Tim Miller, Former Executive Director of the UK Gambling Commission, Confirmed as Keynote Speaker for Regulating the Game 2027

Regulating the Game has confirmed Tim Miller as a keynote speaker for the seventh edition of the conference, to be held from Monday 8 to Wednesday 10 March 2027 at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth. Mr Miller will also serve as a Conference Chair, stewarding one day of the three-day program. He is joined on the 2027 speaker program by Daniel Tan, Chief Executive of Singapore’s Gambling Regulatory Authority; Paul James, Secretary for Internal Affairs and Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua; Brendan Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of AUSTRAC; and Carolyn Lidgerwood, Authority Member of the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Tim Miller spent a decade in senior leadership at the UK Gambling Commission, serving as Executive Director with oversight of one of the world’s largest and most complex regulated gambling markets. He played a central role in delivering the most significant reform of the United Kingdom’s gambling regulatory framework in a generation, following the government’s review of the Gambling Act. It is a body of work few practitioners can match, undertaken under sustained public, parliamentary and media scrutiny, and it is the experience he brings to Sydney.

During his tenure he led the creation of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, now one of the largest and most comprehensive gambling participation and prevalence studies of its kind globally, and spearheaded development of the first National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms, establishing a coordinated, cross-sector framework for harm prevention and reduction. Internationally, he has advised governments and regulators across multiple jurisdictions on regulatory policy, market design and reform, served on the board of the Gambling Regulators European Forum, contributed to model internet gaming legislation with the US National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, and was a member of the UK government’s Illegal Gambling Task Force. He is now Founder and Managing Director of GamReg Consulting, an independent advisory firm that draws on deep regulatory expertise to support the development of trusted, effective and well regulated gambling markets worldwide.

Turning tension to trust

Mr Miller’s keynote, Turning tension to trust: reimagining the regulator/operator relationship, will examine the working relationship between regulators and licensees and make the case for putting it on a different footing.

Drawing on his time as a regulator, he will identify where the tension between the two comes from and why it damages the interests of both. He will then turn to the illegal market as a shared adversary that brings an alignment of interests and opens the way to a different relationship, before setting out the blueprint for a New Collaboration Model and a call to action.

The subject sits at the centre of the 2027 program. Regulators and operators are being asked to respond to the same pressures, from illegal and unregulated supply to harm prevention, integrity and the credibility of the licensed channel, and the quality of the working relationship between them bears directly on whether those responses succeed.

“The relationship between regulators and operators is too often adversarial, and both sides pay for it,” said Tim Miller, Founder and Managing Director of GamReg Consulting. “The growth of the illegal market gives us a common problem and, with it, a reason to work differently. I want to be candid about where the tension comes from, drawing on my own time as a regulator, and to set out a practical model for what a better relationship could look like and what it would take to get there.”

Conference Chair

In addition to the keynote, Mr Miller will serve as a Conference Chair for one day of the three-day program. Conference Chairs steward a day of the conference, shaping dialogue, setting the tone and guiding discussion across the program’s central themes.

“Tim has done the job at the highest level, in one of the most scrutinised markets in the world, and through a period of significant reform,” said Paul Newson, Founder of Regulating the Game and Principal at Vanguard Overwatch. “His keynote goes to something the sector rarely addresses directly, which is how regulators and operators actually work with one another and what it costs when that relationship sours. It is a timely question, because the black market is now the pressing challenge in most jurisdictions and marshalling an effective policy, regulatory and enforcement response against it is beyond what either regulators or operators can achieve on their own.”

Program and registration

The Call for Speakers for Regulating the Game 2027 remains open until 11 December 2026, with expressions of interest also invited for Pitch!, MasterClass, Industry Spotlight and remaining Conference Chair roles.