Ciarán Carruthers says he learnt from his experience as CEO of Australia’s Crown Resorts the importance of greater collaboration between operator and regulator – a lesson he is now putting to the full effect in his new role leading the UAE’s General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA).
In comments made during a conference panel session hosted by the International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA) at G2E in Las Vegas on Monday, Carruthers – who stepped into the role of CEO of the GCGRA in June after almost 40 years as an operator – said working closely with licensees to meet the objectives of both sides would be a key tenant of his tenure in the UAE.
“Our clear mandate is not only to protect players who play in our licensed casino or our licensed online site, but to ensure that the tools are there and are proven to be effective in regard to a responsible gaming and an AML policy,” he said. “We want a workable policy that is constantly tested, that is constantly challenged by the operator and by us.
“Having good cooperation between ourselves and the operators is vital to ensure that what we want to do, whatever intentions there might be, they can actually be implemented and can actually achieve what it is we’ve set out to achieve.”
Noting that he wanted to remove friction points on the player side that might lead to the unintended consequence of pushing them into the unregulated sphere, Carruthers added, “I found in my past career working with well-intentioned regulators, I’ve certainly been in a scenario where what has been put forward to me was based on the assumption that everybody who comes through the door is considered a villain with a gambling problem until they can prove otherwise. That just pushes them away and moves them to other places that are less regulated or unregulated entirely.
“So, it’s about removing those restriction points and working with operators to ensure that what we want to do can be implemented, constantly tested, constantly checked, constantly verified, and changed where necessary to ensure that the intended outcomes are actually achieved.
“We want to build up a complete ecosystem around that customer journey to look at not only how the customer is impacted by their experiences with the operators of the license, but also potentially operators they may fall into that are unlicensed.”
Carruthers also revealed that one of the reasons he took the role as CEO of the GCGRA was a growing narrative among some media in Australia that the casino industry under today’s highly regulated environment was doomed to fail because operators like Crown and Star could no longer facilitate money laundering on their properties.
This followed the series of inquiries into past compliance failures that ultimately saw the casino licences of both companies suspended in NSW and Victoria, resulting in heavy financial losses in the ensuing years, although Crown – which was found suitable again in 2024 – last year returned to a healthy profit.
Carruthers said he found the narrative around Crown’s prospects and questions over its commitment to player protection “offensive” and therefore jumped at the opportunity to help build an entire regulatory framework almost from scratch.
“I can understand why some people would have felt that way given some of the issues that had occurred there (at Crown), but as somebody who had built a career out of [developing a strong compliance culture], the opportunity to come in and take this role, to start from the outset dealing with some incredible foundational work that has been done over the last three years by the board and the executives, and build that regulatory excellence from the outset – build that concern for the player from the outset – was very appealing.
“We are building the supervisory tools that we need, the technology that we need to ensure that we have an understanding of what’s happening in the financial crime space, an understanding of what is happening with the supply chain to both licensed and legal, and unlicensed operators, so that we can take the appropriate steps with the intent of not just ensuring that somebody who plays in one of our licensed sites has the right level of education about what they’re playing, but to take operators through a process of journey from initial engagement around age verification, the design of games, the design of programs, the design of marketing, the channels that they can use, the influencers that they can engage with.
“As a new emerging market, it is all about building public trust. That means building an understanding of who we are, what we are doing and the rationale behind it, and the intended outcome from our mandate which is to build regulatory excellence.”
Carruthers noted that, while the UAE has already launched a gaming industry in the online space with lottery, sports betting and online casino all live – the country’s first land-based casino Wynn Al Marjan Island is scheduled to open in September 2027 – there was still work to do on the regulatory side.
“We are responsible for licensing, supervision and enforcement across the national lottery, igaming, sports wagering and land-based across integrated resorts, so we have over the last three years had to prioritise what was required to get to market, he explained.
“That is very much being built around investigations, licensing and suitability, and then building out a supervisory framework that allows us to oversee and supervise the licensed operators.
“We have evolved our intelligence capabilities and we are building stronger domestic partnerships with law enforcement and other regulatory authorities, be they financial services, federal law enforcement or government-level law enforcement, to tackle the issue of illegal gaming and have a clear understanding of our mandate we have around protecting the community and the issue of harm minimization.
“And an understanding of harm minimization is not something that starts and ends within a casino or an online licence operator, it’s across the community. When it’s a social issue, you have to address it across the entirety of the social ecosystem.
“So, that means an educational piece where people have an understanding of who’s licensed and therefore where they have the right levels of protection versus who’s unlicensed where there is no level of protection.
“For us, we ensure there is no separate silo between our role in cracking down on illegal activity and our role in protecting the community, because there’s a clear overlap between the two as to where licensing sits for investigation, for enforcement, compliance, responsible gaming.
“We want to make sure there is a clear understanding of the intended outcome of the law decree (legalizing gambling) and regulation, which is a regulated environment that allows the industry to thrive and flourish within the parameters set out by our regulations, as well as a clear understanding within the community of protection.”
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