LATINO AMERICA pt2 A
by Ricki Chavez Munoz PANAMA
s regulated gaming in Panama maintains growing in revenue and investments, Princess Casino International opened another property in the region in Panama City at the luxurious Sheraton Four Points hotel. The Princess Group owns 30 casinos in 12 different countries, as well as 12 hotels. The Group planned the official inauguration party of its latest casino to coincide with the
final day of the Sagse Gaming Panama 2010 show, in June, and according to Sudi Ozkan, President of Princess Group, other properties in the region will follow up this latest venture. Towards the end of the year, local investors Grupo Hasky will open the Golden Lion
casino at the elegant Grand Park Hotel, which boasts more than 300 rooms, and is set to operate a casino with 400 slots and 25 gaming tables, following the new Administration initiative to promote entertainment and tourism in the country. As other projects in the country unravel, representatives of the Tourist Ministry in Panama were on hand during the last Sagse expo adding to the regional impact of this event, to divulge government policy supporting the gaming industry.
URUGUAY AND PARAGUAY Uruguay continues its mixed investment licensing process where investors put the money
and have some say in the promotion and security of operations, while the state agency Casinos del Estado operates the casinos or slots operations. Under this format, investors get a percentage of the gaming revenue in operations, which in some cities are the only game in town. Paraguay had almost no bidders for five-year tenders in nine casinos, including one in the country’s capital city, Asuncion, and now is getting another tendering process under way with a longer term, and under conditions similar to the ones used in Chile for the licensing of its new casinos, which have a 15-year licensing term, and do not have government interference apart from the usual controls as imposed by a gaming commission. Last year, a mid-report comment said: “Latin America presents some decent gaming
business opportunities, whether in the relatively sedate markets of the countries mentioned first, or the more risky ones such as Mexico, Bolivia and Venezuela, where regulations are a matter of very close interpretation and even closer selection of legal counsel.”
ECUADOR
At the time of going to press, it seems that the political threat from the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa’s intentions to totally ban gaming in Ecuador, has petered out. In June, the president alarmed local operators and definitely scared off potential foreign investors with a broadcast saying: “We are going to totally ban this class of gambling. We will declare Ecuador free of betting games.” Earlier in the year, Ecuador had passed legislation to control gaming machines online.
However, under the Ministry of Tourism law that permits casino operations in the country, operators and local legal eagles said that what the president had meant was closing the illegal or unauthorized gaming halls operating in the country through legislation loopholes and sleight of legal hand. Like in Peru up to the end of 2006, in Ecuador, devious business people are taking
advantage of casino regulations embodied in the rule book, and operate old, insecure and downright obsolete gaming devised throughout the country by means of questionable, fraudulent, and sometimes third party judicial rulings that bypass local Ministry of Tourism authorization.
THE REST
Amongst the ‘sedate markets’ mentioned then, were Colombia, Peru, Panama, Argentina and Chile. This year, however, Colombia is undergoing some regulatory makeover, as a new Administration takes over; and for the other four, it is business as usual. So far, we are taking a back seat to see what happens in Brazil, as it is in an election year, and the bingo legislation lies entrapped in Congress; while neighbouring Bolivia has not moved very far from its position of irregular gaming; and Venezuela follows the mind set of an Administration at odds with the rest of the world. And last, or the least we can say about Mexico, is that nothing much has changed recently on the legislation front, apart from the emergence of Class III gaming under the guise of the quaintly-named “Clase Mexicana”, where electronic Roulettes, Blackjack, Poker and other games operate, including progressive systems, which under the 1947 Law or its accommodating 2004 Regulations, would not be legal. Unless, of course, if Mexico was a heaven for the way of the law. Our reading of Mexico opportunities hold more firmly this year, as many operations in the country are symptomatic of its wayward idiosyncrasy, and investors could find that an El Dorado on the horizon may prove as dismal as fool’s gold, or have all the ingredients of Tarantino’s version of El Mariachi, “with a surprisingly nasty scorpion sting in the tail for adventurers without the benefit of professional guidance.”
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