United Arab Emirates grants new gaming vendor licences
New licences have been issued for the provision of land-based gambling services and geolocation tech.
United Arab Emirates.- The United Arab Emirates’ General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) has issued vendor licences to Novomatic and EQL Games. Austria-based Novomatic says it will offer a “comprehensive portfolio of state-of-the-art land-based gaming solutions”, while Kentucky-based EQL Games specialises in lottery games. EQL CEO Brad Cummings described the licence as a pivotal milestone for the company.
Meanwhile, US-based Xpoint has been chosen as a geolocation vendor by the UAE’s lottery operator, The Game LLC. Xpoint’s geolocation services will be used to limit access to lottery products to specific areas in the UAE. Operators must use Xpoint’s services to block access exclusion areas determined by the GCGRA.
Bishop Woosley, director of lottery operations at The Game LLC, said that Xpoint’s use of a private cloud means that all data will remain in the UAE, complying with local regulations.
The Game LLC was awarded the only lottery licence in the UAE last June. The GCGRA, which was founded in 2023, later issued the UAE’s first commercial land-based casino licence to Wynn Resorts. The US casino giant is developing an integrated resort, Wynn Al Marjan Island, in Ras Al-Khaimah. Its rival MGM Resorts has applied for a licence to operate a land-based casino in Abu Dhabi.
The GCGRA continues to develop a regulatory framework for land-based gambling. Funding for Wynn’s integrated resort was completed in February, when a $2.4bn agreement was reached with a global syndicate of lenders. The total cost of development of Wynn Al Marjan Island is expected to reach around $5.10bn. Wynn Resorts said in February that 64 per cent of the structural concrete on the main resort tower was complete.
