G3Newswire SOUTH AMERICA NEWS COLOMBIAN LOTTERY IS OUTPACED
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MEXICO – CROWN HOSTS NOVOMATIC WORLD Crown Gaming Mexico, the local subsidiary of the Novomatic Group, created a new milestone in the country’s demand for gaming excellence through the presentation of the unique Panther Roulette II at the Casino Abu Dhabi in Apodaca, near Monterrey in the Nuevo León state.
The presentation, held on July 24 and widely pre-publicised through television advertising and social media channels, was called Novomatic World and aimed to bring a whole new ‘World of Gaming’ to Mexico’s vibrant casino culture. Panther Roulette II was the star of the show and is a gaming innova- tion that, without doubt, captures the imagination.
This is the successor to the Pinball Roulette that has already proven extremely popular, across Latin American markets. The Panther Roulette II plays exactly to the defined rules of Roulette. The innovative single player Roulette is activated by the player using a traditional pinball launching mechanism to deploy the ball into the Roulette wheel or, alternatively, a Start button on the right hand side of the hand rest.
Thomas Borgstedt, Crown Gaming Mexico’s General Manager, praised what had been a hugely successful event: “This event would have been impossible without the support of our very important customer, Abu Dhabi Casino and its General Manager Misael Urzua. We wish to thank him enor- mously for his help in highlighting these latest amazing Novomatic products from Crown Gaming Mexico.”
“Our Novomatic World event has proved to be a big suc- cess,” said Judith Barrientos, Crown Gaming Mexico’s Commercial Manager. “The intensive marketing campaign that we undertook built excitement and anticipation ahead of the event and the entire team here at Casino Abu Dhabi turned it into an amazing reality. We are absolutely delighted at the reactions that our new product attractions have received from the many guests that attended.”
PERU – DREAMS GEARS UP FOR EXPANSION IN PERU Following the announcement of the merger between Dreams and Sun International last February, Dreams has announced the appointment of Martin Davila who will move from his role as General Manger of the casino in Temuco and will now serve as the new Country Manager for its operations in Peru. Mr. Davila has been with Dreams since 2008.
Peru is seen as a key market for the new company once it has merged. Dreams operates six casinos in Chile and has recently expanded into Peru where it operates four smaller gaming establishments in Lima and has plans to expand fur- ther in the region. CEO of Dreams Jaime Wilhelm said that: “The due diligence process is progressing on schedule, so we want to anticipate and prepare for the new scenario, in which Peru will be one of the growth markets for the company.”
A number of other changes have been made within Dream’s operations in Chile with the appointment of new executives in its casinos in Temuco and Coyhaique. The Latin American operations of Sun International, including Monticello in Chile, Ocean Sun Casino in Panama City and a project near com- pletion in Colombia, will be merged into Dreams in the deal which will see Sun expanding its presence in the region.
Once complete the current shareholders of Dreams and Sun International will each own approximately 50 percent of the combined entity. The merger creates Latin America’s largest gaming group.
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The Colombian Federation of Employers of Games of Chance has presented recent figures for the first half of 2015
Colombia - Market Data
The Colombian Federation of Employers of Games of Chance (FECEAZAR) has presented the most recent figures for the first half of 2015.
The figures show that for the first time that sales for non-lottery games such as casinos and slot machines have outpaced sales for lotteries. In Colombia games are defined in two ways: Juegos Localizados which include bingos, slot parlours, casinos and sports betting and Apuestas Permanentes which include all lotter- ies.
Lotteries recorded a growth of 1.1 per cent, maintaining a trend of slight growth while Super Astro (a lottery game based around signs of the zodiac) and non-lottery based gaming recorded significant growth.
VAT during the first half of 2015 for lottery games stood at $138,953,393,363 pesos com- pared to $137,436,620,249 in the same period last year while lottery operators paid a total of $104,215,045,227 for exploitation rights during the first six months of this year.
Non-lottery games generated $111,377,678,717 in licensing fees, an increase compared to the first half of last year of 14.8 per cent. The exploita- tion rights for the Baloto lottery game for the first half of 2015 meanwhile decreased by 14.6
per cent compared to last year.
The exploitation rights of the Super Astro game for the first half of 2015 stood at $ 19,220,931,891, an increase of 16.9 per cent compared to last year.
The decrease in revenues from lotteries has been blamed squarely on the growth of illegal gaming which, according to President of FECEAZAR Baltazar Medina, has grown by as much as 40 per cent. Money raised per year by the illegal sector now reaches an estimated $1.2bn pesos a year which is the target the Colombian Gaming Control Board (Coljuegos) aims to raise for the Health Sector.
The lottery market in Colombia is extremely varied and there is a wide and extensive sales network throughout Colombia. However, the most popular lottery games in Colombia are Chance, Baloto and Super Astro. Combined all lottery games represent around 1.5 per cent of Colombia’s gross domestic product. Baloto began fourteen years ago while Chance started over 60 years ago and Super Astro began in 2000.
Today there are an estimated 3,200 slot par- lours bingos and casinos in the country, with 83,558 slots nationwide run by 384 licensed operators. According to figures released by the Colombian Gaming Control Board the sector reported growth of around ten per cent in 2014 and taxes generated for the health sector increased by 25 per cent. According to the latest estimates they could generate as much as U$756m in 2015.
Hotels fight the Puerto Rican Government over VLT rules
PUERTO RICO The Association of Hotels and Tourism of Puerto Rico (PRHTA) has filed a motion with a court to contest new regulations which would allow for video lotteries (VLTs). The government is hoping to gain up to US$400m a year the new act which was approved last week in a controversial move by Finance Minister Juan Zaragoza. Puerto Rico’s Treasury Department will begin the tender process for (VLT’s) in the first quarter of 2016.
Head of the PRHTA reacted angrily to the move saying that the new act puts the entire tourism industry in danger and vowed to fight the new regula- tions in the court. He said: “Today we continue our efforts to defend the tourism industry in Puerto Rico. Enough is enough. Enough damage has already been done to
the industry and we have to put a stop to it.”
According to Mr. Vega, new regu- lations go against a number of laws in Puerto Rico which specif- ically ban gaming machines out- side of casinos. In addition the treasury department does not have the authority to regulate gaming and authorise new types of gaming. VLTs, also according to Mr. Vega, fail to meet a number of legal requirements as enshrined in local gaming laws due to their game design.
Mr. Vega pointed to the results of a study carried out by local research firm Spectrum, which indicated that should VLT’s be legalised then it would cause revenue losses in gaming machines in casinos of US$68.4m to US148.8m a year and cause losses of up to
U$S60m for the Education Fund of the University of Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico’s General Fund would lose up to US$9m a year on slot machines alone while the Tourism Board of Puerto Rico (PRTC) could lose up to U$S23m a year. The casino industry is a major contributor to the Tourism Board as well as the only State University on the island. Resources made from the casino industry have diminished from US$315m in the years between 2007-08 to US$272m during the last fiscal year.
He also pointed out that the casi- no in Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan closed its doors last month, prompting the dismissal of 150 people, “which means the clo- sure of four casinos in 10 months when added to the closure of the Embassy of Dorado casino in September 2014 and the Radisson Ambassador in March 2015... This scenario in conjunc- tion with video lottery terminals would mean the extinction of the casino industry and tourism.”
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