The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has taken a significant step forward in the gaming industry. The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) launched its official website and announced the country’s first-ever lottery licence. This move underscores the UAE’s commitment to regulated gaming commerce, as noted by brokerage CBRE Capital Advisors Inc in a recent report.
The launch of the GCGRA website marks a pivotal moment for the UAE’s gaming sector. CBRE’s analysts, John DeCree, Colin Mansfield, Connor Parks, and Max Marsh, emphasized the importance of this development. “While some may have still doubted in the market’s progress regarding a move to regulation, the advent of the website is a key marker of the UAE’s commitment to regulating commercial gaming,” they stated. This initiative aims to dispel any lingering skepticism about the UAE’s dedication to regulated gaming.
Wynn Resorts Ltd, the parent company of Macau’s Wynn Macau Ltd, is currently developing the Wynn Al Marjan Island casino resort in Ras Al Khaimah, one of the UAE’s emirates. This $3.9 billion project involves local partners, with Wynn Resorts holding a 40-percent equity stake. CBRE predicts that this venture could generate $1.4 billion annually in gross gaming revenue (GGR). Despite the progress, investors have been cautious, largely due to regulatory uncertainties. However, the recent regulatory advancements could expedite Wynn’s debt financing for the Al Marjan Island project.
Leadership and Licensing Procedures
In September last year, it was announced that Jim Murren, former chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts, would be the inaugural chairman of the UAE regulator. Mark Lipparelli, a former chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, is also on the UAE regulator’s board. The newly launched GCGRA website provides a comprehensive definition of commercial gaming, details on gaming-licence types, and outlines licensing procedures.
Commercial gaming in the UAE is defined as “games of chance and/or skill,” where money is wagered with the intent to win additional money. This includes land-based gaming facilities like slot machines, table games such as blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, and poker, as well as lottery, Internet gaming, and sports wagering.
The CBRE analysts noted that the GCGRA licensing procedures specifically mention “land-based gaming facilities,” supporting the idea of integrated resorts (IRs) in the UAE. Although key details such as tax rates are not yet available on the public website, the guidelines indicate that gaming licences are renewable upon expiry unless there is “substantial evidence of gross non-compliance of the licensee.”
The CBRE team highlighted that the renewable licence model in the UAE is more akin to the regulatory environment in Nevada, as opposed to the concession models in Macau and Singapore. This operator-friendly approach could attract higher levels of investment and long-term commitment due to its predictability.
In a significant development, the UAE regulator announced the awarding of a licence to The Game LLC to operate the federation’s first authorised lottery, under the banner of “UAE Lottery.”
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