August 2015

At the beginning of the year I remember setting ourselves the goal of continuing to shape the future of gaming law.

So far I must say that I am happy with the way this first half of the year has turned out.  It has been most productive, and we have continuously been working on the further development of our educational offer by introducing the Asian Gaming Lawyer to our series of IMGL publications, hosting an outstanding IMGL Spring conference in St. Thomas and some very successful IMGL Masterclasses at ICE in London, the KPMG Gibraltar eSummit, and the iGaming Supershow in Amsterdam. I therefore dare say that we are living up to our claim of being the pre-eminent global gambling law networking and educational organization.

This is even more so when looking at what lies ahead. I am happy to currently be able to announce five more upcoming IMGL Masterclasses for 2015:  the IMGL Masterclass at G2E Las Vegas on28 September, the IMGL Masterclass at the OFXG AND AFFILATLV conference in Tel Aviv on 29 November 2015, the IMGL Masterclass at the Isle of Man eGaming Summit on 10/11 November 2015, the IMGL Masterclass at MiGS Malta i-Gaming Seminar on 16 – 19 November 2015, and the IMGL Masterclass at the Eastern European Gaming Summit in Sophia on 23/24 November 2015.

This clearly demonstrates that there is a demand for our IMGL Masterclasses and that they are very well received. Judging from the incredible feedback we have been getting on the quality of the speakers and the interesting selection of most current topics of the gaming world at our IMGL Masterclasses and the obvious demand for them, I am confident that the IMGL Masterclasses will continue to be a successful conference format in the future.

If you have not done so already, I urge you to please mark your calendars for our IMGL Autumn Conference which will take place on 14-16 October in Lima, Peru. This year’s Autumn Conference will be especially interesting as it will be jointly held with the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). It will be our first ever conference in South America — and will provide the unparalleled opportunity to discuss, interact, and engage with regulators from all over the world. Please note that it is strongly recommended that you register for the conference early as there is a lot going on in Lima during the week of the conference. I hope to welcome many of you in Lima and am already looking forward to a great conference.

As you can tell, I am very happy with the progress our organization has made during the course of the year so far. None of this would of course be possible without the commitment shown by our IMGL management team. I would especially like to thank our current Executive Director, Sue McNabb, and our Director of Education and Association Development, Morten Ronde, for their dedication and support, and for doing an excellent job in learning the ropes and renewing our management structure.

I would also like to take this President’s Message as an opportunity to thank our loyal sponsors for their continued support at our conferences and the organization in general. I understand your ongoing support as an acknowledgement of the high-level of quality the IMGL endeavors to achieve at conferences. In order to continue striving to pre-eminence I would like to invite each and every member of the IMGL to actively participate in finding sponsorship opportunities, taking over responsibilities in the organization of the conferences, making suggestions as to their content and of course attending many conferences and IMGL Masterclasses in order to maintain the same level of excellence in our future conferences.

Your next chance to attend an IMGL Masterclass will be coming up on 28 September 2015.  Our one-day Masterclass will form part of one of the most important and leading gaming shows worldwide — the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas — and should certainly not be missed. I would also like to extend an invitation to all our members for the IMGL Member Reception at the G2E which will take place on 29 September from 6-8 pm at Wynn Las Vegas.  I am very much looking forward to seeing you there and conclude by saying:

The first half of the year has been great – here’s to a terrific second half!