About this app
About Golden Unicorn
Andreas Braun, owner of four arcades in Wiesbaden, filed an objection and constitutional complaint against the tax rate in April last year according to local reporting. He argued that the tax rise had provided a ‘strangling’ effect to business and that it consumed operator profits.
According to a high court ruling from over a decade ago, the tax rise cannot be allowed to rise to the point of ‘consuming livelihoods’.
“If the tax burden alone makes it impossible to establish the occupation of slot machine operators as the economic basis of one’s livelihood within the municipality,” the ruling said.
What is Golden Unicorn?
“They challenge us both from an academic side and a more practical side. We try to develop our rules as we go along but you have to prove every single day that you’re doing all that you need to do on responsible gaming,” Petra notes.
The Netherlands online gambling market has been the subject of many column inches and much speculation thanks to regulation that has been largely described as heavy-handed and perhaps a little short-sighted – even by the country’s own regulator.
The triumvirate of Netherlands, Germany and Sweden is often held up as an example of how not to regulate, with all three countries haemorrhaging players to waiting illegal operators. So what is public sentiment like towards operators? “My feeling is that if you look at public sentiment, they don’t see really the difference between online and land-based,” says Petra. “If you look into what they’re saying, they’re primarily talking online. But for the general public, there is no difference [between the channels] in that respect.”
What is Golden Unicorn?
That strong foundation in Peru lies in a regulatory framework deemed to be among the most comprehensive in LatAm.
“The rollout of the regulation was super positive,” Rossi says. “I believe that the Peruvian regulation is one of the best regulations in Latin America. [It’s] flexible, modern, business-friendly. The regulator has demonstrated a commitment to creating a safe and transparent market environment, and there’s a great relationship between the regulator and the operators.”
Escobar sees Peru’s relatively nascent regulated market as an increasingly attractive proposition for operators, pointing to strong player engagement and digital adoption.
