Africa and its potential for the online gambling industry and Blockchain technology has been a popular topic of discussion for months amongst professionals in these two spaces. I couldn’t believe it when I found out I was going to Rwanda to cover Blockchain elements of the Transform Africa Summit, so many thoughts were going through my head.

Is it safe? How many vaccines do I need? Can I eat the produce? Drink the water? What’s the time difference? Where in Africa is Rwanda? Is there a danger of getting kidnapped? Do the civilians have guns? What are the hotels like? Are the roads paved? Honestly, so many thoughts circulated my head on that day.

Part of the reason why my mind went wild is because when the possibility of an iGaming focused event taking place in Africa- Nigeria, for example- was floated, the reaction from my peers was “no way, I’m not going there, its not safe”.  Undoubtedly, this type of instant fear is partially the fault of the media because they glorify bad news.

Regardless of the above, I’m not one to shy away from traveling to third world countries and thanks to my father, I’ve been to plenty of them for vacations throughout my life. The difference being we were on organized tours leaving from the States with American and local guides holding our hands the entire way. Traveling to Africa for a conference however, that’s a whole other ballgame.