Successful academic conference between the public power and businessmen held in Punta Cana

The first intervention of the forum was in charge of Ricardo Nadal, President of the National Association of Sports Banks, who addressed the assistant, made up of legal operators from the country, exhibitors and sponsors present at GAT Caribe, with an emotional public speech that highlighted the opportunity of this unpublished and open meeting, of great importance, given the decisive moment that requires changes in the gaming regulations in Dominican Republic.

"Today is a beautiful day. After many years of attending hundreds of meetings, we see gathered in this room, a significant number of 10 deputies determined to modify the existing regulation for games of chance in the country, not only because of their particular interest or that of the businessmen linked to this productive line, but also in compliance with a requirement of the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, enshrined in Decrees 63-22 and 295-22, which declare the regularization of games of chance to be of national interest and require legislators to Prompt action to meet the purposes of technological updating and regulation required by all the verticals of an industry that has a basic active market of 7 million citizens, to whom it is necessary to provide better guarantees and quality in the services provided by companies of bets on all verticals of the game in the Dominican Republic. My dream is to achieve this purpose to achieve justice and development”, said Nadal.

Then, deputy Luis Henríquez thanked deputies Pedro Mota, Geraldo Casanova, Rosa Hilda Genao, María Mercedes Fernández, Braulio Espinal, Benedicto Hernández, Mercedes Rodríguez, Socrates Pérez and Omar Fernández for their response to this call, in their capacity as former director of the Directorate of Casinos and Games of Chance of the Ministry of Finance of the Dominican Republic. In the same way, he extolled the situation that GAT Caribe has offered them for its innovative regulatory project and in a detailed explanatory statement, he presented the content and benefits of the draft already filed in the respective commission of the Chamber of Deputies. At the same time, he invited those present to give their opinion and contribute from their knowledge and experience to enrich the basic document that he will put to the consideration of the legislators.

Luis Henríquez affirmed: “The project revolves around the creation of a General Directorate of Games of Chance including casinos, sports banks and lotteries, which is the only regulatory entity that unifies the vision and tasks when promoting new technologies in games, ordering all the actors that currently play a role within the sector. This has definitely been a very successful dialogue and we are especially grateful for the facilities and welcome that the organizers of GAT Expo Caribe have given us”.

Evert Montero Cárdenas, President of Fecoljuegos, was the moderator of this conversation. José Aníbal Aguirre, CEO of Gaming & Technology Expo, closed the forum expressing his satisfaction and gratitude for the realization of this important institutional event, given the quality of its protagonists and the bonds of cooperation and mutual growth that are being created with the institutions. and guilds from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and the Latin American region, which is definitely beginning to experience a new era.

The second part of the conferences and panels were held in the afternoon at The Westin Punta Cana Resort & Club, conducted and coordinated by attorneys María Paola Isaza and Iliana Pineda from V&I Consultores Legales, and Fecoljuegos Evert Montero Cárdenas participated as speakers with the conference: "Importance of self-regulation of advertising and communications in games of luck and chance." The panel "Regulatory experience and challenges for new regulations in the region", presented the panorama of this first-order topic, presented by Liliana Viveros from Betcris Dominicana, together with the jurists mentioned above. The panel discussed the Colombian experience from the institutional framework and how regulation has direct effects on the legalization of activities. Successes, failures and lessons learned will be of great support to jurisdictions in new regulatory processes.

Elizabeth Maya Cano's dissertation revolved around the "Opportunities of Localized Games", explaining in detail the diagnosis and main current problems, as well as the business opportunities they offer to expand their portfolios by extending them to games operated by Internet, virtual betting, eSports, and other new applications and entertainment platforms.

Cornazar, through Tomás Perner, a member of its board of directors, presented José Aníbal Aguirre with a plaque in recognition of his tireless work in favor of the unity and integration of the gaming industry for more than 20 years in Colombia and America Latina, with fairs, congresses, symposiums, seminars and exhibitions. MetaMap presented the last conference of the day, given by Camila Fernández, Senior Enterprise Director of this company specialized in cybersecurity, data validation, local data connections in all the countries of the region, to ensure transparent operations and avoid fraud.

Last June 9, it closed with the networking offered by BetConstruct, the main Sponsor of GAT Caribe 2022, with the Open Bar that all the participating businessmen enjoyed.

Sponsors and exhibitors: BetCris, Pragmatic Play, Altenar B2B and MetaMap, Cockpit, Gaming, Evolution Gaming, Juancito Sport, BetConstruct, IGC Gaming Systems and Solutions, Zataca and Loteka.

Last Friday, the exhibition opened again with stands in which roulettes, slots were exhibited, and online platform services were offered.

The academic component of GAT Caribe included the Compliance Workshop last June 10th, a topic suggested by local operators and hosted by Fecoljuegos, which made an extensive presentation of relevant content on the topic. The central theme was addressed by the President of Compliance Officers of Fecoljuegos and directors of the union.