In a statement, the Authority\u2019s chief financial officer, Leina El-Barasi<\/strong>, said the finance function within the organisation goes beyond basic oversight and plays a key role in \u201cenabling confident decision-making, operational discipline and long-term growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to El-Barasi, the Authority is prioritising robust governance structures, clear financial processes and data-driven insights to support transparency, integrity and efficiency across its operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She noted that establishing scalable financial and procurement frameworks is particularly important for a newly formed regulator, as these systems must be capable of supporting the Authority as the sector develops. El-Barasi said: \u201cBy embedding modern systems, strong controls and efficient structures, we ensure the organisation can support innovation and maintain accountability and public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CFO added that effective financial leadership is essential to strengthening institutional resilience and ensuring the organisation can operate sustainably over the long term. She said: \u201cFor me, success means building a financially strong and digitally enabled Authority that operates with discipline, confidence and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n El-Barasi pointed out that achieving this vision means ensuring the Authority\u2019s financial foundations support sound decision-making, responsible growth and long-term resilience. She concluded: \u201cAbove all, it means contributing to an institution that upholds the highest standards of governance and supports the UAE\u2019s vision for a trusted and sustainable regulatory ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The GCGRA was established in 2023<\/strong> to regulate and supervise all forms of commercial gaming in the UAE. Since its launch, the regulator has issued more than 20 licences covering several segments, including lottery, gaming-related services, land-based gaming and internet gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leina El-Barasi emphasised the importance of scalable financial frameworks, modern systems and data-driven insights as the regulator continues to license operators across multiple gaming segments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The UAE's General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) emphasizes robust financial governance, modern systems, and data-driven insights as foundational to a transparent and sustainable regulatory framework for its nascent gaming sector. CFO Leina El-Barasi highlighted the importance of scalable financial and procurement frameworks to support confident decision-making, operational discipline, and long-term growth as the regulator licenses operators across various gaming verticals.","focusai_entities":"General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA), Leina El-Barasi","focusai_location":"UAE","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), tech_data (0.75), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GCGRA Tech Stack?","query":"What specific modern systems and data analytics platforms is the GCGRA implementing to achieve its vision of a digitally enabled and financially strong Authority, and what are the implications for operator data submission requirements?"},{"label":"Operator Financial Requirements?","query":"How will the GCGRA's emphasis on robust financial governance and scalable frameworks translate into specific financial reporting, internal control, and audit requirements for licensed operators across the various gaming verticals in the UAE?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,6],"tags":[165,167,166],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-federal","category-regulation-news","tag-finance","tag-igaming","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/uae\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/03\/1771924880419-600x600.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n