The Parliamentary All Party Betting & Gaming Group today holds the first of what will be a series of “Future of Gambling” seminars in the Churchill Room at the Palace of Westminster in London.
The inaugural session, titled “The Future of Gaming Machines,” features executives from the different sectors where gaming machines operate. Speakers will be John White, CEO, BACTA; Simon Dorsen, senior director for Europe, International Game Technology; and John Appleton, director of electronic leisure, Mitchells & Butler.
“The British gaming machine sector has been in decline, with the number of AGCs and FECs falling every year for the last five years,” said Steve Donoghue, gambling consultant and secretariat of the All Party Betting & Gaming Group. “The sale of new gaming machines had been stable for the last few years, but between 2013-14 and 2014-15 there was a massive decline of almost a third. Fortunately, overall numbers of machines has stayed stable due to increases in Category C machines.
“To put this in context, though, the total number of machines is 28.7 percent less than it was 10 years ago. Some of this is obviously structural, but the Gambling Act and the disappearance of the triennial reviews for a number of years have all taken their toll.”
For the first time, the Parliamentary All Party Betting & Gaming Group is allowing the invited guests from the industry to attend its meetings and join in the debating what the future of gambling in Britain is. Anyone wishing to attend one of the seminars should contact the Secretariat of the APBGG, Steve Donoghue, at sdonoughue@gamblingconsultant.co.uk.
