Mr. Madis Jääger:

I thank the Chairman for affording the Olympic Entertainment Group the opportunity to present our submission. We forwarded our powerpoint presentation and comments on the submission.

In view of the time limit I will comment only on the most important points in our submission. In the second slide, Olympic Entertainment Group is a publicly listed company, celebrating its 20th anniversary and operates in seven different jurisdictions. The group has 20 years experience of operating casinos in central and eastern Europe. As a publicly listed company we must respect the standards and accept responsibility for complying with the conditions on licensing, compliance, responsibility and transparency. These are the core values on which we base our submission.

The third slide summarises the four key areas for discussion. The most important consideration is that gaming is conducted in a safe and controlled environment. What I mean is that regulating casinos is a small part of the gambling business. The gaming industry has developed so fast that the type of gaming changes. It does not matter whether it is an online casino, a casino or gaming arcades, it is important that all regulations are applicable for all the gaming.

Gambling can be a problem in the gaming industry. We as casino operators are aware of the problems. I believe most respected casino operators want to limit problem gambling. This is crucial. We have established measures of decreasing problem gambling in society. In Estonia we have initiated the introduction of a self exclusion ban and I can refer to public services in Estonia. When one puts oneself on a self exclusion list one cannot withdraw the application. I think this is one of the drivers of reducing the gambling addiction problem in Estonia in the past three or four years.

We deal with problem gambling, not only in the casino but with online gaming or slot arcades. This is definitely necessary. Based on our experience in Estonia, we have nationwide centrally controlled self-exclusion lists which applies to online as well as land based casinos.

The third area is about gaming equipment limitations. Under the current wording the maximum number of gaming tables is set at 15 and the maximum number of slot machines is limited to 25 in a casino.

In contrast, there are no limitations on gaming arcades or on minimum bets or maximum wins for other sorts of gaming. We believe it is necessary to regulate to make the sector equally transparent and fully controllable. I recommend, based on the European standards and the proven setup of casinos, that 15 tables is okay but there should be five to seven slot machines per gaming table. Therefore, casinos would need to be a little bit larger, have more investment and provide much nicer products in order to attract experienced and larger casino companies to invest in Ireland. Let me give an example. In each of the countries in which we have set up, we have flagship casinos with approximately 15 tables and between 100 and 140 slot machines, following investment worth €10 million, and we employ at least 200 people. I recommend the same format for Ireland.

The last matter is on regulation and how alcohol is treated in casinos. It is a myth that when people drink they lose control of their gambling. My colleague Mr. Geoff Taylor can comment on what happened in the UK where the serving of alcohol was originally prohibited but its introduction has had no negative effect on gaming.