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Las Vegas led the way by bringing art galleries to its casinos and today the organizers of the Peru Gaming Show (PGS) 2006 have, with great imagination, brought to their gaming industry exhibition examples of an ancient culture to be seen alongside the new technologies.
The latest archeological discovery in Peru is that of Caral-Supe, and a full pavilion in all its majesty showed a display unmatched by any expo worldwide to the visitors at the Jockey Plaza Convention Centre, in fashionable Monterrico.
The Caral-Supe civilization has been dated to over 5,000 years ago and is one of only six around the world that changed a way of life to form states and cities. Starting about 2600BC, Caral in the Supe Valley 120 miles north of Lima had a complex highlystructured society that flourished at the time the pyramids were being built in Egypt.
The Caral-Supe culture also built its own pyramids, which were on show at PGS 2006 in model of the site of some seven metres in diameter. The discovery has led to a re-evaluation of the rise of the earliest civilizations in the New World. Caral-Supe is not only the oldest city in the Americas but also third overall after Mesopotamia and Egypt, followed by China and Egypt.
In contrast to the incredibly old, there was all the innovative state-of-the-art gaming equipment at PGS 2006 event, where companies such as Boss Gaming had a wonderful time, with orders for their ‘sexy’ electronic roulettes that ran into several millions. It is no wonder Boss Gaming president Linda Monzon celebrated with her Boss Americas Team, and went clubbing through the night in groovy Barranco after the expo ended.
Other companies exhibiting their wares at this year’s show are too numerous to mention but included IGT, Aristocrat, Star Games, Recreativos Franco, Novomatic, Belatra, Gold Club, Intervision, Merkur- MGA, Anditech, Brand X, Orion Gaming, Gate Plus, Digi Deal, DEK International, ELO Touch, Cortar, WH-ORT, Precision, Money Controls, SUZO/HAPP Controls, Logic Games, Imagination, Zero Labs, Casinos & Gaming Suppliers, Fair Play, RCT Brazil, VTI Las Vegas, Lab Cert, et cetera.
In another first, PGS 2006 organizers Casinos & Leisures brought into the offering a taste of the Colonial era to visitors, along with a modern online system making different aspects of the show visible on screens around the exhibition and available for installation on PCs. The themed show transported visitors back to the time when Lima was the seat of the most important Viceroyship in the Spanish colonies of South America.
This year PGS 2006 also saw the return of Korean virtual horse racing game ACE A&G Co. Ltd., which launched their newest graphics software. For the first time, the company brought to Peru a full 20-machine ACENET ASCOT playing system and a full size 6.4 metres wide screen. Managing Director Sang Sae Lee was very impressed by a full house during the two-day event, and declared: “We got orders from Peruvian operators, and also from casinos in Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador. The world’s leading horse racing game is set to be a triumph in more ways than one.”
CHILECASINOS 2006
First nine casino licences have been awarded in Chile, and by the time ChileCasinos 2006 takes place in December 5-7, another four licences may have been also awarded, out of a total of 16. Two companies that have done extremely well, the Fischer Group and the Martinez family’s Enjoy, are Chilean. Fischer has been awarded three licences, in the cities of Temuco, Valdivia and Punta Arenas.
Enjoy, which already operates four casinos in Chile including Viña del Mar, has been awarded the licence for Antofagasta. Viña del Mar and Antofagasta are considered by many to be two of the most lucrative casino locations. The other winners are Spanish Egasa-Nervion, Polaris with Casinos Austria, Panamanian Latin Gaming, local company JL Giner, and consortium Valmar with Peruvian and US capital.
SAGSE BUENOS AIRES TEAMS WITH ICE 2007
Over October 11-13, Monografie S.A., organizers of the world’s third-largest expo SAGSE Buenos Aires 2006, will reach new levels by breaking expo space levels and exhibitors in the Argentina event, and now this leading event has teamed up with ICE 2007 to help boost South American attendance to London and Europeans to Buenos Aires.
ICE 2007 is set to welcome more South American buyers than ever before, following the announcement of a joint promotional agreement with London show organizers, Clarion ATE. The joint marketing programme, which will comprise electronic marketing across visitor databases for the respective shows, reciprocal advertising banners and hyperlinks on the ICE and SAGSE websites, at-show promotional activities, and an enhanced presence for SAGSE on the show floor of ICE 2007, will culminate in a special delegation of key buyers from South America, organized by SAGSE and hosted by ICE.
John Fenna, Clarion ATE’s head of marketing, commented: “ICE is a major international hub for the casino sector and already enjoys phenomenal participation from industry professionals based in Europe, the CIS and North America. Whilst South American attendance at ICE has almost doubled since 2000 and reached a record-high of 136 in 2006, we are keen to ensure that the upward trend continues and are delighted to be working in partnership with SAGSE as the definitive authority in this region.”
Monografie’s Alan Burak, commercial director and show manager of SAGSE, added: “ICE and SAGSE are amongst the biggest events on the international calendar and we have been working towards this cooperative initiative for some time. Our agreement is designed to provide mutually beneficial advantages and I am confident that buyers and suppliers alike will reap the rewards when they attend the respective events in Buenos Aires in October, and London in January.”
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