Lucky Fish

What is Lucky Fish?

Various tier one and two retail operators, such as William Hill and Betfred, have scaled back and closed hundreds of shops between them this year.

Non-remote betting was reported at £2.4 billion (down 3.3%) with non-remote casinos at £933.9 million (up 0.4%) and non-remote bingo at £703.8 million (up 8.2%).

Gaming machines in arcades recorded £800.1 million in GGY (up 10.7%), mainly across adult gaming centres (£761.4 million, +11.3%). Gaming machines overall contributed £2.7 billion to GGY, reflecting a 4.3% uplift. 

What is Lucky Fish?

The DIA worked directly with class 4 gambling operators (commonly known as pokies trusts), and discovered ‘widespread issues’ such as cases where money that should have been available for community grants was instead spent on society expenses, such as the purchase of additional gaming machines.

Vicki Scott, the DIA’s director of gambling, said the investigation had delivered significant results, while stressing that work to improve compliance and ensure communities received their share of gambling proceeds would continue.

“Most operators have worked constructively with us to address historical issues and improve their practices,” Scott said.

How to play Lucky Fish

“Our aim is to create an environment in which regulators, operators and suppliers can engage constructively on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry across the continent,” Kesitilwe stated.

Collaboration was a key focus of the inaugural Africa Safer Gambling Week, which the AiA hosted last week.

Kesitilwe told iGB an important theme of the event was fostering year-round collaboration and turning conversations on safer gambling into practical measures.