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ITALY
Terminal velocity
The imminent launch of Italy’s first VLT networks could have
repercussions far beyond the newly-licensed operators’ bottom lines.
The casino market may be affected, too, reports Barnaby Page – and
what will become of slots?
E
veryone should be happy. Italy’s are among the smallest players in Italy – secured
government is nearly 1bn Euro richer, its control of the VLT market.
leading slot operators have secured all the That doesn’t, of course, mean that there isn’t scope
licences to operate the potentially lucrative for others to benefit from the arrival of such a large
video lottery terminals (VLTs) which the number of machines. For example, while Italy’s
country is rather suddenly permitting for the first Cogetech has won a licence, it is in fact a partnership
time, and the citizens of Europe’s biggest gaming between that company and Greece’s Intralot – which
market have yet another avenue to pursue their craze. owns 51 percent of the joint venture – that will deploy
But is the introduction of VLTs to Italy – with the VLTs, mostly into betting shops owned by Intralot.
players expected to encounter the first units around Said Constantinos Antonopoulos, Intralot’s CEO: “The
March or April – a jackpot for all, or will it simply eat successful liberalisation model of the Italian market
away at revenue from other gaming sectors? has set an example that many European countries
The Italian gaming landscape has been in upheaval [will] follow…Intralot intends to further enhance its
for some time, with liberalisation helping to sweep presence in the VLT market in Italy.”
away many of the illegal gambling activities that Vendors will win, too, both Italian firms and
existed just a decade ago. foreigners – among them Taiwan’s Astro, which says it
It took a shattering natural disaster, however, to is already the largest seller of AWPs in Italy, and is
eventually bring about the authorisation of VLTs: the now supplying VLT systems to Codere. Italy’s own
L’Aquila earthquake in Italy’s central Abruzzo region, Lottomatica, meanwhile, not only won the second-
which killed more than 300 people in April 2009. largest VLT licence, but its subsidiary Spielo will sell
Although the arrival of VLTs on the Italian scene VLTs to Gamenet in a deal estimated to be worth 40-
sooner or later was probably inevitable, it was the 45m Euro. That deal covers its Intelligen, i-Link,
need for cash to fund reconstruction efforts after the prodiGi Vu and WinWave Vu products, as well as
earthquake that quickly led to the new rules, as well Atronic games.
as to other proposals such as an opening up of the Indeed, there’s unlike to be a corner of the gaming
online market. supply market that’s unaffected in some way. At
printer maker FutureLogic, for example, Business
Capped licences Development Manager for EMEA Fivos Polymniou
By June, the draft VLT rules were in place (see box,
“The Rules of the Games”, page 52), and the
government began seeking applicants for the nearly Who Won What
57,000 licences it would grant. Aware that the
current big ten operators of slots, most of which are Operator / Number of slots (August 2009) /
in bars, would be eager to protect against possible Number of VLT licences won
threats to their slot revenue by diversifying into VLTs,
the regulator AAMS capped the number of licences Atlantis World 85,376 11,953
they could apply for at 14 percent of their installed Lottomatica 76,867 10,761
base of slots (see box, “Who Won What”). Gamenet 55,752 7805
However, with about 400,000 slots in their Cogetech 37,329 5226
networks, this meant the slot operators could apply SNAI 36,088 5052
for every single VLT licence on offer – effectively Sisal Slot 35,172 4924
closing the VLT market to new entrants. HBG Connex 34,270 4798
And that’s exactly what happened. Although AAMS Cirsa Italia 18,453 2583
had indicated that there might be left-over licences Gmatica 15,971 2236
available for new entrants to bid on, the ten slot Codere Network 9707 1359
operators – all of them local companies, apart from Total 404,985 56,697
the Spanish firms Cirsa and Codere, both of which Source: AAMS
50 FEBRUARY 2010
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