Casino Enterprise Management

Since 2006, the South American Gaming Expo and Congress (SAGSE) has been attracting gaming professionals from the world over. This year, more than 2,500 high-ranking businesspeople and company executives came to Panama, one of the most dynamic gaming markets in the entire region. The trade show was held June 22 and 23 at the ATLAPA Convention Center.

As well as hosting many social events, SAGSE also staged a rich professional agenda with seminars by industry experts, and many companies were present there for the first time. CEM talked to Alan Burak, SAGSE’s event organizer, as well as representatives from two of the event’s sponsors, Steve Walther from Aruze and Karen Sierra from Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), about how and why SAGSE continues to attract key decision makers in the ever-expanding Latin American market.

Alan Burak
Event Organizer
SAGSE
The choice of Panama was not random. We performed a market study that took years before making the choice. It was a bet that paid off. Panama is a destination without equal, where the quality and friendliness of its people stand out and the business and the business environment take a relaxed form. There are many things to do in Panama. It is also a country with political, social and economic security. Life is quiet and pleasant. Its economic evolution surpasses that of many nations in the region, especially if you take into account that the enlargement of the canal will bring prosperity, money and jobs for more than 10 years.

Since the beginnings of SAGSE Panama in 2006 until today, there have been positive changes in the gaming sector here. This evolution can be appreciated in the professional standards in gaming rooms as well as long-term thinking and planning.

The Panamanian player is savvy and knows the gaming rooms very well. They possess an amazing learning curve when it comes to gaming. To give you an idea of how gaming has grown in Panama, in 2006 the amount of bets made in U.S. dollars for all types of gaming (apart from lotteries) stood at $766,114,534. By 2010, this had increased to $1,326,341,727 (USD). That’s a growth of more than 73 percent.

It is apparent that the new large-scale projects foreseen for both the short and medium terms have captivated the attention of the gaming and hospitality industries. Among the higher profile of these are the Golden Lion Casino, Royal Flush, Sortis, Hard Rock and the Trump Casino—all this as well as the reopening and total renovation of the Princess Casino. This adds to the existing grid of more than 17 casinos operating in Panama as well as a racecourse, betting rooms and more than 30 slot machine parlors.

There is no fair or exhibition in existence where concrete sales take place. We have to be realistic. In this type of event, new opportunities are presented. SAGSE is the starting point for long-term businesses in the sector.
There are many new operators interested in the Central American and Caribbean regions. Among those present for the first time at SAGSE Panama were FutureLogic, Patir Design GMBH, Dux Casino Online, Mistral Casino Online, Real Vivo, Dek International and Hanco Technologies, amongst others. Alongside these were a number of additional international and traditional companies such as Aristocrat Technologies, Bally Technologies, ATRONIC, Belatra Games and Arrow International, again amongst many others.

Karen Sierra
Latin America & Caribbean Development Manager
GLI
GLI has been part of the SAGSE show for many years. It is the show that gathers the entire Latin American region together, and it is a great opportunity for us to talk about our efforts to continue to better serve its regulators, manufacturers and distributors. Because SAGSE has such great international reach, GLI holds our Latin American Regulators Roundtable the same week as the trade show. This year, we will celebrate our fourth Latin American Roundtable, which takes place Nov. 8 in Buenos Aires.

At GLI, we provide more than certification services to the gaming industry. We meet with all the regulators in the region on a regular basis to provide our expertise and insight on how gaming is regulated in other jurisdictions where GLI is licensed. This is crucial for the efforts of the jurisdictions to better control and maintain the gaming industry’s integrity and transparency.

From the supplier point of view, for Latin American manufacturers, GLI has become a means to take their products out of their countries and into international markets that were not open to them before. This is accomplished through our exclusive Point.Click.Transfer technology. Through our strategic alliances with our local partners, NYCE in Mexico and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (GLI South America) in Argentina, we have been able to bring the advantages and benefits of obtaining the certifications against internationally recognized GLI standards and jurisdiction standards, giving them new business opportunities.

Our efforts are continuous and consistent. We have been serving the Latin American region for more than 10 years now, and the results of these efforts are translating into more and more jurisdictions that regulate gaming to make sure that the gaming devices and systems comply with technical requirements. This guarantees the integrity, accuracy and fairness of the game and facilitates the control of the operation. Among our most important achievements is the fact that GLI became the first and only lab to request and obtain the Peruvian accreditation to test and certify online systems for this jurisdiction.

In Mexico, we continue to work with our partner, NYCE, in the NMX certification process, which at the moment is voluntary. So far, there have been a total of 11 voluntary standards that are based on our GLI standards, and the Mexican and international gaming industries have been progressively complying as best practices manners for this market. Right now, we are working together with NYCE and the Mexican gaming industry to turn the NMX standards into NOMs, which are obligatory standards.

Other countries such as Paraguay have considered the GLI standards as a reference to start a certification process. We are supporting the efforts in Bolivia by obtaining our accreditation in this jurisdiction and complying with their recently issued regulations.

Latin America has become a key market for international investors and suppliers, as there have been several regulatory developments in the last four years. That has translated into better and safer opportunities to invest and introduce their product, as they can now compete in equal conditions due to the certification process. We expect to see more jurisdictions joining this movement, and GLI will definitely be a protagonist in these developments.

Steve Walther
Vice President of Marketing
Aruze
We sponsored the SAGSE event because it is an excellent time to build relationships with the key decision makers in the Latin American market. While we did not show any products at SAGSE, we took this opportunity to meet with key customers and listen to their needs so we can bring the most needed products to the region as quickly as possible.

Aruze’s games have a broad appeal around the globe. We use themes that resonate across cultures and have a variety of math models to appeal to many markets. In Latin America, we have found that our models appeal well to the repeat local players of the regions and have an interactive quality that brings new experiences to the region.

James Marrison has been covering the casino industry in Latin America for over seven years and has written in-depth features on every country in the region. Marrison has worked as a research contributor for Global Betting and Gaming Consultants and serves as a consultant for industry professionals for the Gerson Lehrman Group. Marrison is also a researcher into the online gaming markets in Europe.