17 October, 2008

First Eastern European Gaming Summit took place in Sofia, Bulgaria

The First Eastern European Gaming Summit took place on 30th of September – 2nd of October 2008 in Expo Convention Center in Sofia, Bulgaria. It ran along with the 1st Balkan Entertainment & Gaming Expo (BEGE 2008) allowing visitors to enjoy all the benefits of both the trade exposition and the series of seminars and meetings.

Attendees had a chance to follow such important topics as Tracks of Gaming Regulations, Integration of Gaming and Tourism, Best Business Practices, Casino Marketing: Strategies for Success and Vendors presentations.

One of the sessions was called “Russia: The Opportunities, The Challenges”. It was dedicated to a Russian gambling business, which became very uncertain since the government decided to close all the casinos by July 2009 and move them to four zones in remote locations. Speaking at this session Clive Tilley, President and CEO of Tilley Entertainment underlined the overwhelming consensus amongst Russia’s gaming sector that the zones will certainly not be ready by next July. “[Russia] has a clear law but its application is uncertain,” Clive Tilley told delegates. “The timing of it is absolutely out of the question,” he added. “This is a concept that would require ten years to [implement], whereas we only have ten months.”

Moving the business to the zones is the most difficult challenge Russian gambling business faced for the last decades. Clive Tilley will also comment on this topic at the conference panel “Special Zones: Gaming Operations in Russia” at G2E 2008, which will be held over 17-20 of November.

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