OLGAA MEETING 24 February 1999, Gold Coast International Hotel
Attendance as per separate attendance sheet
Steve Toneguzzo opened the meeting at 5.35pm, with the history of On Line Gaming (OLG) legislation through to recent regulators responses.
WHY OLGAA?
Steve stressed the need to present a united front - cooperate locally, compete globally. Australian regulators are aware that this is a matter of choice for consumers, and Australia is seen as a credible country for regulation - regulators need to unite.
WHERE WE ARE TODAY
Steve ran through the PowerPoint presentation in the conference delegate notes and OLGAA's objectives.
Dealt with the criteria for membership i.e. the "esoteric" especially on the corporate nature of membership.
Discussion was then opened up to the floor.
Steve stressed that unless there were any major objections we should try and get underway.
Added to the code of conduct distributed earlier were sections covering an independent complaints process and self exclusion. Tax, as an issue, could be factored in at a later date.
Steve also listed the advantages of membership, and relayed David Ford's thoughts regulators should not join OLGAA since they need to maintain arm's length distance.
Steve also listed suggestions received before the conference.
OLGAA would like to be the initial point of contact for legislation, technical specifications and many other areas.
Since we are all professionals, OLGAA too should be professional, currently all the work has been on a volunteer basis so far.
Questions from the floor:
Jim Colquhoun sought to have the corporate membership structure clarified, which it subsequently was; i.e. corporations would be the major members, with provision for individuals as necessary.
Several people suggested that the cost was too low for what was required from OLGAA and by one person that $2500 would not be an unreasonable charge. John Harris of Tattersall's had some experience with similar Victorian gaming groups and was of the opinion also that more money needed to be spent.
Upon suggestion of Andrew MacDonald and Steve, a questionnaire will be circulated to see what people expect from OLGAA. As was done with the Australian Casino Association, if the job is large enough and we have sufficient backing, we will be able to then brief, (say) a Burston Marstellar or similar communications / PR consultancy to quote costs for this kind of work. For the record, ACA fees are $9000 per year, Interactive Gaming Council fees are $US 5000 and $US1500 for affiliate members, with extra charges for specific lobbying efforts.
On the score of accepted operators as members, it was assumed that "licensed operators" refers to those licensed in Australian (and Australasian) jurisdictions.
It was also raised by Tibor Vertes that the trend in the future would be much more towards a general entertainment focus as well as a strictly gaming focus, even allowing for changes in the industry due to digital TV.
Graham Sherry also brought up the case of VECI who attributed their membership dues on the size of the organisation, number of employees, etc. (i.e. their capacity to pay). He was of the opinion this gave the most encouragement to large and small organisation to participate. John Beagle stressed the failure of the NAGS was due to the inability to act professionally and be seen to be set up as a professional organisation.
The meeting was concluded with the following questions:
Do we proceed? - Yes
Are you happy with the current executive group? - Yes (TST will substitute someone for Jenny Thomson, they substituted in Peter Day and Access replaced Jon Moss with Daniel Morgan.
Mick Caban then nominated John Beagle as an information source due to his experience in the setting up of the ACA
The following was set down as an outline for plans from here:
- Volunteers will be graciously accepted and are to get back to the executive in one week to join the committee or have any further input.
- Within weeks a questionnaire will be put to the potential members asking the services they consider necessary.
- The executive will meet after this and will decide the priorities for members
- This can then be put to a consultancy for a pricing of various options.
- The membership will then be informed of the various costs of proceeding with OLGAA performing various tasks and decisions can then be made on membership contributions.
- It was agreed that everyone would email Gwen Toneguzzo with suggestions for the questionnaire, Gwen would combine them and send out within 2 ½ wks. The executive committee would meet soon thereafter. And the next official OLGAA meeting would be at the AIC conference.