AGA CEO Miller Expects Asian Markets to Follow in US Footsteps

The president and chief executive officer of the American Gaming Association (AGA), Bill Miller, believes there are exciting times ahead for the gaming industry in the Asia-Pacific region.

Very Exciting Times Ahead

Speaking at the Global Gaming Expo Asia (G2E Asia) Special Edition: Singapore, Miller expressed his optimism for the global gaming industry and shared his expectations that the recovery in Asia would likely mirror that in the US.

“There are plenty of reasons for us to be optimistic about the future,” Miller said in his keynote address at the three-day industry expo show held at Marina Bay Sands for which the AGA serves as co-organizer.

“If the comeback in Asia looks something like what the comeback in the US has been, we are all in for a very exciting period of time,” he added, pointing to the numbers in the Philippines, Singapore and Macao as early signs of what is to come.

AGA’s data showed that total commercial gaming revenue in the US reached an all-time high of $60.4 billion last year, surpassing the pre-pandemic 2019 level by 38.5%, while AGA’s Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker revealed that the upward trend continued in Q1 2023 in which the industry set a quarterly revenue record of $16.6 billion, marking its eighth consecutive record-breaking quarter.

In the Philippines, estimates by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) suggest that the country may surpass its 2019 level, while a strong start of 2023 in Macao saw gross gaming revenue in the first four months surpass the entire 2022 GGR figure.

Tackling Illegal Gambling Together

Miller also reflected on the issue of illegal gambling and its impact on the legal market, stressing that it can be only successfully tackled via the cooperation between regulators and law enforcement agencies.

“Illegal gambling is an issue that tops our list of responsibilities in the United States and together we need to make a global commitment,” Miller told the guests of the three-day expo bringing together over 100 suppliers from 30 countries and regions around the globe.

He continued emphasizing that illegal gambling “poses a threat to competition, reputation, communities and customers and creates an unfair advantage in the marketplace” by praying on vulnerable groups and siphoning away revenue from the legal market which then is directed to supporting public services.

“This is a shared threat because illegal gambling doesn’t stop at one country’s borders,” he added, pointing out that legal markets all over the world can have consumers taken away from them by illegal operators, hence the need to act together as one global industry.

He also warned that gaming markets in Asia face similar concerns to their US counterparts where unregulated gambling attracts around $511 billion in turnover each year, depriving the nation of an estimated $14 billion in tax revenue.