iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove, goes global to celebrate its 300th episode.
In the first part of the show, Joe Streeter, Editor of CasinoBeats and SlotBeats, is joined by SBC’s Managing Director, Andrew McCarron, to discuss the potential implications for gaming of Labour’s landslide victory in the General Election before Danny Lee, Senior Business Journalist at CasinoBeats, steps in to provide an update on problems for Evolution in Georgia.
Lisa Nandy, MP for Wigan, has been appointed as the new culture secretary by Sir Keir Starmer and will be tasked with leading the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Kicking off the podcast. Joe and Andy discuss Nandy’s appointment and also consider who else may be brought into other senior roles that could have an impact on the gambling industry.
Part of Nandy’s remit will be continuing the DCMS’s role in the Gambling Review led by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). There have been fears within the industry that there could be delays to the rollout of White Paper reforms with the change in government.
On whether or not there could be any changes to the review under Labour, Andy said: “They have pretty much cross-party consensus on it. There wasn’t anything from a political perspective that was either one side or the other.
“If anything, because of its position as more socially aware, you say maybe it’ll tighten up some of those social aspects. I think it’ll just be a tweak and then let the government commission do its job basically.”
He adds that as the government has plenty on its plate after coming into power for the first time in 14 years, therefore it is likely that they will be happy to allow the UKGC to lead on delivering the White Paper consultations.
After a short break, attention then turns to Georgia where Evolution is facing strike action by over 5,000 of its 8000 workers at its live casino studio in Tbilisi. Danny joins Joe to provide an update on the situation.
“The strike action has been led by the chair of the labour union in Georgia and they are reportedly striking over unsafe and unsanitary workplace conditions, harassment by managers and meagre pay,” explained Danny.
He adds that a Georgian news outlet has obtained screenshots and communications from managers that show sexist, racist and discriminatory remarks made against staff and also footage of the poor working conditions.
In response to the potential strike action, Evolution has responded by saying it will launch an investigation into the poor working conditions and take appropriate action.
To conclude the show, Lee took into consideration Evolution’s 24-hour live casino studio and reflected on what the protests could mean for its business.
He said: “I suppose that in a way, it’s a bit of an effect of running like a live casino studio. There are 8000 employees, that’s quite a big workforce, and a lot of these people are coming and going to work in different shifts because obviously, live casino gaming can often run 24/7 every day.
“So it’s a big challenge to operate something like that. But you would expect a lot better from such a big company that makes a lot of revenue as well.”
