Naturally, in that time, we’ve amassed plenty of incredible memories – and witnessed remarkable stories of both success and failure, prompting Global Gaming Insider Editor Tim Poole to look back at a few standout highlights that shaped modern gaming history. In our 100th issue, we invite you to reflect with us...

Macanese Magic

If popular culture is to be believed, Las Vegas is the home of gambling. In many ways, it still is – and our ‘100 years of Las Vegas’ feature on page 28 explores this journey in detail. But in pure gross gaming revenue (GGR) terms, there is a new king in town. And it’s been there for a while. Macau generated around double that of Nevada in 2025 GGR, with this gap proving even wider in previous years.

This, though, was not always the case. The Wynn Macau opened in September 2006, the Venetian Macao followed in 2007 and Galaxy Macau in 2011. While it’s true that the Las Vegas model inspired its success, Macau (alongside Marina Bay Sands in neighbouring Singapore) has become an industry unto itself.

New Jersey inspires online surge

Online activity – in any walk of life – has become so widespread that it barely seems worth discussing anymore. And yet that simply wasn’t the case mere decades ago – especially in gambling. A landmark moment arrived in February 2013, when Governor Chris Christie passed legislation regulating “internet gambling” in the state of New Jersey.
While online casino has only been legalised in a handful of US states since, outside the US, digital is king. Online dominates huge markets across the world: the UK, Brazil, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and many more.

Black Friday

A more sombre occasion to reflect upon was the effective shutdown of US online poker in April 2011. Until then, the poker boom had taken gambling by storm. So much has the sector changed, however, that a similar landscape today would be unthinkable.

Poker was king back in the day – but the United States v Scheinberg ruling saw several domains seized and shut down, including Pokerstars.com, Fulltiltpoker.com, Absolutepoker.com and more. Poker players and providers alike were heavily impacted. Today’s industry contains far more casino and sports betting companies than it does poker as a long-term consequence.

Maltese Horizons

Still leading the make-up of this sector is Malta, the online gambling hub that is home to many of gambling’s big players, either via a Malta Gaming Authority licence or a head office on the archipelago. Before its dedication to the gambling industry, one could be forgiven for simply thinking of Malta as a popular British holiday destination.

Malta today, though, has embraced numerous technological and financial fields (like blockchain), with gambling in particular accounting for an approximate 10% of the country’s GDP. Over the years, numerous competing jurisdictions have emerged. But Malta remains synonymous with iGaming’s evolution.

The Covid-19 Pandemic

Another entry that can’t necessarily be considered a “highlight,” the Covid-19 pandemic brought land-based casinos to a global standstill. The pandemic hit us six years ago, which now feels like a distant memory. But we can all remember being homebound for extended periods with nothing to do...

For the industry, Covid-19 had both near-term and long-term effects. Initially, online gaming surged and land-based casinos shut down. Once reopened, though, both Macau and Las Vegas saw huge volumes of “pent-up demand.” Verticals like esports betting and virtual sports saw short-term spikes – but have not been able to replicate such heights since.

The Overturning of PASPA

Chronologically, PASPA was overturned well before the Covid-19 pandemic – May 2018 – but the stories of both are ultimately intertwined. Unlike online casino, sports betting is now legal in 39 states plus Washington DC. The removal of PASPA was crucial to this, as it struck down prior federal legislation, giving individual states the right to legalise sports wagering on their own turf.
Yet the timing of the Covid-19 pandemic certainly helped accelerate this spread (no pun intended), especially when it came to mobile sports betting. Sportsbooks generate billions in the US today; prediction markets may soon be generating more – if not already. But that’s another story...

Conference call: The rise of the trade show

One industry trend you simply cannot fail to notice is the growth of gaming’s trade shows around the world. Not only do we have so many more of them today, individual shows are now hosted in arenas boasting huge capacities.
Just a few years ago, ICE was a reasonably sized London gathering, while G2E was the Las Vegas equivalent. Today, we have shows from Latin America to Asia, ICE has moved to Barcelona (recording over 60,000 attendees) and G2E welcomes over 25,000 guests from over 120 countries. Throw SBC Lisbon into the mix and you have a calendar unrecognisable from when conferences began.

The Global Gaming Awards

Trade shows are not the only events to have evolved. Indeed, the highlight we are most proud to write about on these pages is the development of the Global Gaming Awards. Starting in Las Vegas in 2014, the Global Gaming Awards have become, without question, the most prestigious ceremony in gaming.
Today, there are three Global Gaming Awards ceremonies a year, each rewarding distinct global gaming regions. Las Vegas hosts the Americas, Barcelona hosts the EMEA Awards (which started in London in 2018) and Manila the APAC Awards (launched in 2022).

Land-Based Legacy: The hippodrome opens

From 2018-2024, the Global Gaming Awards EMEA took place at the Hippodrome Casino. And, for all our discussion of iGaming, Macau and Las Vegas show us land-based gaming’s endurance. So too does the Hippodrome.
The casino opened in 2012 and, through a mixture of pandemics, regulation and simply being at the heart of a capital city like London, it has already been through a lot. But the property itself  boasts over 100 years of history. If walls could talk, the Hippodrome’s would tell you some stories. Already guaranteed a rich legacy, it shows no signs of stopping just yet.

Countless Market Launches and M&As 

The most historic recent legalisation of online gambling came in Brazil, in January 2025. Already one of the world’s top five markets, Brazil’s regulation illustrated the wider growth of Latin America and globalisation of gambling.
Parallel to market launches, however, giants like Caesars, Flutter Entertainment and Entain are by-products of a series of M&A activity spanning decades. With that activity no doubt set to continue and another key market due to launch in the UAE, this – alongside AI, regulation and responsible gambling – will all play a part in moulding gambling’s future. Here’s to another 100 issues.