The ICE North America tradeshow that was planned for the middle of May in New Orleans has postponed until the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
Clarion Gaming, which is producing the conference and tradeshow, announced the change on it’s the ICE North American website.
Clarion Managing Director Kate Chambers said a date will be determined. She added that information about the ICE Asia and iGB Live! shows are pending.
“Gaming, in common with all sectors of the global economy, has been severely damaged by the horrendous impact caused by COVID-19,” Chambers said. “Having consulted with the industry, my team and I will be paying close attention to the speed with which the virus is contained. Clearly this is an extremely dynamic situation and I will be personally keeping our stakeholders fully updated on how we propose to respond.”
ICE North America becomes the latest gaming conference to postpone its events due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The National Indian Gaming Association conference, that was scheduled to begin Wednesday in San Diego, was postponed, as was Betting on Sports America. New dates have yet to be announced.
The World Game Protection Conference, which canceled this week’s events, will be held in October in Las Vegas.
The East Coast Gaming Congress was moved from April to October and G2E Asia will be held July, instead of May.
Clarion called the current situation surrounding coronavirus “unprecedented times.” Some 465 commercial and 524 tribal casinos throughout the U.S. are closed for an indefinite period and roughly 649,000 gaming employees are out of work.
“As event organizers immersed in the industry that we serve, we are fully aware of the economic turbulence being experienced by our friends and colleagues throughout the international supply chain – and our thoughts are with them,” Chambers said.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
