London, England, May 25, 2016– The Officers of the Parliamentary All Party Betting & Gaming Group are very keen to hear from the different sectors where gaming machines operate at the fourth of their Future of Gambling Seminar Series, The Future of Gaming Machines to be held onMonday 7th June 2016. The speakers will be John White, CEO, BACTA, Simon Dorsen, Senior Director for Europe, IGT and John Appleton, Director of Electronic Leisure, Mitchells & Butler. Steve Donoughue, gambling consultant and Secretariat of the All Party Betting & Gaming Group said:

The British gaming machine sector has been in decline with the number of AGCs and FECs falling every year for the last five years. The sale of new gaming machines had been stable for the last few years but between 2013/14 and 2014/15 there was a massive decline of almost a third. Fortunately overall numbers of machines has stayed stable due to increases in Category C machines. To put this in context though, the total number of machines is 28.7% less than it was ten years ago. Some of this is obviously structural, but the Gambling Act and the disappearance of the triennial reviews for a number of years have all taken their toll.

For the first time the Parliamentary All Party Betting & Gaming Group is allowing the invited guests from the industry to attend its meetings and join with the Captains of their industry in the debating what the future of gambling in Britain is. If you wish to attend one of the seminars please contact the Secretariat of the APBGG, Steve Donoughue at [email protected]. John White, CEO of BACTA and key speaker stated:

I am delighted to be speaking at this seminar, as it gives me a great opportunity to share some of the views that Bacta has about the future of gaming machines.  There is a number of challenges facing the industry, but equally for those that are creative and progressive there could be some very exciting times ahead.  Clearly we need to sort out some immediate issues that are affecting the industry, such as the stake on FOBTs and get the Triennial Review underway.  But it will be from this that we will persuade the government to allow us to develop new ideas and encourage innovation across the industry.  Only in this way will we develop more exciting games and attract a new generation of customers that are essential for our future prosperity.