The final day of the Vienna International Gaming Expo (ViGE) took place today at the Austria Center Vienna, the only event of the year dedicated to the land based and online gambling industry in Central Europe.
Today’s session agenda was dedicated exclusively to the regulatory climate in Austria when it comes to gambling operations, essentially a big mess complicated by politicians trying to protect a monopoly. At present, there are only four licenses available for land based operators and online gambling is not regulated, but nothing is really being done to blacklist sites that offer services to Austrians.
Helmut Kafka, President of Automatenverband.at, told CalvinAyre.com of the pending gambling court cases addressing if the Austrian gambling monopoly infringes upon EU law.
He also mentioned his association’s 60 years of service as of 2017 and said there have been consistent ups and downs within the gambling industry in Austria for all these years. While he’s a big supporter of expanding gambling operator opportunities in the country, he cannot predict with certainty where regulations will end up in the near future.
CalvinAyre.com took some time today to talk with the founders of MailMike.net, an exhibitor of ViGE based in Central Europe but with a global focus. Miklos Handa has fifteen years of experience working in the online gambling industry and decided to launch MailMike when he identified a need for inbox placement expertise.
An ability to communicate with clients and partners via email can be a challenge as filters used by ISPs and other infrastructure mechanisms are becoming more and more stringent. MailMike uses a three-phase approach, detecting problems early, prevention of escalation and support to manage sender reputation.
By performing a variety of metrics, its easy for MailMike to identify the aspects of an email which are causing issues and to educate clients how to prevent these issues in their next email campaign. MailMike also offers IP Monitoring services and consulting support for their clients who consist of online gambling operators and really any company that wishes to communicate with customers by email.
We spent time this afternoon with Zoltan Tundik of EEGMedia and EEGEvents- more commonly known as “Hawkie” in the online gambling world- and also the organizer of ViGE 2017. A Central European native himself, Tundik decided to launch the event as he recognized a need for companies based in the area to have a place to get together, network and present outside of the larger industry events where they sometimes get lost in the shuffle.
Tundik was especially pleased with the turnout for the sessions taking place on day three and explained how ViGE provided the first exclusive meeting point for people such as Kafka, gaming lawyers specializing in Austrian law and other professionals focused on the regulatory status of Austria. While the sessions took place today in German, it was obvious to delegates the content was worthwhile and we could see the presentation room was packed all day.
When it comes to planning for next year, Tundik said he will potentially look into venues with less networking space and provide a more intimate environment for speakers and exhibitors who would appreciate time in the spotlight and may not have the budget to travel to some of the other events taking place throughout the year.
