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Meet our Judges
.jpg) Andrew Gellatly - Editorial Director Gambling Compliance
Andrew Gellatly is the editorial director of GamblingComplaince.com , a London-based news service he launched in 2006. GamblingCompliance has quickly become a well-regarded global information service for legal and
regulatory change in the online and land-based gambling industries. He has an extensive background in covering technology, gambling and sport, wrote the Financial Times¹s special report on the global gaming industry and has
been a regular contributor on sport, gaming and technology for FT Digital Business. He was the founding editor of IGaming Business magazine..jpg) Dale Van Der Schaaf - Gaming Consultant USA
Dale’s casino and hotel industry experience spans over three decades including, President and Chief Operating Officer of several U.S. casino companies, casino ownership partner, Vice President of MGM Sands, Director of Operations - Station Casinos Las Vegas and Hallmark Inns and Resorts, Regional Manager and General Manager. Mr. Van Der Schaaf has directed diverse casino organizations, strategic planning, operations review and planning, marketing, financial planning, chaired Executive Committees and liased with diverse affiliated companies. He has directed corporate support departments, multi-national General Managers and was a key member in several public offerings. Daren Brain - Head Of Operations The Isle Casino Coventry
Daren has 25 years of UK gaming experience.
He has worked to senior management from a croupier starting in the early 80's and gained experience by working for Grosvenor, Tower, Stanley's, Blue Chip and now the Isle Casinos.
He achieved post graduate in Gambling industry management at the University of Salford in 2004.  David Heap - Group Chief Executive TCSJOHNHUXLEY
David Heap has been involved in the gaming industry for over 15 years. Initially as Managing Director of Bell Fruit Services Ltd, who at the time, were the largest gaming machine operator in the UK Free and Tenanted Pub market. Prior to joining the gaming industry he held a number of senior managements appointments in the Commercial Industrial Waste Management industry and Commercial Laundry industry.
In 2003 he was instrumental in bringing together the two largest gaming equipment supply companies to form what is now and has been at the helm as Group Chief Executive since then. In this role he has continued to expand the Group which now has 11 offices worldwide covering every major gaming jurisdiction. Under his leadership, the company continue to go from strength to strength developing new gaming innovations and working closely with specialist product partners to offer the largest and most diverse product portfolio in this sector..jpg) Desmond Lam, Ph.D. - Senior Research Fellow, School of Marketing
Dr. Desmond Lam is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Marketing, University of South Australia. He was formerly an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Macau. Desmond holds a PhD (marketing) from the University of Western Australia and MBA from the University of Melbourne. He has more than five years of university teaching experience across Australia, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore. Desmond has taught various courses including introduction to casino operations, casino management, marketing strategy, Internet marketing, business-to-business marketing, public relations, advanced marketing management, and advanced topics in marketing (MBA). .jpg) Gavin Isaacs - Executive Vice President Bally Technologies Inc
Gavin Isaacs joined Bally Technologies, Inc. as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer on Sept. 1, 2006. Isaacs came to Bally after more than 7 years at Aristocrat Leisure Limited.
During his tenure with Aristocrat beginning in 1999, Isaacs served in key management positions, including General Manager Global Marketing and Business Development, and Managing Director, Europe, before ascending to the position of Americas President in March 2003.
During his term as Americas President, Aristocrat Americas became the largest financial contributor to the Aristocrat Group, posting record revenues, unit sales and recurring-revenues while achieving substantial margin increases.
He is a graduate in Commerce and Law from the University of New South Wales and holds a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney.  Gerhard Burda - CEO Atronic Group and Senior Vice President GTECH Gaming Solutions
Gerhard Burda has been with the Atronic Group of companies since the very early days in 1993 and has since played an integral part in the rapid growth and expansion of the company.
Gerhard initially started with Atronic as the company’s product manager influencing the initial development of Atronic’s 3D video platform. In 1996, Gerhard was promoted to Director of Sales and Marketing at Atronic International. Following the company’s rapid global growth Gerhard was appointed as Managing Director of Atronic International in the year 2000. In 2005 he took on the role of a Group-CEO also chairing Atronic’s Global Strategy committee.
In 2008 he accepted the appointment of Senior Vice President of GTECH Gaming Solutions following the acquisition of the Atronic Group by GTECH..jpg) Glyn Thomas - Editor, Casino Life Magazine
Glyn Thomas is the editor of casino life magazine which was launched in June 2005. Dedicated to providing editorial content that is aimed squarely at the casino executive the magazine has grown in strength and adopts a laconic style with a direct approach at the gaming market.
With a background as a freelance editor and journalist Glyn now edits the magazine as well as providing business related articles for publication around the world. He has also written Racing Ahead - a competitors guide to motorsport and collaborated on a number of business titles. From time to time he is also called upon as a consultant on casino design and means of escape from high-rise complex buildings. .jpg) Hilary Stewart-Jones - Partner, Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP
Hilary has extensive experience in the betting and gaming sector, including international betting and gaming, licensing and compliance as well as new betting and gaming products, particularly on-line. She was until 2000 head of legal for Ladbrokes’ gambling division.
Her experience in this sector also extends to floats, mergers & acquisitions and joint ventures, whilst she and her specialist team at Berwin Leighton Paisner deal with all the day to day issues of regulation, marketing and support services in relation to all forms of gambling across multiple jurisdictions and for clients including gambling operators, banks e-wallet providers and regulators.
Last year she advised Scientific Games on key regulatory issues in relation to the $183m acquisition of Global Draw, and RBS on the debt financing related to Unibet’s £76m acquisition of Mr Bookmaker. Hilary was selected by the Lawyer as one of the "Hot 100" lawyers in the UK for 2007 in the profile for which it was said "Her deals list reads like a who’s who of [the gambling industry]" and "An expert if ever there was one"..jpg) Ian Sutton - Editor Gamingfloor.com
Ian has been involved in the gaming industry for many years at operational level and in 1999 set up the leading online gaming news and information portal gamingfloor.com John Sullivan - Publishing Director, Gaming Business Media LLP (Casino Review and betting business) jsullivan@gbmedia.euJohn Sullivan is a 16-year veteran of the gaming industry having begun his career as Sales Manager of Coinslot International and Euroslot. Having then spent two years on the supply side of the industry as European Sales Manager with Konami, John joined ATE Ltd as head of the magazine publishing division. Following the sale of ATE to Clarion three years ago, John co-founded Gaming Business Media LLP and today the company leads the market, publishing Casino Review, Betting Business, Coinslot International and exhibition show catalogues for ICE, ICEi, ATEI and The Betting Show. A familiar figure around the world, John's clients include the leading gaming equipment supply companies from all corners of the world. .jpg) Kathi Meci - Vice President of Table Operations, Pechanga Resort & Casino
Kathi has over 30 years experience in the gaming industry, including her recent positions as VP of Table Operations of Perchanga Resort and Casino and as VP of Casino Operations for Wynn Macau where she led the pre-and post-opening casino operations efforts. Her client list includes casinos in the United States, Macau and Europe and in the traditional and Native American market segments. Kathi has opened seven casinos and focuses her consultancy on casino management, training, game integrity, compliance and asset protection. María José Cancela - Owner, Lamiril SA
Maria Jose started working in the casino Industry as a Casino Host and casino Marketing Trainer. Soon, with her academic studies, she introduced new concepts for maximizing efficiency and improving information systems as well as managed coordination between Casino Operations and Guest Service.
Her successful task allowed her to have the opportunity to join in a new Casino project, preparing a plan to develop every issue and step for planning, buying equipment, suppliers, and designing gaming floor managing under her responsibility the Customer Service Strategies.
She was recruited by another competing Casino, to evaluate its Games Selection, Mix and Pricing, Slot Machines and Floor layouts. She searched, restructured, and created areas functionally within global marketing Strategies and Objectives for supporting the re-launch of Casino management and employee retraining programs.
Maria knows the casino business in Latin America extensively. She currently runs her own consultancy company..jpg) Michael Boettcher - President and CEO, Storm International
Michael started his casino career as a dealer in Charlie Chester’s casino in London in 1972 and left to work at The Playboy Club in London’s Park Lane. He subsequently worked in various casinos in different countries including Iran, the Bahamas and the United States, holding various positions up to shift manager in Atlantic City before returning to London in 1988 where he eventually started the rebirth of the independent gaming school at the British Gaming Academy in Leicester Square. His inexperience in the business world at that time forced him into voluntary liquidation but the lessons learned stood him in good stead and he went on to form his own consultancy company, providing staff world-wide, opening successful turnkey casino operations in Egypt and Turkey, as well as writing and acting as a consultant on the gaming laws for several countries. By the time he arrived in Russia in early 1992, he was ready to embark on the adventure that was to become Storm International. Storm now has 5 casinos, 22 slot halls and over 5,000 employees and is rated the leader in the Russian gaming industry. Michael’s responsibilities include strategic decisions, overall management, policy & procedures, design implementation and approval, partner issues, investment control, integrity of all departments and business development.  Paul Burns, Vice President Public Affairs, Canadian Gaming Association
A seasoned public affairs practitioner who brings more than 15 years’ experience in the private and public sectors to his role as Vice President of Public Affairs.
A trusted political advisor, Mr. Burns most recently served as Senior Advisor to Toronto Mayor David Miller. Prior to joining the Mayor’s Office, he served as the Director of Organization for Mr. Miller’s campaign for Mayor and as National Operations Director for Peter MacKay’s successful campaign for Leader of the PC Party of Canada.
As a consultant with one of Canada’s leading public affairs firm, he counselled clients on a range of public policy and procurement issues with the Government of Ontario.
Mr. Burns served as Corporate Compliance Officer for RPC Gaming, a Canadian-based gaming company operating a chain of gaming establishments in Las Vegas, Nevada. He also served as Vice President of Corporate Affairs for RPC Anchor Gaming, which worked with the Government of Ontario to develop charity casinos in the province.
As a policy advisor to the Ontario Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations, Mr. Burns directed government policy initiatives in the gaming sector.
Prior to his work with the provincial government, Mr. Burns served as a senior political assistant to Federal Treasury Board President, Hon. James Edwards and Ontario PC Party Leader, Mike Harris..jpg) Paul Collis - CEO, Clermont Leisure International Limited
Mr. Collis served as Managing Director of Gaming division of Stanley Leisure PLC, until September 2004 and served the Board of Stanley Leisure PLC as Executive Director since June 2000. During his time with Stanley Leisure he was responsible for the acquisition, integration and greenfield development of over 20 casino properties. Mr. Collis was previously ... at BSkyB, where he was Managing Director of the Sky Services division. He previously held senior management positions with Seeboard PLC, British Telecom PLC and a Netherlands based mobile telecoms operator. Holding the Gaming Board of Great Britain's White License he has previously achieved accreditation to operate businesses within the highly regulated UK Gaming Industry. He was an Executive Council member of the British Casino Association and a member of numerous Committees working with the Government on the 2005 Gambling Bill..jpg) Paul Herzfeld - Chief Executive Officer, Casinos Austria International
Paul Herzfeld (51), has been Chief Executive Officer and Director of Casinos Austria International since 1997. In this capacity, he manages the Casinos Austria Group’s extensive international casino development, management and investment activities. Since his appointment as CEO, Casinos Austria International has continued to expand worldwide, developing new casinos and expanding its existing operations in a number of countries, including South Africa, Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and, most recently, Serbia. As of March 2008, Casinos Austria International and its partners operated a total of 66 casinos in 17 countries and on board 13 cruise liners. Its parent company, Casinos Austria International, operates a further 12 casinos in Austria. Paulo A. Azevedo - publisher & founder, Macau Business Magazine
Paulo A. Azevedo has been a journalist for as long as he remembers. He used to run his secondary school's newspaper. Even during his 15-month Portuguese special forces army training in the north Portugal, the African-born Portuguese could not escape editorial duties from the main headquarters newspaper.
Paulo A. Azevedo has been a professional journalist for 20 years, 14 of which were as an Asian correspondent for a Lisbon political radio station and major Portuguese newspapers and magazines. Serving as a Macau analyst with RTHK, he was also a contributor to the former Asiaweek magazine.
Being the former editor and owner of Macau daily newspaper “Ponto Final”, he launched the first local English-language publication in May 2004: “Macau Business” is an in-depth, 136-page, monthly magazine which has grown from 2,500 copies to a staggering 20,000 copies in just three years. In September 2005, Azevedo launched “Business Intelligence”, a sister publication in Chinese.
His small media group publishes two other magazines, runs events and is now entering the hospitality field.  Paul Ryder - Publisher, Casino International
Paul has been in the gaming industry for a number of years as publisher of Casino International, one of the
gaming industry's leading publications. Under his leadership, the magazine has seen an increase in readership worldwide, partly due to his forward-thinking in adopting digital publishing as a means to carry the magazine to new heights. He is well known throughout the industry and can often be seen at major functions and exhibitions worldwide..jpg) Phil Clegg - Editor in Chief Intergame Magazine
Phil Joined the gaming industry 33 years ago as a reporter for Coin Slot, the weekly publication for the UK pay-to-play industry. He was later involved in the launch of EuroSlot, the first international magazine for the games/gaming industry, and Casino International, a monthly for the casino business. In 1997 he joined InterGame Ltd and, as editor of InterGaming, took the magazine from a bi-monthly to a monthly publication. Phil then became editor of InterGame, the company's flagship publication, later being promoted
to InterGame Ltd's editor-in-chief, covering both InterGame, InterGaming and their new online gambling magazine, InterGamingi.  Pieter Remmers - Director, Assissa Consultancy
Pieter Remmers is a veteran in the area of responsible gaming, consultancy and training of gambling industry professionals. At present he has his own company, Assissa Consultancy Europe (since 1999). However, he has been involved in projects with the gambling industry already since 1989. Pieter started his career as the head of an outpatient clinic (part of Jellinek, the largest treatment agency on addictions in the Netherlands) and served as managing director of Jellinek Consultancy since the early ‘90’s. Pieter was involved in a number of surveys on problem gambling.
Assissa Consultancy Europe works / worked on responsible gaming policies and programmes in a number of countries a.o. South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Belgium, Spain (Catalunya) and Sweden. Besides Pieter is a consultant world wide for as well as the industry as for regulators.
In 1996 he became the co-chair of the section on gambling of the International Council on Alcohol and other Addictions (ICAA).
Since 1997, he has been a member of the Executive Committee and serves as administrator / conference organizer of the European Association for the Study of Gambling (EASG), the sponsor of major tri -annual conferences on gambling issues in Europe.
Pieter is also a shareholder/board member of the Swedish company ACE Sweden/ Spelinstitutet and a Trustee of Gordon House / Gordon Moody Association in the UK.
In 2003 he also was the initiator of G4 ( Global Gambling Guidance Group ) G4 is to set up an International Accreditation System on Responsible Gaming for the Remote and E-Gambling Industry.
At present he is also very much involved in the development and carry out of online education programmes on problem gambling and responsible gaming for the gambling industry as well as online treatment modules, like a self help manual with assistance of professional (CBT /MI based) counseling.
.jpg) Sudhir H Kale, ph.D. - Associate Professor of Marketing
Sudhir is an Associate Professor of marketing at Bond university’s School of Business in Australia. He is also founder of GamePlan Consultants (http://www.gameplanconsultants.net), a full-service marketing consultancy for the gaming industry. He has published over fifty articles on the marketing and management aspects of gaming. He also serves on the editorial review board of several scholarly journals in gaming, management, and marketing.
Professor Kale is widely regarded as an expert in various aspects of gaming such as customer relationship marketing, cross-cultural interactions with casino clients, customer service, market segmentation and positioning, and customer lifetime value. .jpg) Sylvie Leroy - Editor and Owner Journal des Casinos
Sylvie Leroy, 39 years old, holds a diploma in communication from the University of Paris VII. She began her career in various companies - telephony, insurance, communication and achieved to be the communication and marketing director of a website providing daily financial news featuring among the top 30 most-trafficked websites in France. In 1999, her growing interest for the casinos sector encouraged her to create her first web site for gamblers focused on the French casino market. The web site meanwhile became more and more professional and it is rapidly known as the Journal des Casinos (www.journaldescasinos.com), an online daily review dedicated to those involved in the sector. The judging process
Once a nominee has been entered into any one of the 18 award categories, the FIRST STAGE of judging begins. The judging panel (comprising of approved industry practitioners and industry journalists) are given a username and password and through the secure Gamingawards voting site, they then place their votes in each category.
SECOND STAGE: The shortlist of the highest-scoring nominees goes to a selected jury, which specialises in that category. Each jury comprises between 4-6 industry practitioners across a range of manufacturers, suppliers, operators and publishers and is chaired by a high-ranking official industry individual.
We ensure that NO individuals involved in the nominations are able to influence the nominations and the selection process.
The Jury will include leading industry professionals, specialized journalists or analysts and representatives of the main sponsors.
The jury will have at least one member from American Continent, knowledgeable about the American market and at least one member from Austrilasia, knowledgeable about the Austrilasian Market.
All main sponsors will have one seat on the jury. The remaining seats will be distributed to elected jury members.
Each category nomination will contain 4-6 judges, who will in the first stage vote on a shortlist of a maximum 0f 7 nominees from the long list of nominations, supplied by either the nominees themselves or from the Gaming Awards Academy panel.
The decision on the shortlist will be based on evidence supplied by the nominees themselves, when possible and/or media sources, background information on the company, site visits, trading statements and any other information relevant to the nomination.
To ensure a fair and open judging process the judges from each sector within the industry will only be allowed to sit on the following categories:
Media Judges – will be entitled to judge all categories except “Casino Journal/Magazine Online/Offline”.
Manufacturer Judges – will be entitled to judge on all categories except “Traditional Gaming Equipment Design,” “Slot Machine Game,” “Slot Manufacturer,” “Casino Equipment Supplier”, "Operator/Manufacturer Website", "Customer Service/Support", "Eco-Friendly Company" and “Technology Manufacturer”.
Supplier Judges – will be entitled to judge on all categories except “Traditional Gaming Equipment Design”, “Slot Machine Game”, “Slot Manufacturer”, “Casino Equipment Supplier”, "Operator/Manufacturer Website", "Customer Service/Support", "Eco-Friendly Company" and “Technology Manufacturer”.
Operator Judges – will be entitled to judge on all categories except “Socially Responsible Casino Operator”, "Casino Interior design”, "Operator/Manufacturer Website", “Casino Operator”, “Best Bingo” and "Eco-Friendly Company".
Consultant Judges – Will be entitled to judge on all categories except for any category which they have been involved in some sort of work or are working for that nominee at present.
All winners will ONLY be announced on the evening of the event.
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