It may seem a tricky task from time to time navigating the waters of different regulation within business, fortunately there are many success stories to take note of and plenty of tips out there for operating despite these restrictions – perhaps one of the biggest changes seen most recently can be found in the introduction to GDPR, and we may see many more changes in this space as we continue to rely changes within the digital space for our businesses.
(Image from ZDnet.com)
A great recent case study to look at recently for how changes have been introduced and moved around can be found within mobile gaming and the introduction of an initiative called Gamstop. The initiative had been introduced in 2018 in an effort to reduce the number of problem gamblers within the UK following growth within the mobile market, particularly amongst a younger audience, but recent changes have called for a response. Whilst initially operators had the choice to opt-in to the service, as of April this year it had been made mandatory for all operators registered within the UK to sign up to the service or risk losing their gaming license, this came at a similar time as another big change in the market as credit card usage had also been banned on these sites.
To combat this change, many operators made the common sense choice – they decided to register outside of the UK in countries such as Malta where some regulation still applies for safety measures, but outside of the area in which Gamstop applies and whilst some operators such as Max casinos provide a list of non gamstop sports sites which may also offer other ways around regulation change such as shown with credit card betting, it may only be short term – changes are being made in this industry especially to reduce exposure or to change how many of the services operate directly which may spur more change further down the line. Whilst other changes may not be so drastic as to close for example an entire revenue stream as seen in this example, there are small changes in business that could be just as impactful that need creative solutions to solve, and using this example as a case study could provide some insight into how adjusting to these changes may be possible when a core part of your business is required to change and adjust.
This example has also changed very quickly – as mentioned over the space of two years it had moved from a optional choice into a mandatory requirement with a backing caveat to support and even enforce it, and so it may be unrealistic to expect such changes to occur elsewhere but this does show the need to be prepared for change – referencing an earlier example of the introduction of GDPR and how a lot of warning had been given, yet many were still taken somewhat by surprise as safeguards hadn’t been put in place and it serves as another example but on the other side of the coin in which change had been implemented but handled slowly.
