iGaming Daily

Speaker 1 (00:00.206)
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of iGaming Daily. I'm James Ross, the multimedia editor at SBC. And today we're taking a whirlwind tour from Kenya, where a surprising tax U-turn is set to shake up the betting scene after its national parliament approved a cut to excise duty on bets from 15 % to 5%. Then we're going to go all the way to Thailand, grappling with public resistance with 57 % of respondents against entertainment centers and casinos and political drama as it eyes a casino future with integrated results.

Then we'll round off our tour in Azerbaijan with the country looking to resurrect its casino industry on artificial islands to be coming next as Bajon Las Vegas, potentially reversing a ban implemented in 1998 to boost tourism. Joining me to go through all of this is the iGaming expert team, editor Joe Streeter and business journalist Christian Lee. Jambo to you both. You have no idea about Jambo. Swahili for hello, which is the language of speaking Kenya.

Good morning.

Explain that please my friend.

Speaker 1 (00:59.714)
You don't know any Swahili? Do know Okunomatata?

Swahili I don't know. Of course actually. Maybe I do know some Swahili then, you go, discover something new every day.

Disney and the Lion King teaches us all. I can't do like Hello in Thailand or Azerbaijan.

I was going to say have you got some language facts for each nation we're going to?

You're recurring three. You've set the bar too high now, we were expecting.

Speaker 1 (01:17.346)
I don't know

You're gonna have to jump in and out when I want. We are going on this WorldWin tour. We're gonna start off in Kenya and Joe, I'm gonna come to you for this one first. Can you just kind of explain to us this big development that's happening in Kenya?

I the key development really is off the back of other, more tighter regulations in the market which we'll go into in a moment that kind of implied that there was a more stringent approach being taken to the gambling sector in Kenya. A big cut on player taxes. Player taxes, Christian, is that correct? What's the correct minimum of the taxes?

Yeah, effectively it is a player tax. for now, when someone deposits into their account, 5 % of that were taken as a tax. It used to be 15 % and it also used to be taken when the bet was made. So that's some of big differences in terms of obviously it's a 10 % drop. And also now that money's been taken when a player deposits from their mobile wallet or their bank account rather than at the point of actually placing a bet.

So makes a big difference in terms of the flexibility of the market. And that was originally implemented in 2024, did you say?

Speaker 2 (02:23.246)
I believe it was 2021 when the first tax was brought in, which was 7.5 % and then it slowly increased over time reaching 15 % in 2024 which sort of shows that it is a little bit unexpected that drop given that previously has risen steadily over time.

Yeah, a significant change in the market for Shorin One that will be of massive favour to the industry and to the upward trajectory of the industry and combatting the black market in Kenya.

And how significant is this tax deduction impact on kind of the player engagement and operator revenue when it comes to Kenya?

definitely expected to boost play engagement given that there's that lower financial burden. And off the back of that, you would expect again that that should then shift onto boosting revenue for operators if players are more willing to sort of have bets or play different games because there is that lower burden on them when they're depositing. And then even if you look at the regulator and the government, although they've reduced tax rates, which you would expect would lead to lower tax contributions.

given that there is going to be more player engagement or we expect more player engagement in the long run, that should actually lead to more tax contributions because it's boosting, it's sort of boosting the appetite for players.

Speaker 3 (03:37.322)
Even amidst tough tax frameworks, the momentum of the Kenyan market was already on an upward trajectory. We saw real shifts in player patterns. We also saw reports suggesting that a new generation of players in Kenya were playing, a younger generation. Obviously that being boosted significantly by increased mobile penetration. More, I think a study at the start of the year suggested that 70 % of players are now using mobile.

as their preferred platform, which kind of implies that a younger generation are playing. yeah, I think 50 % of 18 to 35 year olds in this study, I think it was done by iGaming Africa and Sharp Vision also stated that 50 % of 18 to 35 year olds are playing, are gambling and embracing gambling. yeah, interesting times. And there was another study too that kind of pinpointed Kenya.

as one of the key markets in...

It's probably one of the biggest.

Yeah, in the African market in terms of gambling and terms of gambling. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:44.942)
Yeah. So that's 82.81 % of respondents in Kenya had previously engaged with gambling products. And just to emphasise that to the listeners, like when we talk about Kenya and it comes to the African market, it is one of the biggest out there. And we've seen such increases in activity in Africa and generally in the continent when it comes to gambling. Joe, you hinted at it recently, or just a minute ago.

the use of mobiles on the penetration, the increase in gambling through the use of mobile technology now in Africa has exploded that market. And one of the things I think is interesting to me from your article on iGamingExpert, and I'll leave a link in the description for the listeners to go check this out, is the new advertising part, or the advertising restrictions, shall we say, on how operators will be able to use

influencers, celebrities and so forth. And Joe, I'll come to you first on this one. How will operators adapt their marketing strategies now with such a highly engaged market like Kenya without being able to use these influential figures in the marketing space?

I think it's important we talk about that engagement too, because another thing just to kind of draw it back is studies also kind of revealed that engagement has changed and player patterns have changed to the point where players are more likely now to play on a more regular basis rather than, you know, sporadically, which I think the new tax frameworks kind of complement that frequency of playing. In terms of marketing, it's a challenging one. We obviously saw

new guidelines around influencer marketing. Yeah. And we saw a change in frameworks. We know that a lot of this is obviously done to combat the black market where a significant proportion of the traffic came from social media. yeah. mean, Christian, you covered the advertising regulation changes in Kenya. Yeah. What do you make of these? What strategies do you think Operates is going to implement?

Speaker 2 (06:46.158)
definitely going to have to force operators to a lot more innovative in terms of how they do advertise to make sure that they're still reaching the same markets they were before. Some influence actually brought a statement against the changes, sort of arguing that it wasn't fair to target influencers. And then noted that a lot of sports teams are sponsored by betting companies in Kenya, which is seen around the world that betting is becoming the biggest sponsor of sporting events and sporting teams. So if anything,

that's only going to increase in my opinion if that is the option that is now open to operators because that is something that will have a lot of eyes on it and especially from that younger demographic that is playing on mobile and is becoming more interested in gambling because they're the ones who are also going be interested in sport and consuming content around sport as well.

Yeah, I think one of the key things when it comes to influencers, celebrities in the same sense as well, and this isn't just targeting the African market. I think this is more of global mindset that people should have. There comes a kind of a responsibility from these influencers to one, educate themselves into what they're actually promoting because it's not wrong to say that these influencers will just see the money and think, this is a great payday for me, not thinking of the ramifications of what they're actually promoting. So to kind of block out the influencers,

from the get-go, you then just remove a potential issue further down the line. And actually, I think this can be seen as a good thing, certainly from Kenya's point of view, that they've thought, this is a potential issue. This is something that if we just get rid of it completely, we can protect our players. And that means they're thinking with player protection at the front of their mind. I think that's interesting. We do need to jump to a break, because we spent a lot of time in Kenya, but we do need to travel to Thailand and then Azerbaijan. So join us after this break, where we continue the discussion.

Okay, welcome back. like I mentioned before the break, we're going to be talking Thailand, which is facing significant challenges in its efforts to legalise land-based gambling and introduce casinos with integrated results. Christian, alongside that, there is some political tension. Can you just explain a bit more about that and the reasons why?

Speaker 2 (08:51.758)
So it all centers around a border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, which I believe is something that has been going on for a long time, but sort of tensions have escalated recently. And Prime Minister Sinawatra of Thailand, she's now facing calls for resignation because a call was leaked between her and someone from the Cambodian government or someone high up in Cambodia where she criticized the actions of the Thai army at the border.

Okay.

was those actions that fueled the kind of escalation of the border dispute where somebody was shot at the border. that correct?

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to go into full details because it's sort of beyond my understanding of the Thai politics and Cambodian politics and I want to... I'm an expert in that area as of yet. But as a result of that, the Bumjai Thai party, which is the second biggest party within Thailand's ruling coalition, they've actually withdrawn from the party, which has led to many suggesting that Chanel Warkstra's party could lose their majority.

You transpirator,

Speaker 3 (09:50.37)
coalition, right? Yeah.

Yeah, it was a coalition could lose their majority within that coalition, which could then spark new elections. And this is a result of that. The bills that she actually has been supporting, which she has been a major factor behind Thailand pushing for integrated resorts, including casinos. If there's a new election, you could lose that support and the bill could be back to square one.

So the opposition party that would be opposing her in any election or opposing that party in any election have been vehemently against the integrated resorts bill too as well, right? So yeah, we would by default potentially get a referendum on the integrated resorts bill or an election that where the integrated resorts bill was somewhat on the table, I guess.

just to kind of clarify this as well. Is the public opposed to the idea of these integrated casinos or is it due to public? Yeah, because I mean, there's a stat here from the National Institute of Development Administration that found like 57 % of respondents were against entertainment centres and casinos, but is that them just against it due to their affiliation and like displeasure of the current government?

It's kind of split, I think.

Speaker 3 (11:00.73)
No, no, no. I don't think it's anything to do with political. Thailand's obviously very religious. There's lots of cultural nuances. There's lots of potential social impacts that they see with a potential integrated resort, potential land-based gambling bill. So I don't think it's so political. don't think it's a politically tribal issue on that front. think it's just about Thai culture and with regards to how that bill...

and how legalised gambling resonates with Thai citizens. What I would say though is as we've seen with the Cambodian border dispute, Thai citizens have been stopped or been heavily restricted in entering Cambodia and crossing the border. Subsequently, Cambodian casinos have dipped dramatically and revenue and footfall has dipped significantly as a result of Thai citizens not being able to cross the border or being heavily restricted in how they cross the border.

which I think, you know, putting two and two together highlights the reason appetite from some within Thailand to gamble and to have integrated resorts.

And then let's look at kind of the complexities and the challenges that countries like Thailand that have that cultural background and you have that I think as well the UAE and you know there's more countries around that area that are looking to introduce gambling. What are the complexities of introducing a gambling culture in a culture that doesn't primarily allow or appease to it?

Yeah, I think as you both alluded to, is around that, the culture and the religion and the more traditional culture that isn't quite, I don't know if assimilated is the right word, but isn't quite assimilated with bringing casinos and entertainment complexes and the gambling side of things. So I think it is just in terms of the politicians who are pushing for this and the industry that is pushing for this, it's just about educating the citizens on the benefits of having these casinos and also

Speaker 2 (12:56.686)
There's obviously a lot of concerns around problem gambling, educating them on what has been done in terms of responsible gambling and the benefits that the casino industry can bring to the local economies.

Okay. For the listeners out there, like I'll leave links again in the description below for you to follow this cause iGamingExpert has been covering this throughout the whole development. But we do need to move on to Azerbaijan and Christie, I'm sticking with you because this was your story. Give us the updates on Azerbaijan. Yeah.

bit of a less field than I didn't think I'd be writing about Azerbaijan today, but here we are. basically they actually got rid of casinos in 1998, but now there's a, there's a push to bring casinos back to certain places, which are mostly artificial islands that sit just outside of Baku, the capital. So that this has been tabled with Azerbaijan's parliament and they're going to have a vote on this. Obviously the main push behind this, like in Thailand and other places is

to do with boosting the tourist economy in the country. yeah, just giving something else that tourists can do when they are in Azerbaijan.

And Georgia is quite significant in this whole process, the country of Georgia. How significant is that model for gambling tourism, for Azerbaijan's plans, particularly given how reliant, how much reliance there is with foreign visitors?

Speaker 2 (14:19.448)
Yeah, so it's definitely a model that Azerbaijan should be looking to copy. It has been name checked by politicians who have come out in support of Azerbaijan's bringing back casinos due to the revenue that casino generates in Georgia every year. It is around 20.6 billion pounds per year that is generated and also employs over 20,000 people that industry. And the fact that as well, 20 % of that revenue does come from Azerbaijan in nationals going over to Georgia.

playing these casinos. So that just shows that there's definitely an appetite for casino gaming in the country of Azerbaijan. So if they can bring that money that has been spent in Georgia and bring it back to their own country, that's not going to boost the local economy and also attract

Yeah, and again, to kind of clarify and rectify, like these proposed legislations are still being considered by the Azerbaijan's parliament with a vote expected imminently. Yeah. We don't know how imminently it is. But one of the interesting nicknames they've given it is Azerbaijan Las Vegas, which

Do we need another Las Vegas? Let's go somewhere else. But considering the global trend of integrating casinos into larger entertainment results, we're already talking about Thailand and the struggles that they've gone through. What challenges might Azerbaijan face in building this Azerbaijan Las Vegas?

think as we spoke about with Thailand, it's all about getting the politicians on board. There's not been a lot of noises in terms of if there is opposition to the proposal. So that is something that we'll have to wait and see in terms of if the right people within Azerbaijan is parliament are on board with bring casinos or not. But it's definitely clear that Azerbaijan is trying to position itself as a tourist destination within Europe. If you look at sport, for example,

Speaker 2 (16:06.2)
push hard to get a Grand Prix on the F1 calendar. They've hosted European football finals as well in the stadium.

I do want to say that I think one thing that's important to know when you're talking about these new markets and you're trying to be sensitive and there's a right way to do it. Marketing is everything, think. The correct marketing approach. Obviously we need marketing. That's how the market exists. That's how. But you can't go in and flood the market with advertising and be brazen about it.

I it needs to be a sensible, measured marketing approach when you're talking about these new regions. And I think that's the same for, we kind of spoke briefly about the UAE. I think that's the same for the UAE as well. I don't think they're going to want to see the type of thing we saw, for instance, in the US where everywhere you looked, it was gambling advertising. don't think the cultures are going to accept that. And I don't think gambling is going to integrate into the cultures if

that type of marketing approach is taken.

think the fact that, that is primarily going to be based on these artificial islands, which it does seem is where like the destination results are being built. That shows it is something that is primarily around attracting tourists and sort of keeping it away from the sort of like the middle of Baku or the major

Speaker 1 (17:32.366)
it is. To round off the podcast, quick fire question to you each. Is it Fever Las Vegas or Abchuron Las Vegas? Which one would you go for?

Feeve Las Vegas for now, it's got the history, but you never know.

Yeah, you can't beat the old school, I like Las Vegas. Yeah, be interesting to see how this develops though, in Azerbaijan.

Perfect. Well, that's everything for today for the listeners out there. If you are interested in any of the conversations we've talked about today, I will leave the links in the description below. Until then, I've been James Ross. I've been joined by Joe Streeter and Christian Lee from iGaming Expert. This has been iGaming Daily and well, you'll hear from us tomorrow.