Alderney Gambling Questions how "Popular" GIGSE Will be

Alderney Gambling, renowned for its global positioning as one of the leading online gambling jurisdictions has questioned whether the once behemoth GIGSE will be worth attending this year.

GIGSE (Global Interactive Gaming Summit & Expo) has for many years been the nucleus of online gambling industry trade conferences.  Having weathered a SARS epidemic - widely reported on here at Gambling911, which eventually forced a change in venue, GIGSE demonstrated an ability to adapt during difficult times.

But no time as been more difficult than the present.  A bill signed into law last October holds banks responsible for monitoring online gambling transactions.  Worse, popular payment processor, NETeller, has come under a US government ongoing investigation with two of its founders set to go on trial in the coming months.  Charges ranged from money laundering to racketeering and this has caused a ripple effect throughout the i-gaming industry. 

Operators fear doing business with US citizens while payment processors have had a rough time transferring funds between customers and the online gambling casinos.

Following on from a very busy and successful ICEi event in London in January AlderneyGambling are busy putting together their activity plan for the forthcoming year.

Head of E-Commerce Development, Robin Le Prevost explained, "London was fantastic for us with the stand constantly busy and our business partners on the stand were impressed and exhausted in equal measure. So much potential business was available that we feel we must be getting it right. The question is how to drive the message forward with so many options open to us?

"We have not yet confirmed our level of participation at GIGSE for this year, it has always been a great event but with the recent issues in the US we are not that certain how popular it will be at this time. Almost certainly I will be going even if we don’t take an exhibition stand and hope to be able to give a presentation on the jurisdiction and of course meet with potential licensees. We are planning a major presence at EIG in Barcelona this autumn which I think has a great chance to become as big as GIGSE once was - building on the opportunities for Europe.

"Other events we will attend are Macau in April and probably in June also the CAC event in Amsterdam in early May. If you want to meet up at any of those mentioned then let me know. Also if you have any other events you are attending it is more than possible we can arrange to meet with you there as well."

Gambling911.com has not been invited to attend GIGSE, further sign that the one dominant conference is fading fast.  Gambling911.com will be in attendance at CAC in Amsterdam this May with its founder, Christopher Costigan, speaking as part of a panel discussion.

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Alejandro Botticelli, Gambling911.com

Originally published March 11, 2007 1:52 pm ET