The 8th Edition of MiGS, the International iGaming seminar being held at The Grand Master Suite, The Hilton (Malta), St Julians was inaugurated today by the Hon. Chris Cardona, Minister of the Economy, Investment and Small Business together with the Executive Chairman of the Malta Gaming Authority, Joseph Cuschieri. The event will come to an end on Wednesday, 9th November 2016.
In his opening address, Minister Cardona welcomed the attendees and reiterated Malta's strong commitment to the success of the iGaming industry. The Minister also reaffirmed the Ministry's support to all organisations working in this very important sector.
In his address Joseph Cuschieri, the Executive Chairman of the Malta Gaming Authority spoke about the achievements of the Authority and how it is gearing up to face the challenges of the future.
Prior the Minister and Mr Cuschieri's address, Sue Schneider, Host of MiGS and one of the world's renowned experts in the field of iGaming, delivered the welcome remarks on behalf of the MiGS partners. She also gave a brief overview of the programme and what the delegates should expect over the next three days. Ms Schneider also thanked sponsors, partners, speakers and supporters for their continued support in MIGS over the years and assured everyone that the event will be great value to all. The event will also be hosted by AJ Thompson, an iGaming veteran and one of the world's leading experts in Global Gaming, Michael Caselli. For this year's event Greentube is the headline sponsor while the Malta Gaming Authority is lead supporter. .
The event proceeded with a presentation by Warwick Bartlett, CEO of Global Gaming and Betting consultant who spoke about the high revenue being achieved by the industry as well as the accelerating costs due to increased regulation.
After a networking break, Deloitte Malta hosted a panel discussion on the rules and taxation regime with the participation of Dr Conrad Cassar Torregiani from Deloitte, David Ferry from PWC, Manfred Galdes representing ArQ and Sarah Aquilina and Corinne Valletta from the MGA.
After lunch the seminar resumed with a panel discussion on virtual currencies and blockchain. The discussion panel saw the participation of Anatoliy Knyazev founder of BitCOin, Benedict Manifold from Cubits and Andreas Glarner from MME Legal AG. Day one came to an end with a presentation by Motti Colman on the reactive player.
Different from previous years, the organisers of MIGS16 this year launched a new initiative to promote employees working in the Maltese iGaming community. This consists of an awards gala dinner entitled iGaming idol. This event is supported by Videoslots.com as the headline sponsor, the MGA and a host of other sponsors, exhibitors, partners and media. The awards event is the first of its kind in the iGaming Industry and is aimed at recognising individuals in every sector of an iGaming operation. iGaming idol has been built on three pillars, namely recognition to employees, charity, where from each ticket there will be donation to charity, namely the Malta Community Chest Fund and entertainment. The event will bring the first night of MIGS to an end.
The following day will feature John Andrews, Consulting Editor of the Economist who will give his views and predictions on what he feels will be the challenges of the newly elected President of the United States. Other topics covered on day two will be new and changing markets, Malta Gaming Authority, eSports and Brexit.
Migs16 attracts C-Level delegates and creates a discussion forum for top management and owners of iGaming operations, service providers, and Government entities. These debates help to further enhance their knowledge of the ever changing online gambling landscape. For more information visit www.maltaigamingseminar.com