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What is Totem?
The report, titled The State of VIP Operations, was compiled by The Playa in collaboration with Gaming Operations Academy and WarriorLab.
Conducted in 2026, it surveyed 70 professionals actively engaged in VIP management, including VIP account managers, heads of VIP and consultants, with 64% employed directly by gambling operators.
The report sought to understand how VIP portfolios are managed daily, how the tools are utilised and other key operational challenges.
What is Totem?
Ben Robinson, managing partner at Corfai, argues that the American listing achieved what it was supposed to achieve. The problems came afterwards. “The question was which arm of the K-shaped market Flutter would end up on. We have the answer now. Capital is concentrated in a narrow band of technology names and everything else is being marked on earnings.”
A US listing can improve access to capital without making the underlying business more attractive. London has a capital-markets problem. Gambling has an investment problem. The two overlap, but they are not the same thing.
Frank Fantini, founder and publisher emeritus of Eilers-Fantini, thinks the change began before Covid. “There is a tendency to look at the world as pre-Covid and post-Covid,” he says. “But the decline in gaming began earlier than that with the slowdown in new jurisdictions and new projects.”
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Large society lotteries also experienced growth with ticket sales up 5.7% (£1.2 billion), prizes up 6.1% (£335.6 million) and contributions up 2.8% (£498.5 million).
The Commission’s annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), released on Thursday, indicated stable gambling participation patterns among 5,277 adults surveyed between January and May 2026.
Around 49% of the adults surveyed said they had gambled within the past four weeks, a figure consistent with previous years.
