In the past we have referred to the gaming industry in this incredibly generous region of Latin America as a 'land of contrasts'. As development leaps do not have the dramatic changes produced by revolutions, cultural or otherwise, gaming in the region has set a development pace more in tune with European countries.

Both Peru and Colombia have passed gaming legislation to improve gaming controls and curb illegal gambling as well as improving gaming tax receipts. Chile has seen the culmination of its 2005 gaming legislation with the opening of eight casinos up and down the country by the end of this year, and Lo and behold! The Economic and Development Commission of the Brazilian lower house has approved a casino and bingo legislation white paper.

With Mexican politicians and licensed gaming operators pressing hard for a new piece of gaming legislation to replace the 1947 law, there is hope that order may come in the industry in 2009. No doubt there will be an update during the conference this month in Sagse Buenos Aires 2008, where some regulators and industry people are scheduled to attend and take the podium.

The reason for new gaming legislation in Mexico is very simple. Class III gaming devices are being installed throughout the country under questionable licences and permits and Mexico is not seeing a cent in tax contributions because there is no legal provision for this.

The old arguments of gaming being the source of crime and money laundering lose credibility by the day, as these types of crime exist in all societies. As Representative Vicentinho Alves said in the Brazilian Congress, if this was the case countries such as the USA and Germany would be the promoters of such crimes, as they have regulated gaming.

The Good News
With Puerto Rico and Panama leading the way on gaming investment and tax receipts, countries like Peru report a sizeable increase in gaming tax contributions also. This time next year Chile will begin to see the end result of its admirable gaming legislation, as most of the new casinos will have started contributing to the local communities.

However, tax contribution is only one aspect of regulated gaming, as programmes of Social Responsibility are embraced up and down the region. If responsible gaming was the byword of the last decade, and is now an intrinsic part of gaming operations, now these businesses are reaching society as a whole with programmes to assist and help the more disadvantaged.

Apart from Chile, brand new casino developments with sizeable investment are scheduled for Argentina, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Puerto Rico and some Central American countries during 2009. If Brazil and Mexico do come into line and legislate, Latin America will indeed be the largest gaming region in the world, per number of properties that is.

Some Bad News
Although not as bad as in Great Britain where government has tossed and turned in the wake of its own Gaming Act 2005, first reneging on the mandate to licence a mega casino with 1,500 slots for the City of Manchester and then seeing a less than enthusiastic response for the 16 new licences approved, the City of Guayaquil saw its Mayor promote an edict to remove the gaming properties away from newly regenerated areas.

With established casinos in Guayaquil licensed under Ministry of Tourism gaming regulations, it looks like the Mayor’s edict will encounter some stiff opposition from licensed operators in the law courts, no matter whether the edict promises a 3-4 years time span for the properties to move out of the city.

While Bolivia and Paraguay have their own gaming squabbles where licensing depends on the vagaries of government entities, and the Province of Mendoza in Argentina is debating a piece of legislation to limit the number of casinos, Uruguay is still mired in municipal or government controlled casinos with questionable results. The best way out for the country would be to privatize casinos, but then the political groups in charge would lose readily available cash cows.

The major controversy in Buenos Aires next month will be the presentation of a second gaming expo on the same days as Sagse Buenos Aires 2008. Called ‘Magia’, as in magic, this is an expo organized by the Argentine gaming companies that are grouped under the Caija banner. The reason for this Buenos Aires Two Shows (Part 2) is a major disagreement between the board of the Caija association and the Sagse organizers.

If the reason was a question of market economy, it would be understandable. We saw this same situation a few years back in Buenos Aires, when an expo company tried to compete with Sagse and after two years called it a day and stopped, limiting the damage to one and all. Time will tell if the present situation caused by a clash of personalities will prevail, and a 2-show Buenos Aires remains a feature in the gaming calendar of the future.

What is here to stay, however, is the presence of an array of gaming laboratories. During the Peru expo in August, we saw two additional assay labs apart from LabCert, Peru’s Catholic University outfit, while executives of three other such companies visited the expo. This situation is indeed a matter of market economy, and as the industry develops and technology becomes available to the public domain, it is expected that more assay labs emerge in countries from Chile to the UK. (E-09.19.08)

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