Five Asia-Pacific Leaders on Balancing Cultural Sensitivity and Regulatory Competitiveness

As jurisdictions across Asia-Pacific move to introduce or refine gambling regulation, a recurring question emerges: how can authorities craft rules that respect local cultural and political norms while staying attractive enough to draw activity from illegal or offshore markets? Five industry figures shared their perspectives on this challenge.

Paul Newson: Channelisation as the True Metric

Paul Newson, principal at Vanguard Overwatch and founder of Regulating the Game, argues that competitiveness is often misjudged. The real competition, he says, is not about writing the most lenient rules but about keeping the largest share of gambling activity within a licensed, supervised framework — a concept known as channelisation. He points to New Zealand’s Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, effective 1 May, as a case in point. Previously, offering online casino games was illegal while playing them was not, resulting in residents spending freely on unregulated offshore sites. The new law licenses up to 15 platforms with player-set limits, exclusion tools, advertising controls, and a credit card ban. “Channelisation, not the severity of the rules, is the measure that matters,” Newson concludes.

Riaan Van Rooyen: Respect as the Foundation of Competitiveness

For Riaan Van Rooyen, a hospitality and casino executive, cultural sensitivity is not a constraint on competitiveness but its prerequisite. He advocates evaluating any gaming expansion through four lenses: Regulatory, Commercial, Cultural, and Human. Sustainable outcomes emerge when all four align. “When governments, regulators, operators, employees, and communities feel respected, trust is created,” he says. “Trust creates sustainability. Sustainability ultimately creates competitiveness.”

Glenn McCartney: Evidence-Based Policy and Stakeholder Consensus

Glenn McCartney, a tourism and hospitality professional, emphasises the importance of longitudinal research when introducing or expanding land-based casino regulation. Gathering ongoing feedback from governments, communities, leaders, and industry stakeholders is essential to understanding sensitivities and building consensus. Empirical findings, he argues, can also inform how a jurisdiction differentiates itself from neighbouring markets.

Zuhair Rizvi: Credible Regulation Before Market Opening

Zuhair Rizvi, director of Operations at Gaming Associates, insists that cultural and political sensitivities must be treated as design inputs, not afterthoughts. Rather than importing templates from Macau or Singapore, jurisdictions should work with local regulators and communities. Competitiveness does not always mean matching a neighbour’s tax rate; it can mean offering stable, transparent rules that operators trust. Rizvi states that “the countries winning long-term operators are the ones that get the sequencing right: credible regulation first, market opening second.”

Sudhir H. Kale: Cultural Adaptation in Product and Design

Sudhir H. Kale, a gaming scholar and founder of GamePlan Consultants, notes that gambling in Asia sits at the intersection of religion, superstition, and social hierarchy. This demands significant adaptation in games, floor layouts, and service style. He highlights the dominance of Baccarat, which can account for 60–85% of table games revenue in markets like Macau, Singapore, Manila, and Cambodia, alongside traditional games such as Sic Bo, Pai Gow, and Fan Tan. Feng Shui often dictates casino design to create a “lucky flow,” and promotions tied to Lunar New Year, Golden Week, and Songkran reflect culturally specific player behaviour. Quoting industry figure Walt Power, Kale adds: “When an Asian customer enters a casino, he is there to do battle with destiny, to win.”