Reel Star

What is Reel Star?

Under Section 106 of New Zealand’s Gambling Act 2003, a class 4 licence holder, also known as a “corporate society” by the regulator, “must apply or distribute the net proceeds from class 4 gambling only to or for an authorised purpose specified in the corporate society’s licence”.

The DIA worked directly with class 4 gambling operators (commonly known as pokies trusts), and discovered ‘widespread issues’ such as cases where money that should have been available for community grants was instead spent on society expenses, such as the purchase of additional gaming machines.

Vicki Scott, the DIA’s director of gambling, said the investigation had delivered significant results, while stressing that work to improve compliance and ensure communities received their share of gambling proceeds would continue.

What is Reel Star?

This year, the team is responding with a new initiative, Hall 7. The launch of Hall 7 represents a stronger platform to drive the next phase of iGaming innovation.

Tech Race in Warsaw this September and Hall 7 at ICE in Barcelona this January are set to become sequential chapters of the same conversation. CTOs, CSOs and data leaders can expect to pick up where they left off four months later.

Both events are betting on the same idea proving useful for the industry. Getting a room full of exactly the right people together beats chasing them individually across the globe.

About Reel Star

Throughout the performance, he skewered himself. With the confidence of a headliner who understood his public perception and chose to weaponize it, he held up a Wendy’s sign with a hole cut through the center, poked his face through, and announced: “This is what I look like when I’m trying to get recognized.”

The laughter was not polite or ironic. It was the roar of an audience genuinely doubling over.

Humor is inherently subjective, but the only plausible reason to dismiss Carrot Top after seeing his show live isn’t a distaste for kitsch—it’s being easily offended.