gamingawards2008.com - Judging Process

Once a nominee has been entered into any one of the 17 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 Gamingawards2008 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 is composed of 16 members and a voting chairman. The jury will have at least one member from USA, knowledgeable about the US market and one member from Asia, knowledgeable about the Asian 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 “Gaming Equipment Design,” “Slot Machine Game,” “Slot Manufacturer,” “Casino Equipment Supplier” and “Technology Manufacturer”.

Supplier Judges – will be entitled to judge on all categories except “Gaming Equipment Design,” “Slot Machine Game,” “Slot Manufacturer,” “Casino Equipment Supplier” and “Technology Manufacturer”.

Operator Judges – will be entitled to judge on all categories except “Socially Responsible Casino Operator,” Casino Interior design,” “New Casino,” “Best Poker Room,” “Casino Operator,” “International Casino Operator,” “Hot Shot,” “Best Bingo”.

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.

Chairman of the Judges

Michel Claeys - Director of Operations CTAG Casinos Egypt
Michel Claeys has been involved in Gaming for over 20 years and has worked in the UK, France, Holland, Canada, Lebanon, Morocco and Egypt. He has extensive knowledge of all areas of Gaming Operations and Gaming Legislations.

Warwick Bartlett - Global Betting & Gaming Consultants
GBGC was the brainchild of Warwick Bartlett who has more than 40 years experience in the gambling industry. He is presently chairman of the Association of British Bookmakers, is a non-executive director of SIS, and has a seat on the Horse race Betting Levy Board.

Evgeny Kovtun - Vice President ADIB
Evgeny is one of the most well-known authors of materials on legal regulation of gambling business in Russia and CIS countries. An author of more then 300 articles on problems of taxation and legislative control of a gaming organization and holding activity in Russia and worldwide. Permanent speaker of conferences devoted to the amblimg business. An author of, "Gaming taxation" "Gaming and bets in Russia-2005", "The Gaming Industry in Russian Federation: problems and perspectives of taxation and legislative control", "Gambling business in Russia: legislative regulation", "Legislative regulation of gambling business in the foreign countries" (jointly with Sergey Kovalev) etc. Such magazines as "The World of Games" and "The Gaming Industry" were created with my direct participation

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”.

Steve Purcell is the Editor in Chief of Mirror Online
Responsible for the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People websites for Mirror Group Newspapers. A journalist for some 30 years, Steve has also previously worked for Express Newspapers and the Daily Telegraph and is the author of Des Lynam: The Biography.

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.

John Wilson - Director Steeldaisy Associates Interior Design
John Wilson has worked in interior design for over 20 years accumulating
vast experience of working with corporate, residential, retail and leisure
clients. He has worked on projects in the UK and throughout Europe.

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.

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.

Ian Sutton - Editor Gamingfloor.com

Ian has been involved in the gaming industry for many years at operational level and in 1999 setup the leading online gaming news and information portal gamingfloor.com

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.

Kathi Meci – International Gaming Consultancy / kmecilv@yahoo.com

Kathi is an independent gaming consultant providing global casino consultancy dedicated to the support and growth of her clients. She has over 30 years experience in the gaming industry, including her recent position 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.

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.

Nic Szeremeta - Owner/Editor Poker Europa Magazine
Nic has been playing poker for over 40 years, has won a WSOP Tournament and in his time been a full time professional poker player. Started the Late Night Poker Series on UK Channel 4 TV and now concentrates on his leading Poker magazine Poker Europa.