Analysis CZECH REPUBLIC
new law has now remedied this by introducing a flat 20 per cent tax. A quarter of this is payable directly to the government, with the state redistributing the monies among the community social/ cultural/ sports clubs and associations. The remaining 15 per cent goes to charities of the gaming machine operator’s choice – but this is now monitored by the government.
Petr Mikoska - the MD of SynotTip shows the latest VLT terminal designs at Forbes.
The Czech Parliament continues to press ahead with plans to significantly increase taxes, despite a detailed opinion from the European Commission warning that the amended gambling act is in violation of EU laws. Gaming and amusement machines would be subject to a yearly flat rate of CZK20,000 (approximately €780). Furthermore, the bill proposes to devolve regulation of gaming and amusement machines to local authorities. Apart from introducing stricter conditions for the location of gaming halls, the proposal also foresees a reduction of the length of licences. The new rules are set to be implemented on 1 January 2012.
Local government powers to close street locations also applies to locations that are registered as casinos. There are, therefore, great uncertainties as to how this will affect the market. The general agreement is that the number of VLTs will no longer rise, but at best they will stay constant if not fall.
The latest VLTs from e-gaming were shown at the Forbes exhibition in Prague.
wide wide world of sports Online sports betting has been legal in the Czech Republic for three years now. Fortuna, Tipsport and Chance have a strong position whereas Sazka is rebuilding having recently been acquired from receivers. The market covers around 3,000 terminals in 150 betting shops in the Czech Republic. Synot is placing more focus on terminal sector of sports betting. SYNOTtip already has over 800 terminals in the market. Online sports betting is legal since June in Slovakia and this is a target market for SYNOTtip. A new market entrant to sports betting terminals at the Forbes exhibition was Kajot, with its new brand, KAJOTbet.
Andreas Hildebrandt of JCM Global pictured with Synot’s White & Black VLT.
cashing in and out Cash management plays a major role in the industry. The VLTs have state-of-the art banknote readers and ticket printers with AWPs requiring coin validators, banknote readers and hoppers. In such a large market one might expect that these manufacturers would exhibit at Forbes, however this was not the case. Many well-known faces were missing (having a local gaming exhibition at the same time as the G2E certainly places challenges on internationally operating companies). Nevertheless, cash management representatives visited the Forbes
(Top) Jiri Madousek of Income Praha and Eric
Walluschnig of APEX gaming.
(Above) A new idea - a VLT that has a
banknote recycler - the SMART Payout from Innovative Technology -
pictured is Markus Tiedt with Thorsten Labusch at Forbes.
exhibition including MEI, JCM, Automated Transactions and Crane.
JCM has without doubt a strong position in the Czech gaming market. Money Controls has a strong link with Jamp as their distributor and now being part of Crane gives Jamp ever more product choice. Automated Transactions (the German subsidiary of Innovative Technology) reported the first placement of its SMART payout by a VLT manufacturer. This is an interesting prospect - having a banknote recycler alongside a ticket printer in a VLT. The advantage of having a win on a ticket allows players to move simply between machines. Having said that, some players will prefer receiving smaller winnings directly in cash or cashing out – i.e. receiving the money in cash and not having to wait for an attendee to bring them their winnings.
Although APEX gaming did not exhibit, instead the company took the opportunity to show together with its partner company, Shuffle King. This card mixing device was on proud display. One of the most popular casinos in Czech – King’s – has 15 Shuffle Kings in operation and provides positive feedback on the product’s performance. The Shuffle King is recommended by its namesake as a very practical solution.
December 2011 Page 57
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