The SiGMA-ICE Asia and SiGMA Deep Tech Summit wouldn’t be much of an Asian summit if it didn’t take a long, broad look at all of the important countries to the Asian market, and Day 1 of the conference did not disappoint. A series of talks and panels took a look at several of the important countries to the gambling industry.

That began with a look at Australia, moderated by Ben Blaschke, managing Editor at Inside Asia Gaming. He was joined by Jamie Nettleton, Gambling Law Partner at Addisons Lawyers, and Fredric Gushin, Managing Director, Spectrum Gaming Group.

Nettleton noted the obvious short term impact Covid-19 has had on Australia, with a complete loss of revenues for the industry. Casinos have laid off 90% of staff, he noted, and online gambling is still not an option. “It will take a long time to get back in an operational manner,” he said.

Gushin gave a perspective of what we can expect to come. “People are going to have to reestablish confidence in going to venues where there are many people.” He said. Looking back at precedents set by 9/11 and The Great Recession, airlines took 3 years to recover after 9/11 for Las Vegas, and the gambling industry as a whole needed as much as 7 years to get back to pre-recession levels.