Ice organisers promise action plan to tackle sexism claims

Kate Chambers: campaign to encourage respectful representation of women began over a year ago

The organisers of Ice have pledged to produce an action plan to tackle the accusations of sexism over the way women have been represented at their shows and raise standards on the show floor.

This year’s event hit the headlines in the mainstream media following criticism by Gambling Commission chief executive Sarah Harrison of women wearing “nothing more than swimsuits” at last year’s show.

Organisers Clarion Gaming said they had written to exhibitors asking them “to ensure a respectful gender representation” but that request was not heeded by all, with one European online casino exhibitor featuring female pole dancers on their stand.

Clarion’s managing director Kate Chambers said: “Our campaign to encourage respectful representation of women began over a year ago, prior to the 2017 edition of Ice.

“The majority of the senior team at Clarion Gaming is female and our strategy has been to drive a cultural change, which hopefully has a degree of permanency rather than a proscriptive change.

“While I think we have achieved some success adopting this strategy, moving forward we will be taking a greater degree of control over this important issue and updating our position in partnership with our stakeholders.”

Chambers said Clarion would be canvassing stakeholders in the industry.

She added: “Following this process, we will produce an action plan of deliverables for wider consultation and I would ask members of the industry who would like to be part of that process to contact me directly. The action plan will apply to all of our brands.”

Harrison discussed diversity again at Ice during the Global Gaming Women session at which she described the sector as “very white and very male”.

“The lack of women working in the sector, in senior roles or otherwise, is staggering,” she added.

Harrison said the industry had to lead from the top on the issue, concluding: “This isn’t just a case of appointing and promoting women into key roles, it’s about taking steps to understand diversity and inclusion in its broadest sense and the real opportunities and business case for this.”

Chambers hailed this year’s event at London’s ExCeL as a success and expected attendance figures to demonstrate a seventh year of growth.

She said: “The show floor provided a global representation of the industry, with 589 exhibitors from 65 countries producing games for every jurisdiction and every gaming vertical.

“In terms of the attendance figures, our registration company undertakes a robust interrogation of the data before submitting the number of unique visitors for independent audit.

“In the week prior to Ice London, the pre-registration figures were four per cent up and our initial attendance figures are showing a similar uplift, which would be the seventh consecutive year of growth.”