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Latino America
Ricki Chavez-Munoz brings the latest news from Latino America...
We’ve just come from Hollywood in Florida, where new Class III, Las Vegas style, slots are in full swing. I expect that within one year the Seminole Indians’ Hard Rock Casinos will look very much like the Las Vegas properties with Baccarat and Blackjack and thousands of cutting edge slots from the principal manufacturers.
At Hollywood, both Bally and IGT excelled themselves delivering the new slots well in advance of schedule. That’s what I call being proactive! And what about California? Last month, the Golden State electors voted in favour of the installation of 17,000 more slots in four Indian casinos, less than an hour from Las Vegas.
No prizes for guessing that when fully implemented the Indian casinos will really challenge the best Strip properties! We have been covering the progress of gaming in both Florida and California because Latin Americans have a good presence there, and also because there is good business to be done with quality products.
We are taking this edition to Colombia’s FADJA 2008 gaming expo because it falls early in April on days two and three, and didn’t wish to risk being late with the freight for the April edition, and not getting there. During the event in Bogotá, authors Alfredo Arango and legendary racing correspondent Guillermo “El Mago” Davila will launch their novel “En Tierra Derecha” (a translation of the title after I have read the book!) with a horse racing theme. Davila is the local Peter O’Sullivan with more than 55 years in racing.
Cheers,
Ricki.
FIVE NEW CASINOS IN PUERTO RICO
BY 2010
Puerto Rico is one of the few countries with consistent and secure gaming development in The Americas region. As one of the premier tourist destinations in the Caribbean, investors and operators are developing new hotels and refurbishing existing ones, whether locally owned or major brands such as Marriott.
We had the chance of a brief conversation with Hector Rivera Dávila, Gaming Director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, who said: “We continue with some new projects for hotel casinos, and for 2010 we have approved five already. Investors are interested in this country because we are part of the USA and we have strict regulations to protect investment. The gaming industry is stable with steady growth”.
We are aware of Rivera Davila’s career path and his impressive reputation in the gaming industry over many years. We asked him about gaming events in the Latin American region and his participation at any of them. “I haven’t decided yet whether I shall go to Mexico for the one in Monterrey,” was the regulator’s short reply. Rivera Davila was appointed as chief of the Puerto Rico gambling commission last year and this has paid dividends for the country.
Previously, as an associate consultant with New Jersey-based Spectrum Gaming, Rivera Davila was instrumental in the preparation of Puerto Rico’s new gaming regulations that came into effect last year. At the time Rivera Davila told us that the intention was the full compliance of “strict regulations to attract serious investors who could develop additional hotel projects on our island.” He added that having the most sophisticated gaming controls in the Caribbean region, Puerto Rico would be a good model for others to follow.
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION FOR CIRSA CASINO CARD
Executives and management of Casino Majestic Santo Domingo, in the capital city of Dominican Republic, celebrated along with a large number of guests and celebrities the First Anniversary of the casino loyalty card Tarjeta Majestic Plus, which is the first loyalty card of its type in the market of this glorious Caribbean country.
Marcel Gaviria, Commercial and marketing Director of Casinos Cirsa, with central offices in Barcelona, Spain, explained the new benefits of the Majestic Plus card: “From now on, it will be much easier to accumulate points, as we have doubled the return percentage of the machines for points gained. From today, our guests and everyone else who join our programme will have greater possibilities to exchange their points for real cash”.
PERUVIAN SLOTS AND CASINOS COLLECT US$32M
The Peruvian Gaming Commission, which is a dependency of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, has announced record revenues of gaming tax for 2007 collected from slots and casinos in the country. Gaming Commission Chief Manuel San Roman explained that up to last year monthly revenues were about a million dollars, but now gambling tax collections are in excess of US $4 million per month.
San Roman said that the reason for the increase in tax collection is close scrutiny of control, licensing and auditing of slot businesses, which has been recognized as the most efficient in Latin America. He added, “The monies we collect are for the Peruvian Sports Institution, centres for technological advance in local arts and crafts, and district and provincial governments”.
According to the Gaming Commission Chief, one of the goals for this year is to finish the licensing process for all slots operations in the country. This was in complete chaos up to last year, with over 50% illegal operations that paid no tax. San Roman concluded: “We are going to install an online system to connect all licensed slot machines in the country to a central computer to register revenue in real time. This will enable us to control the gaming operations better.”
BANK COMMISSION TO ISSUE LICENCES
As part of broader reforms in legislation to prevent money laundering, the Honduras National Congress last week approved changes in the control and supervision of casinos and gaming operations in the country. It falls upon the Comision Nacional de Bancos y Seguros (CNBS) to control the flow of foreign currency into the country from all people and all businesses through registration and supervision.
According to the legal reform, ‘casinos and anyone dedicated to the exploitation of gaming, lotteries, and slot machines must submit reports of foreign currency transactions’ to the CNBS Financial Information Unit. Gustavo Alfaro, president of the bank and securities commission said that the legislation change is an important step for the prevention of money laundering in the Central American country.
On related legislation received by the National Congress, Armando Sarmiento, Director of National Revenue, said that the white paper on Anti Evasion Law includes among other proposals the lifting of bank secrecy clauses for people or organizations investigated by the Attorney General’s Office. It falls within the CNBS’s jurisdiction to perfect this aspect of the new law. Part of this law has been designed to control gaming business people and operations that export cash without supervision, and may be able to engage in money laundering and tax evasion.
CHANGES IN EL SALVADOR SEEK TO LIMIT SLOTS
Representative Jose Gonzales Sanchez has announced that he will present to the El Salvador Congress a project to change some aspects of the legislation on operation of casinos and sports betting salons, in order to exclude slot machine operation from the latter. The representative’s proposal also includes a fixed levy on each slot machine installed in a casino operation, according to its location.
According to Gonzales Sanchez’s proposal, tax on slot machines installed in casinos located in the capital city Santo Domingo and the province of the same name would pay the equivalent in local currency of US$133 each. Slots in the cities of Santiago, La Altegracia and La Romana would pay US$103 each. The changes proposed also include distance exclusion zones for sports betting salons or ‘books’, as they are quaintly called in this Spanish speaking country, with a minimum 4,200 feet distance for new books from other existing businesses.
The changes to legislation proposed by the representative have a provision for existing ‘books’, which operate too close to each other but must move to a distance of no more than 150 feet from the current location. One suspects that where there are three books next to each other, this provision may just work, but it somehow lacks relevance where there are more than 3 books closely together.
