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Interblock “Crushed It” at ICE London 2023
Interblock, developer of luxury Electronic Table Games (ETGs), exhibited an unprecedented display of innovative products and features at ICE London 2023 in Booth #S5-250, from February 7 to 9, at the ExCel London.
This year’s show had a historical turnout, providing gaming establishments and professionals a remarkable stage to showcase technology-driven products and solutions. Interblock’s demonstration of technology, designed to attract new players to the Casino floors, entice existing players to stay longer, and increase mathematical efficiencies, attested to a successful 24th year of participation at the ICE London exhibition.
“This year’s ICE Show proved to be more than we could have anticipated. The Show proved to be well attended and the energy we experienced in 2019 had clearly returned. The number of executives from around the world that attended this year’s ICE, was a testament that the Casino sector has recovered and ready to open the next chapter for gaming. In addition, all of us at Interblock are very proud to receive the Award for ‘Best ETG Product’ by The European Casino Awards. Our new Bonus Wheel Roulette is the next step in Mechanical Roulette innovation and to be recognized by the industry is truly an honor,” John Connelly, Global CEO of Interblock, said.
Rewarding gaming’s strongest manufacturers and operators, The European Casino Awards subject product category nominations to a rigorous decision-making process. Submissions initially face an online vote, in which professionals are invited to make their voices heard to determine a shortlist in each category. The shortlists are then reviewed by a panel of independent industry experts, who decide upon the ultimate winner in each category. The gaming industry’s elite gathered on Tuesday, February 7 for an evening of celebration, as incredible operators, manufacturers and professionals were crowned at The European Casino Awards. Interblock is exceptionally honoured of Bonus Wheel Roulette’s win for “Best Electronic Table Gaming Product” by The European Casino Awards.
Interblock’s sensational new, award-winning Standalone product, Bonus Wheel Roulette, was a customer-favourite at ICE London 2023. Its dual wheel bonus system incorporates the thrill of playing traditional Roulette with the opportunity for players to win payouts up to 250 to 1. When players wager on any of the four bonus gems and the ball lands in the selected bonus gem pocket on the main wheel, a secondary bonus wheel spins to determine the amount of the bonus payout rewarded to players with multipliers up to 250 times. With the bonus round occurring approximately one in every ten spins and payouts more than seven times higher than that of a traditional Roulette wheel, industry experts agree that Interblock developers successfully produced an elevated game for Roulette players to enjoy.
“The excitement surrounding our big win and the overwhelming positive feedback and popularity of Interblock’s ICE booth was beyond our expectations. We were visited by most of the Casino groups from EMEA and even those from APAC, LATAM, and NA. The Pulse Arena and Stadium products’ innovative technology, simplifying usage and operation, impressed our existing and future customers. At the show, we introduced our new Blackjack Xtreme, an elevated game of Blackjack,” Gorazd Golob, SVP of Interblock’s Product Expert Team, said.
ICE London 2023 provided the European Market its first look at Blackjack Xtreme, Interblock’s thrilling adaptation of the traditional game of Blackjack, delivering a game within a game experience and the opportunity for players to win big payouts. With up to nine (9) additional wagers to choose from and a wide variety of winning card combinations, players enjoy “winning more, more often.”
In a region dominated by Roulette and Blackjack, many customers at ICE London were remarkably intrigued by Interblock’s Live Craps, due to the authenticity of the product and ease of dealing the game. Interblock effectively reinvented and improved the Live Craps experience in which a single dealer deals to an unlimited number of players in an electrifying and engaging Stadium environment. The dealer invites one player to step up to the traditional craps table to shoot the dice while the other players cheer and root for big wins. Fully automated payouts and dice tracking technology greatly enhance the security of the game while creating a unique gaming experience.
Customers also took great interest in Interblock’s new ETG Craps game, Pick2Win Craps, at ICE London. With three distinct coloured cylinders to choose from, a player chooses which two, out of three, dice will ultimately determine the result of each roll. Available as a traditional “Community” game of Craps, with one designated shooter, or “Individually” in which each player selects their own dice, Pick2Win can be played in as a Standalone game or in a Stadium configuration. Overall, all Interblock products on display at ICE London 2023 were recipients of tremendous praise by the industry, solidifying a clear victory for the company.
“It was great to see ICE back in action, with so many familiar faces, and the largest Interblock booth ever. Our products shone under the intimacy of our private booth, allowing us to consecrate time to our customers, and showcase our many innovations. It was a wonderful show,” Marco Herrera, Interblock President of EMEA, said.
gambling companies
How Alberta’s Insider Lobbyists Delivered for Gambling Companies

Private gambling companies and industry groups have waged a years-long lobbying campaign to shape Alberta’s regulated internet gaming and sports betting strategy, including hiring several consultants with ties to the United Conservative Party government, the Investigative Journalism Foundation has found.
Alberta is expected to launch its iGaming market early next year, making it the second province where residents can legally gamble online and place bets with private operators. Provincial records show that since 2020, at least 21 different gambling companies and industry associations registered to guide, inform, and educate various government ministries on online betting regulation and market frameworks.
Global gaming platforms like BetMGM, Caesars Entertainment, and Bally’s Corp. have all sought meetings with Alberta government officials, as have a swath of major Canadian companies including the Stars Group, Score Media and Gaming, and its parent company, Rogers.
Along with their own in-house advocates, gaming companies and groups have also enlisted the help of professional influencers from more than a dozen public relations firms.
The IJF’s analysis of public lobbying records found 11 of the lobbyists registered to represent the gaming and sports betting industry previously held positions within the United Conservative Party or the Alberta government.
Representing the Canadian Online Gaming Association, Endgame Strategies’ lobbyist Pierçon Knezic worked as the UCP’s deputy campaign manager during the 2023 election. In between her time as a ministerial press secretary and a senior communications adviser for Alberta’s government, Eliza Snider was part of the team managing the Score Media and Gaming account for public relations giant Hill & Knowlton.
Wellington Advocacy employed a stable of former government staff for clients such as Pure Canadian Gaming and Caesars Digital, including Clancy Bouwman, assistant to Premier Jason Kenney; Brad Tennant, former UCP executive director; Ashley Wilde, former UCP director of operations; Nick Koolsbergen, Kenney’s chief of staff and campaign director; Peter Csillag, UCP caucus director of issues management from 2017 to 2019; Lucas Robertson, who served with the UCP caucus, the minister of health’s office and the UCP caucus whip’s office; and Ethan Lecavalier-Kidney, former policy adviser to Alberta’s finance minister.
Brandon Aboultaif, press secretary to Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally, who is responsible for iGaming legislation, would not say which companies Nally has met with but told the IJF in an email that the minister and his department “continue to meet with all interested industry stakeholders to engage on issues related to the launch of a private, regulated iGaming market in Alberta.”
“We are taking the next step toward establishing a private, regulated online gaming market in Alberta by further engaging with Indigenous partners and stakeholders on Alberta’s iGaming strategy, including the development of regulations related to social responsibility and consumer protection,” he said.
Regulated online gambling has grown rapidly in North America following the decriminalization of single-game sports betting in the United States in 2018 and in Canada in 2021. Single-game betting allows people to bet on various aspects of individual sports events.
While the expansion of legal markets has corresponded with a surge in lobbying activity, industry efforts to push for privately owned online gambling go back much further, said Renze Nauta, program director for work and economics at Cardus, a non-partisan Christian think tank.
Nauta pointed to a 2011 report on single-event sports wagering and related press releases from the Canadian Gaming Association as examples of the long-standing push for open markets, as well as the source of industry statistics on black-market gambling activity that have been widely circulated and used to make the case for legalization.
“I can’t speak to the intensity of the lobbying effort; it’s clearly a long-standing one. Because from 2011 to 2021, that’s a 10-year period where there was clearly an attempt to bring this to Canada,” Nauta said.
In its publications, the Canadian Gaming Association estimated that Canadians were spending at least $10 billion annually on illegal single-event sports betting, and an additional $4 billion gambling on grey-market websites based in jurisdictions where these bets are legal. The estimate that $14 billion in illegal sports betting was taking place in Canada was subsequently cited by members of Parliament and continues to be referenced by government and media.
The potential taxable income that would come from capturing a share of black-market activity has been a primary justification for iGaming legalization cited by legislators from Alberta to Ontario to the federal government and various U.S. states.
The potential tax revenue has also been a consistent theme in lobbying communications recorded in the Alberta lobbyist registry. Notices filed by Pure Canadian Gaming note the “economic contributions of gaming to the Alberta economy.” The Stars Group declared its intention to educate the government and to establish “safe, regulated environments that benefit jurisdictions,” including “incremental government revenue opportunities.” And Century Mile Racetrack and Casino had discussions with the government on how “gaming can drive tourism and economic prosperity.”
A similar emphasis on corporate and economic benefits has also dominated Canadian media coverage of the legalization of sports betting, according to a study from researchers at the University of British Columbia.
About 85% of newspaper articles on sports betting between 2020 and 2022 featured themes of legality and industry change, while the issues of gambling harm and reform were present in less than a quarter of articles surveyed.
“The newspaper coverage through that three-year window is really emphasizing and framing the economic, business and financial considerations. Particularly this idea of capturing the illegal market through legalization and regulation, at the cost of much discussion around harms and the risks of excessive gambling and the health of the public,” said Luke Clark, director of the Centre for Gambling Research at UBC.
The study also found that industry representatives were by far the most frequent sources interviewed in media coverage. Seventy per cent of articles included voices from the gaming industry, while few academics, addiction and public health advocates or people with lived experience with gambling made the news.
Clark said this imbalance in perspective stems from the disparity in size and resources between the groups representing these different viewpoints.
While academics might offer a more complicated and nuanced take, they have less time to dedicate to media, and people with lived experience aren’t connected, co-ordinated and issuing press releases.
The gaming providers now operating in Canada, on the other hand, are big global gambling corporations with resources dedicated to influencing government and public opinion.
“These are huge companies with a footprint in many different parts of the world. They have large public relations teams and huge marketing and advertising budgets. And they’re very well positioned when media reach out. They’re right on it with clear messages that frame things from their perspective,” Clark said.
Source: thetyee.ca
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Caesars Entertainment
The 2025 “Low-Wage 100” Report Reveals Significant Employee Pay Disparities in the Gambling Industry

Leading gambling companies Caesar’s Entertainment, MGM Resorts International, and Las Vegas Sands have recently been spotlighted in the 2025 “Low-Wage 100” report. This annual publication by the Institute for Policy Studies and Inequality.org identifies S&P 500 companies that show the smallest median wages for their employees compared to the large earnings of their top executives.
The financial figures reveal significant disparities in compensation. In 2024, Caesar’s CEO Tom Reeg earned $18.4 million, while the average U.S. employee at the company received just $43,880, resulting in a salary gap of 419 to 1. MGM’s CEO Bill Hornbuckle earned $15.8 million, sharply contrasting the company’s median employee salary of $47,607, creating a 332 to 1 ratio. Meanwhile, Las Vegas Sands’ Robert Goldstein took home $21.9 million, dwarfing the $42,426 earned by the typical worker and leading to a 516 to 1 pay disparity.
These pay gaps have sparked ongoing criticism of the casino industry. Since 2019, the top executive pay at Caesar’s has more than doubled, surpassing the 40% wage increase seen among its workforce. Though MGM and Las Vegas Sands have also raised executive salaries at a faster rate than employee wages, their growth was less dramatic compared to Caesar’s.
Experts argue that this imbalance extends beyond optics. The report examines billions spent on stock buybacks which inflate share prices and executive compensation, while funding for employee wages and training remains insufficient. For instance, MGM invested over $9.5 billion in buybacks last year—more than twice what was spent on upgrading its properties.
This uneven pay structure is not limited to major companies in the S&P 500. Smaller gaming firms reveal similar trends. Penn Entertainment reported a striking 734 to 1 gap, with its CEO earning $26.6 million and the average employee making $36,322. Boyd Gaming followed with a 304 to 1 ratio, and Golden Entertainment showed a 155 to 1 difference.
Industry critics suggest these pronounced salary gaps damage employee morale and complicate talent retention, ultimately hindering long-term growth. Calls for reform include proposals to increase taxes on companies with large pay disparities and to levy higher taxes on stock buybacks.
Despite these controversies, these companies remain among Nevada’s top employers and hold substantial influence within the global gambling market. Nevertheless, the study concludes that the industry’s focus on rewarding shareholders and executives over workers will likely persist without regulatory intervention.
The post The 2025 “Low-Wage 100” Report Reveals Significant Employee Pay Disparities in the Gambling Industry appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
gambling activities
Uruguay Introduces New 0.75% Tax on Casino and Gaming Bets

The Uruguayan Government has taken an important step toward legislating and taxing gambling activities. A new decree, decree number 167/025, gives life to a special tax on bets placed with electronic game machines and automatic betting systems installed within casinos and authorized entertainment spaces. It was signed into law by President Yamandú Orsi and Minister of Economy Gabriel Oddone and is a careful step in the direction of allowing more direct contributions to the state’s fiscal system.
The new regulation imposes a 0.75% tax on the total amount of each wager. That is, regardless of whether the wager is placed in chips, coins, bills, e-money, or other equivalent sources, the initial amount wagered by the player is subject to tax. The government explains that the tax event is actually the wagering event itself, and not the subsequent winnings or repetition that might occur during the game.
The decree precisely focuses on a particular segment of the gambling industry: games of chance with immediate results that are played through electronic or automated devices. Licensed casinos and entertainment halls, already regulated tightly, now have to include this new taxation burden in their financial management.
Significantly, the decree clarifies that the taxable base is the initial amount staked by the gambler. Any subsequent winnings accumulated during a gaming session will not be subject to taxation anew. This provision is intended to simplify the tax system, avoiding cumbersome calculations from continuous winning or the reinvestment of credits.
The post Uruguay Introduces New 0.75% Tax on Casino and Gaming Bets appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
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