Australian Gambling – The future of pokies operations will be online, a NSW gaming regulator for land-based casinos inadvertently conceded at the 2014 Gaming Racing and Wagering Australia conference held this week.

Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (IGLA) chief executive Micheil Brodie led an industry keynote discussing a state regulator’s perspective on Barangaroo, red tape reduction in the gambling industry and the future direction of legislation for land-based casino gaming.

Mr Brodie briefly acknowledged proposals by other regulators of online and server based systems as being the next big development for slot machines in land-based casinos – proposed due to effects of the global consolidation of the gaming and casino market and driven by operators working on tighter profit margins.

Essentially, no hardware other than the gaming machine itself would exist on-site, and all data-centers, servers and administration would be located online from international locations and serve software to the pokie machine and its players. The only thing in the state would be the hardware in the venue.

This proposed new direction goes against the current state based regulatory system, as regulators would need to not only contend with operators wanting to centralise operations nationally but also internationally.

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