As the burgeoning United Arab Emirates market continues to develop, regulators have promised that they will provide a platform for “out of the box” innovation.
Speaking at SBC Summit Lisbon, Kevin Mullally, CEO of the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA), the country’s regulator, confirmed that technology will lead the jurisdiction’s regulatory framework, not the other way round.
“Figure out how to entertain your customers in the best way you can, and we will figure out a way to regulate it,” he told attendees.
“Whatever you bring us, we will design a way, we will make sure it’s safe. We will make sure that we have data to ensure that the customer experience is protected. We want the technology providers to focus on entertainment, not look at the regulations and have to design games within this box.”
The UAE embarked on its journey to bring gaming to the nation in 2023, appointing industry veteran Mullally, previously of Gaming Laboratories, to lead the changes.
In August last year, The Game LLC received the country’s first gaming licence, authorising it to operate the UAE lottery.
Christina Hu, Chief Strategy Officer at Momentum, whose subsidiaries include the operator of the UAE Lottery, emphasised that the open nature of the market’s governance fosters innovation.
She said: “Every regulation, in my experience, is designed to drive innovation and to make it easier to do business for all sizes of companies, small, medium and large. From my perspective, the regulations and tax scheme are all designed to enable innovation.”
Wynn eyes 2027 gaming resort launch
The most notable entrant to the UAE so far is Wynn Resorts, which has embarked on a $3.9bn project to develop the Wynn Al Marjan Island integrated resort – slated to open in March 2027.
Earlier this week, Abdulla Al Abdouli, CEO of Marjan, part of the joint venture delivering the resort with Wynn and RAK Hospitality Holding, confirmed to the Khaleej Times that the project remains on track.
He also hailed the economic impact that the venue will have on the local economy.
“It is one of the biggest projects in the UAE and one of the most anticipated in the region. It will increase the number of visitors to the emirate,” he said.
“The Wynn resort will provide an offering, but supporting it requires residential units and apartments as well. Many businesses will be created there. It will be an integral part of Ras Al Khaimah’s economy.”
Speaking at SBC Summit Lisbon, David Patent, EVP of Wynn Al Marjan Island, laid out the possibilities on offer due to starting a project from scratch.
Innovations expected as part of the resort include real-time alerts for customers, smart tables “across virtually all games” and real-time marketing at slot machines and table games.
“We’ll be taking [marketing] to a much more granular level than anybody’s done previously,” he said. “Because we get to start from scratch and we do not have a legacy database or data model around our necks, we’re actually able to build this from scratch and so our data model will allow us to understand our customers from a 360-degree experience world.”
Wynn Resorts’ CEO, Craig Billings, expects the UAE’s gaming market could be worth up to $5bn.
Although only a country of 11.5 million, the UAE welcomes over 20 million visitors per year. According to Mullally, commercial gaming forms “the cornerstone of [the UAE’s] vision for diversified economic growth, significantly contributing to tourism and foreign investment”.
