E-gaming is an important industry in Gibraltar and not just because a lot of people enjoy it worldwide. As part of the wider economy it employs 2,000 people. From a total population of 30,000 this is significant.
Those employees mostly live on the Rock and they in turn fuel the other parts of the economy. They buy and rent homes, they shop, they use transport.
It’s not just the people either – e-gaming has started pulling through other industries in its wake. One thing utterly crucial in a regulated environment like gambling is a completely robust technical infrastructure. Gibtelecom has built a powerful communications network partly because the gaming industry has demanded it – and it’s now solid enough for financial services to reside on it.
E-gaming used to happen only on desktop computers. In recent years there has been a proliferation of smartphones and tablets, resulting in a fledgeling software design industry around the e-gaming partners on the rock. The industry is actually a powerful catalyst for a great deal else – this supplement explores how it works.
07 October 2013