EUROMAT holds its Annual General Meeting in Barcelona and sets its priorities for 2010
Friday, 28 May 2010 – The European Gaming and Amusement Federation held its Annual General Meeting today. This year’s Annual general assembly focused on the new challenges of the European land-based gaming and amusement sector in Europe and its objectives for the year 2010-11.
The federation has approved its most recent industry figures for 2008, which show that the industry had a turnover of almost 25 billion Euro and it employs some 300,000 people across the EU, with an installed base of around 1.4 million gaming and amusement machines across the EU.
EUROMAT President Annette Kok said “this AGM was a chance for us to look at the future but also take account of the success of the past year. EUROMAT is a vibrant organisation which is ever more involved at EU level and will continue to give the land-based gaming industry a voice in Europe.”
EUROMAT approved its yearly Work Plan for 2010-11 which will see the organisation interact with the EU institutions on a number of relevant issues, ranging from the review of the RoHS Directive to the new European Commission Green Paper on remote gambling. The Federation will continue to interact with all institutions and representatives of the rotating presidencies of the Council, with Belgium and Hungary next in line for the second half of 2010 and first half of 2011.
Upon conclusion of the AGM, EUROMAT 1st Vice President Helmut Kafka said “While EUROMAT continues to be a strong promoter of responsible gambling practices amongst its members, this year we will also engage with EU decision makers to ensure that they are addressing the considerable risks in the illegal provision of online gambling services to European citizens, which put these citizens at risk and puts legitimate, regulated land-based operations at a competitive disadvantage”.
EUROMAT will engage in a an awareness raising event to ensure policymakers in all member states are properly informed about the distinction between regulated and tax-paying operators and unregulated and free-riding remote gambling ones.