November 18, 2021 4 min read

SIGMA Europe Turned Sour by Naked Dancing Men, Strippers, COVID Violations

The SIGMA Europe Summit in Malta event unearthed a side of the gambling industry that many know is there, but few dare to admit. Held from November 15-19 at the MFCC in Ta’Qali, Malta, and attended by hundreds of the best and brightest of the industry, two separate incidents mired the expo, tarnishing its reputation and questioning the motivation of such gatherings in the first place.

Two Men Undress and Start Emulating Sexual Intercourse at SIGMA 

One of the incidents involved representatives from LuckyStreak filmed earlier today. In a video seen by GamblingNews and featured below, two men decide to attract attention to themselves by undressing in a sensual and bizarre way while screaming to make sure they built a crowd.

Things are even more out of control in the moments to follow when the pair begins imitating sexual intercourse as one of the men swings his dwarf colleague between his legs with embarrassing intensity. Shortly after that, the taller man walks around and stands in front of his colleague, unzips his pants, and remains in his boxers.

He then turns his back to his colleague and pulls his underwear in, imitating a thong while advancing towards a poll where he sensually presses himself up against it. The shocking video ends with the man putting his clothes back on. 

GamblingNews understands that there are several footages circulating the Internet right now capturing the bizarre scene. As to SIGMA, the organization has issued a rebuke and said that the people involved in the accident would not be allowed at a SIGMA event ever again. 

Lovin Malta managed to speak with an organizer who confirmed for the outlet that the pair were shareholders in LuckyStreak who always put similar acts together during most events to gather attention. The question is if SIGMA knew, why didn’t they predicate any participation in the event on decent behavior? GamblingNews understands that the two men were able to stay at the event after or at least weren’t immediately removed. The dwarf man was seen bicycling around the floor. 

Strippers at Booth(s) Put Doubt Over What SIGMA Stands For 

SIGMA was also caught over another controversy during the event as strippers were allowed to attend one of the booths. Apparently, the dancers had been called to the event by one of the companies leading to a strong condemnation by industry representatives and angering Eman Pulis, SIGMA’s founder, who leaped at the booth and asked the dancers to leave immediately. 

Neither Pulis nor SIGMA seem to have had any knowledge of this. Pulis did mention that SIGMA had warned the client in question not to invite scantily dressed dancers in the first place. 

Commenting on the case involving the dancers, IBIA CEO Khalid Ali called the entire situation a complete “disconnect” with the stated goal by SIGMA to uphold high industry standards while allowing such events to transpire. 

“Yet if you go on the exhibition floor, you will find pole dancers dressed provocatively. I thought as an industry, we had moved on from this, but sadly, it appears we haven’t. […] Going forward, I’ll be making sure that any future partnerships with event organizers will include a decency clause because what I’ve seen today is unacceptable.”

IBIA CEO Khalid Ali

Ali argued that if there were to be any future partnerships with event organizers, they would have to include a decency clause. 

SIGMA’s After Party Gets Raided by Police 

Another publication surfaced about SIGMA’s Europe Summit afterparty raided by police and broken up because of lack of compliance with anti-COVID measures. The party was held at the Paceville’s Sky Club where police converged at 11:30. Akon, who had been invited to perform, was unable to, as the party was stopped. Akon is also attending SIGMA where he is promoting his namesake cryptocurrency, the Akoin.

The organizers at SIGMA may not be fully at fault (although they evidently knew that some clients were more problematic). However, this is not something that can be lightly ignored. In light of this, GamblingNews are officially halting their media partnership agreement with SIGMA until further investigation.

Moving forward, our team will not collaborate with the companies that showed poor ethics at the event either, that is LuckyStreak, and the company whose name has been given to us as per source, and shall remain unnamed.

Author

Yasmin is an iGaming and gaming journalist with over 10 years of writing about various publications. Her experience spans the entirety of iGaming, traditional sports, as well as online poker. She is well-versed in every aspect of online gaming and her wealth of knowledge provides additional substance to our coverage.

2 Comments

    GUY PARSONS
    November 19, 2021 at 12:38 pm

    Struggling to understand your editorial process. You choose to illustrate this article with a questionable (at best) graphic and then compound matters by including the offending footage? Seriously?

    AP
    November 20, 2021 at 4:59 pm

    Igaming Industry needs to stop having semi naked women’s walking around conventions. Responsible Gaming should apply at conferences too.. why ICE is better organised..
    Great article by the way 👏

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