Operator News

Curacao – GLI welcomes almost 90 attendees to Curacao Roundtable

By Phil - 12 September 2016

Gaming and lottery regulators and government lottery representatives from all over Latin America and the Caribbean gathered together in Curacao to participate in Gaming Laboratories International’s unique Latin American and Caribbean Regulators Roundtable.

GLI Director, Latin America and Caribbean Government Relations and Business Development Karen Marcela Sierra-Hughes said, “We have no words to express our gratitude to all the government representatives that joined us in our first Roundtable celebrated in the Caribbean.
Government lotteries and gaming and lottery regulators from more than 36 entities and two associations (ALEA and CIBELAE) from 22 countries from the Caribbean and Latin American region decided to participate in this unique event.

“GLI dedicates a lot of effort every year to put this conference together with the aim to exceed the expectations of the attendees,” Sierra-Hughes said. “We are thankful to the regulators and lotteries that participated as speakers, sharing with their colleagues their experience and wealth of knowledge that differs from country to country as the reality of each of our jurisdictions aims for different regulatory strategies. We are extremely grateful to Mr. Gino Campbell, Executive Director of the Curacao Gaming Control Board, and his team who worked with us on securing the success of the Roundtable. This Roundtable was not only successful in terms of content and attendance, but also on the camaraderie among attendees that we hope will continue as many of the positive repercussions of the event. Mr. Campbell’s support from the organizational standpoint and his team’s hospitality and warm welcome to the government representatives attending the conference will be remembered and treasured for years to come.”

GLI’s Latin American and Caribbean Regulators Roundtable continues to grow and become more successful each year. This year, the event saw almost 90 attendees who represented the following countries: Argentina, Aruba, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Curacao, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uruguay and Virgin Islands.

The free, two-day event allowed attendees the opportunity to not only attend and participate in high-level discussions relevant to the Latin American and Caribbean region, and to speak with like-minded professionals and ask the experts questions about the industry. Event topics included:

• Understanding Regulatory Tools – When and How to Use Them
• Governance and Acting Under Strict Rules of Law
• Certification Process – Back to the Basics
• Minimum Internal Controls in the Lottery and Gaming Industry: Why and How to Audit
• The Gaming and Lottery Industry of the Future
• iGaming and Sports Betting Regulations and Operations from a Risk Control Perspective
• Multijurisdictional Games in the Gaming and Lottery Industry
• Bringing It All Together – Open Forum
• Responsible Gambling in the Lottery and Gaming Industry
• The Current State of the Anti-Money Laundering Guidelines
• What Information Security Means to You: Is It Crucial for Your Organization?
• Online Monitoring and Control System: The Latin American and Caribbean Experience

As part of the program, Regulators Roundtable participants traveled to a local casino to watch a live on-site inspection demonstration of their monitoring and control system, courtesy of the Curacao Gaming Control Board.

Curacao Gaming Control Board Executive Director Gino Campbell said: “We are extremely proud to have been the host regulator of the first Caribbean edition of GLI University’s Latin American and Caribbean Regulators Roundtable 2016. I can only express myself in superlatives. Close to a hundred participants from 24 countries that fell in love with our beautiful island added up to a very special experience. This time around, the quality of the presentations was exceptionally high with many relevant topics and lively exchanges of knowledge. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of intra-regulatory relationship building and networking that spawned out of this event, underlining my firm belief that only together can we make each other better. As an organization, the Curacao Gaming Control Board has grown because of this. We offer a heartfelt thank you to GLI for honoring Curacao with this prestigious event.”
The Regulators Roundtable was concluded with a cocktail event, providing attendees with an exclusive opportunity to network with other professionals and further discuss topics presented at the educational event.

Peru’s General Director of the General Direction of Casino Games and Slot Machines Manuel Antonio San Román Benavente said: “Each Regulators Roundtable organized by GLI exceeds the previous one. You are able to notice this in all details of the event – the topics and the opportunity that it provides us to meet and create relationships with our counterparts, among many other things. These are strengths that GLI gains as years pass. The big winners are all of the regulators who have the great opportunity to participate and strengthen the friendship and fraternity with other regulators and the organizing team. We return to our countries full of new experiences and grateful for the good times that are much appreciated.”

National Director of Lotteries and Quinielas, Uruguay and President of the Ibero-American Corporation of State Lotteries (CIBELAE) Luis Alberto Gama Hernández said, “In my opinion, this conference is extremely important to our lotteries, and the topics and speakers are wisely selected. It is not in vain that this is the ninth Regulators Roundtable and with even more success every year. As a regulator, the results were excellent and totally positive. I encourage the celebration of this type of events because they offer prestige to the industry.”

GLI’s Latin American and Caribbean team is currently preparing for their next large event – Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in September. G2E takes place at the end of September in Las Vegas.