving much more quickly than iGaming is. We’re seeing progress in iGaming and we’ll continue to see that progress but sports betting in the last several years has really exploded in the US and I think we’re going to see some big developments in the next year with new states coming on. States that maybe people weren’t expecting, states with large populations. Let’s just say there’s a couple of big states that have a lot of professional franchises that are likely to have sports betting in the next year or two and some of those states will migrate into our game.

Giving examples, he elaborated that Florida is a fantastic example of the above. With Indian casinos already being a powerful figure in the gambling ecosystem of the state, Ellinger stated that we may see sports betting and iGaming being provided through the tribes. With Florida being one of the largest states in America, it held the potential to be an extremely lucrative market. Texas, the second largest state in the country, was a massive market with sports betting gaining ground quickly and the future seems bright for the industry in the country.

Trudy concluded the interview by asking Ellinger where SiGMA fit into his vision of the future of the industry and how it could be a pillar for the maturation of the sector.

Sigma is one of the preeminent operators of education and trade shows across the globe. It’s really valuable for us to plug in our regulatory and legal knowledge into Sigma’s trade shows so that we can offer the opportunity for our regulators but also, folks in the industry to hear what are those best practices, what are the new developments. We spent yesterday at one of the panels talking about player protection. We talked about advertising in another panel and then we talked about what’s all coming up in the US and Canada and people really want to hear these things. They want to learn, and they want to see how they can move forward in their jurisdiction, but also find new business opportunities. I think that’s a perfect partnership.

SiGMA 2022:

After the exciting set of conferences that was Malta Week 2021, the SiGMA Group plans to take the world by storm with the golden steeples of Kiev and the snowy city of Toronto being hubs to draw the best and brightest of the iGaming world together. Our next expo takes us to cutting-edge metropoli of the United Arab Emirates for three days of networking, panel discussions and festivities. Stay up to date with the latest and greatest through SiGMA News.

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