Reporting from EiG...

Hello, I'm at the EiG conference in Barcelona and thought I'd deliver a report about what's happening. I'm sorry, there probably isn't much helpful information here as far as your money-making endeavors are concerned, but you may find all this interesting if you like to keep pace of what's happening in the online gambling industry.

The word is that attendance is between 1,000 and 1,100.
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Yesterday's agenda consisted of a few conference sessions in the afternoon followed by a cocktail reception in the expo hall.
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Sue Schneider, CEO of River City Group kicked off the program with some welcoming remarks that put everything into perspective. She stressed that yeah, things are tough in the industry now but that has always been the case, this is not an industry for the faint of heart. She mentioned that this is the first time companies have had to make their decisions based not only upon personal risks but also upon corporate concerns. She also likened the situation that taking place with online gambling to the history of Las Vegas, pointing out that there was a time when Las Vegas was like the Wild West-- not regulated-- and there was crime and other problems as a result, but regulation eventually did come of course and then business sky-rocketed. She suggests the history of Vegas is a situation from which the online gambling industry can learn.
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Sue also had a few surprise video clips to show us. One clip was Bob Goodlatte talking about the "Scourge of online gambling." Sue said she wanted to print that on t-shirts to give to everybody who attended but she didn't have enough time to do it. The second clip was actually a brief pre-recorded message from somebody who badly wished he could be here but was unable to make it. That person was David Carruthers!!!
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Carruthers is under house arrest in St. Louis, which is where River City Group is based, so they visit him frequently to chat. Carruthers said he is "strong, fit, well, and in good spirits." He also said he feels "robust and optimistic about a satisfactory outcome" to the problems facing the industry. Sue had to note that they actually recorded the video the night before the U.S. legislation passed, so he surely would have tailored his message a little bit I'm sure.
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Norbert Tuefelberg of bwin.com, who was arrested in France last month, spoke after Sue. He revealed that he and some of the other European betting companies are going to undertake a lobbying and PR campaign for the next two years because they can think of no other way to deal with the pressure the Member State gambling monopolies are putting them.
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I saw a pretty cool demonstration of the capabilities of interactive television and the ways it can be applied to betting. I've always liked this sort of thing and lament that interactive TV technology still isn't in very wide use in the U.S. I think in-game betting on sports would be particularly cool, I would love to have the ability to bet on propositions during a baseball or football game (of course the U.S. lawmakers would never let us do that, but sigh, its cool to imagine). Participation game shows are another fascinating thing.
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Michael Starzynski of CryptoLogic showed some of the smart new things that CryptoLogic software will soon be able to. The system is learning to read player data and make suggestions to players based on that data that they may like to receive. For example, when a person logs onto a casino and they are near to completing a particular bonus the system could give them a pop up message that politely informs them "you are 3 hands away from completing your bonus" or another example is "your favorite blackjack tournament is starting in ten minutes; would you like to register?"
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There was a presentation session that dealt with affiliates and affiliate programs, but the content was mostly geared toward operators so I don't have much new info to report to you about it. Content included- what affiliates want, what are affiliates concerned about, how do you launch an affiliate program, etc.
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Presenters included Nicky Senyard, CEO of income access, Sven Obermeyer, CEO of casinowebcam.com, and Kevin Lindsay-Payne of reviewed-casinos.com.
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All that took place yesterday. Today there was a session about what is happening with regulatory matters. One of the presenters was an Italian online gambling lawyer named Stefano Sbordoni and I took the opportunity to settle something that has been bothering me for a while. I read in a couple of online news portals two or three weeks ago that Italy was preparing to regulate Internet poker. This did not seem likely to me and I was unable to verify it by other means so I asked Stefano if this was true and his response was "not really". He said the Italian government was going to regulate p2p skill gaming, but this does not include poker (he then went on to talk about how there are of course always arguments as to whether poker is a game of skill or chance). Ultimately, the fact of the matter is that the Italian government has not ever said it plans to license and regulate Internet poker. The news portals reported that falsely.
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That's what I've got for now. I'll report again tonight or tomorrow if I'm able.