Key Points
- Spintec says it has a UAE vendor licence but despite this there’s no sign of the company on the regulatory list, as of 5th November.
- There’s confusion here. Reports from Ontario say one thing & Spintec another, Spintec claims to have completed its application but another report says the AGCO gave them the thumbs up.
- Wynn Al Marjan will be the UAE’s only casino when it opens in September 2027.
Spintec Hails UAE Vendor Licence & Ontario Progress, Except for The Bit Where Ontario’s Approval Isn’t So Clear-Cut
Round three, in November, Spintec dropped a press release announcing its progress in the UAE & Ontario, but its own announcement presents a rather different picture than what the trade publications actually reported.
Spintec, the Slovenian-based table game makers, says that the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) in the UAE has given it a federal vendor licence which means they can do business with operators approved by the GCGRA, that’s at least what their own press release said. The licence they got doesn’t mean they can run a casino or accept bets, but Spintec calls the GCGRA an independent regulatory body with the last word on commercial gaming in the UAE. The Khaleej Times says that only entities with this licence are allowed to supply companies in this sector, so this is not just a trivial little thing for businesses that want to set up shop there.
Ontario Licence Reports Show Slight Disagreements on if Spintec Has Been Approved
Industry publications all basically regulate the Ontario gaming sector, with the AGCO holding the reins. However Spintec’s press release seems to suggest things are clearer cut than they actually are. It says Spintec “completely finished the application process for a gaming-related supplier licence”.
Other trade outlets are describing it slightly differently though. Sovilj referred to it as “a newly acquired licence” and in the same press release Spintec says they acquired 2 new licences, G3 Newswire used the wording about Spintec completing the application process. InterGame all the same reported the AGCO had “approved Spintec’s licence application”, with World Casino News going further saying Spintec “has secured a gaming-related supplier licence”.
GGRAsia points out the issue though, Spintec’s press release didn’t give the date of when either of the licences were actually issued. Other reports published on 3rd November were still quoting the company’s own release, with no further verification.
What does this all mean for suppliers in Ontario? The AGCO makes suppliers register before they can do business with the province, they can’t work with casinos unless they are on that list. Companies pay $15000 a year to get on it. Before they get the go-ahead, the AGCO has to run checks on honesty, integrity & any financial issues a company has, plus they also check on the background of the company directors and shareholders.
No Entry Found on UAE Public Licensee List
There is another question left unanswered by the UAE licensing announcement. As of 5 November, there was no listing for Spintec on the GCGRA’s public licensee page. The regulator divides the licensees into five categories: lottery, land-based facilities, vendors, online gambling and sports betting.
This omission may be explained by a delayed update to the public register. In July, AGBrief reported that Playtech’s listing was missing an issue date and a list of products.
Only one land-based facility has its licence so far – Wynn Al Marjan Island. The Q2 2026 results by Wynn confirm that the resort will be opened in September 2027. Wynn owns 40 per cent of the shares and invested US$1.06 billion in the development.
AGBI reported in August 2025 that Wynn estimated the annual revenue potential of UAE at up to US 5 billion. It was a forecast. Costs of the project have gone up. According to Wynn’s analysts, the resort is expected to be developed with an investment of US $5.7 billion, which is an additional US$600 million against the previous estimate. The resort obtained a 15-year renewable licence in October 2024. Previously, the opening was expected to happen in early 2027, and now the suppliers have more time to wait for their first orders.
The supplier will enter the market where there are already several licensed vendors. According to the report by Inside Asian Gaming, there were already 23 vendors registered by mid-July. Among them were Aristocrat, Novomatic, Konami and IGT.
The UK roulette supplier Cammegh was added to the register in early June 2026. In July, Playtech’s VSTechnology was added, in August – Gamingtec and, finally, Bulgaria’s EGT were added on 6 September.
How Did Spintec Come to That?
The GCGRA was established in September 2023, which means that it is quite a new regulator. Aristocrat obtained the first vendor licence in October 2024.
Spintec announced the signing of a long-term partnership with Germany’s Merkur Group on 7 October 2024. Spintec’s Canadian distributor Bet Rite was appointed on 12 February 2026 and initially handled the Charisma line of products. In May 2026, Spintec signed a distribution deal with Bally France to cover France.
Spintec made its UAE and Ontario announcements on 3 November 2026 via its newsroom.
Expert Analysis: Spintec Throws A Claim, but Where’s the Paperwork?
We reckon the weakest link in Spintec’s announcement is its claim to being among the first to get a licence. The press release goes on about how Spintec is “one of the very first producers of electronic gaming machines” to get a federal licence from the government. Sovilj phrased it slightly differently, saying the company is “among the first licensed vendors to enter the market”. Aristocrat actually got the first vendor licence back in October 2024, with Novomatic getting one in April 2025. And both of them are in the gaming machine business, so Spintec can’t exactly say it’s one of the earliest suppliers overall. Now, Spintec could argue that table games are a whole different ball game, sorry, a separate product category, from the slots. And, sure enough, that distinction does hold some water. If they’d stuck to saying they’re one of the first to get a licence for table games, that might’ve been a bit more believable.
But the headline’s promising two licences, only for the actual announcement to say they’ve got one confirmed and another “in progress”. We’d checked the company’s press release, the GCGRA website and a bunch of trade reports from 3 to 5 November, and we couldn’t find a peep from the AGCO or GCGRA confirming Spintec’s licences. So we can’t help but wonder whether Ontario’s actually approved the application or is still messing around with it.
Four publications of note are all doing different takes on some Ontario development. That just adds to our caution, we’re not gonna take that as a done deal just yet. Sovilj said that Spintec “invested a lot of time into it”, and completing the application process is still an open question, even if they did make it through the first hurdle. Then there’s the question of when to expect either licence to drop, none of the reports we’d looked at had a date for either licence.
And then there’s the Eilers & Krejcik rankings, which are tough to get a read on. We couldn’t find a single public copy of the reports that back up Spintec’s claim.
As for the UAE market, that’s another whole can of worms. Some people might say that getting that regulatory approval is the hard part, and that orders will be rolling in after that. But we’re not convinced. The UAE only has one licensed casino, and it’s not even open yet, so Spintec’s got a pretty limited customer base to play with. And then there’s the fact that we couldn’t find a single shred of evidence about how many electronic table game positions Wynn plans to install, so we just don’t know what’s in store for Spintec there.
Sovilj’s talking up the “incredibly important” footholds that Spintec’s got in those markets. But in reality, Spintec’s still got to get the orders for its cabinets, and that’s not a done deal just yet. Wynn’s casino is supposed to open in September 2027, and that’ll be the real test. Until then, we’re left with Spintec’s UAE licence, progress with its Ontario application, a Canadian distributor and a whole lotta uncertainty.
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