The annual PRE-ICE meeting took place at the "Industriële Groote Club" (IGC) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 19 January 2007. This years edition will be memorized among many attendees, not only due to splendid presentations, superb drinks and atmosphere but also due to the stormy weather conditions making it fairly impossible for attendees to arrive on time.

After last years splendid presentation by Mr. Martin M. Sychold, associated with the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, and Mr. Tjeerd Veenstra, director of De Lotto and member of the executive committee of European Lotteries (EL), this year the attendees were addressed by first of all, Mr. Mark Davies, co-founder of Betfair and Betfair''s most regular spokesman at conferences, on television and on radio. He has played a key role in most of Betfair's major milestones in the last six years, developing the much-talked-about Memorandums of Understanding with sporting bodies around the world, and leading the company's work with the UK Government in the run-up to the Gambling Act 2005. He also led Betfair's lengthy discussions with Treasury, as well as the fight for an Australian licence: he worked with the Federal and state governments Down Under prior to the company successfully gaining the right to an Australian base in February 2006.

In brief, Mr. Davies advocated that the remote gaming landscape is changing rapidly. Global players, like Betfair, experience that non-gaming companies are devoted to commence gaming activities. By means of cross-pollinations companies try to increase their turnover by offering gambling products. For instance, global airline companies are considering offering remote games on board of their jets on continental flights.

In his opinion, companies active in the gaming industry, often one-trick pony's, should anticipate to the aforementioned development. By offering other (gambling related) services traditional players may succeed in spreading their company risk. This may be prudent if one realises that government policies may change overnight - such as the US government- leaving companies active in the industry empty handed. Betfair is expanding its product offering moving away from just the sports betting exchange.

Furthermore, Mr. Davies also touched upon the Member State governments monopolies on remote gambling. He strongly believes that a compelling reason for Member State governments to maintain their monopolies is their objective to safeguard tax revenues deducted from gaming activities. In his opinion there is no pressing reason for these governments to prolong these policies as Betfair expresses its wiliness to contribute to the tax revenue. In addition to this, recent developments give reason to believe that these monopolies should no longer be retained. It seems that the European Commission supports this vision as they send letters of formal notice to the Member State authorities questioning the gambling monopoly.

At second instance two respected lawyers addressed the crowd. Mr. Tony Coles a UK IMGL member and Senior Partner with Jeffrey Green Russell, one of the leading firms of London lawyers dealing with gambling issues briefly discussed the latest developments in United Kingdom on gaming legislation. In general he believes that the recent developments in the United States, i.e. banning on-line gaming by applying the so-called tracking the money approach, may influence Member State government officials in their respective approach to gambling. He also elaborated on the famous "Gutshot" case in an amusing way. In his opinion the whole case can be summarized as plain stupid.

The third speaker, Mr. Quirino Mancini, an Italian IMGL member and Partner with Italian law firm Sinisi Ceschini Mancini & Partners, discussed the impact of the latest Italian gambling liberalisation. He stressed that due to newly adopted legislation in the field of gambling uncertainty does exits whether certain remote games fall within the scope of aforementioned legislation. Furthermore, he advocated that the prime reason for liberalisation was the current budget deficit of the Italian government. This seems to confirm that Member States tend to use their gambling policies to compensate budget deficits.

Unfortunately, as stated above, Dr. Wulf Hambach, a German general IMGL member and Partner at Hambach & Hambach, did not succeed in conquering the Dutch weather barrier leaving him with no time to address the crowd. Nevertheless, the organisation thanks him for being present at the cocktail reception and is positive that he will address the attendees next year.

This years PRE-ICE was a success. Many new faces were provided with an unique opportunity to meet and greet parties already successfully active in the industry. We broke the events attendance record by hosting seventy attendees. Among the attendees were representatives of the Dutch Ministry of Justice, representatives of various regulatory bodies and parties active in the industry from i.e. Malta, Germany, UK, Canada, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. On behalf of the River City Group and Van Mens & Wisselink, we thank you for your attendance and hope to see you next year.