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Analysis


GERMAN STREET GAMING


Good deeds, bad press


The success of the German street gaming market has raised the ire of both politicians and press in Germany. At the IMA exhibition all sides voiced their opinions about the future


The International Trade Fair for Amusement and Vending Machines – the IMA – celebrated a major milestone even before the show began, namely 30 years of representing the German amusement and vending industry. Having first begun in Frankfurt and moved to Nuremburg for a few short years, the IMA is now firmly placed in Düsseldorf. The exhibition lasted for four days in January, 2011. Although officially being termed the exhibition for vending, the definite focus for over the past 10 years has been on amusement and gaming machines. The vending market has its own exhibition – the EU Vend. The IMA took place over two halls covering 22,000 m². The focus is clearly on the German AWP market. The German casino market is serviced via the ICE Totally Gaming event in London.


FACTS AND FIGURES The amusement and vending machine industry attained an aggregated turnover of 5.14 billion euros in 2010. That meant an increase from 2009 of 5.8 per cent (from 2008 to 2009 the increase 8.0 per cent). The major growth sector was in AWP manufacturing as this turnover increased by 7.5 per cent. The main reason for this was the industry commitment to convert the amusement with prize machines (AWPs) to the Technical Directive 4.1 of the Physikalisch-Technischen Bundesanstalt (PTB) by 1st January 2011. Here potential wins convertible to a cash equivalent of over 1,000 euros on AWPs may no longer be displayed. Furthermore, AWPs must be completely inoperable for five minutes after one hour’s play. The conversion or exchange of machines is complete as this voluntary measure came into effect on 1st January 2011.


The number of arcades has risen steeply over the past years to over 10,000 in number. It is stated that the playing public has doubled from 5 million to 10 million. The new Gaming Ordinance (Spielverordnung IV) that came into force 1st January 2006 is attributed to this positive change. The arcade / street market in Germany changed in character dramatically from reel-based single games


to video-based multi-games. The previous requirement to scrap AWPs after four years in operation is no longer in effect. This ruling effectively meant that manufacturers had a guaranteed 25 per cent replacement rate. Now AWPs have to be re-approved every two years by a TÜV- approved company. With the number of new games entering the market (that need TÜV approval) the number of machines that wait until two years for re- testing is not so high.


Since the amended Gaming Ordinance came into force on 1st January 2006, the number of AWPs in operation has risen from the trough of 180,000 units in 2005 to 235,750 units by the end of 2010. Before 2006, Fun Games were very popular, but suffered as the black sheep of the industry, with those not using these machines exclusively as token machines as intended for entertainment value only. This led to Fun Games being banned within the new Gaming Ordinance – which saw 80,000 Fun Games removed from the market.


The AWP industry secures over 70,000 jobs in Germany – 75% of these for female employees. A further approx. 35,000 employees also work indirectly in the industry. The industry lobbies very hard on the political front and were successful in allowing industry-specific professions to be created. This is something that they had been fighting towards for many years and it was not until 2008 that two distinct occupations relating to the amusement and gaming machine industry came into existence – the coin-op specialist’ and coin-op service technician’.


The companies involved in the amusement and gaming machine industry pay more than 1.4 billion euros in taxes and social contributions – of which over 300 million euros is in amusement tax (Vergnügungssteuer).


ALMOST OVER BEFORE IT STARTED Sports betting is at this moment in time only allowed via the state in Germany, and is illegal for commercial companies.


G3 I APRIL 2011 I PAGE 52


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