“The event began 10 years ago in Cartagena with five exhibitors; this year in Bogotá there were 140, and we are really proud of the results.”
The most impressive thing this year has been the development of stand design. IGT shone with a two-storey stand similar to exhibits in Las Vegas and London. Welcoming visitors at the impressive booth was the General Manager of IGT distributor Gaming & Technology Peru y Colombia, Francisco Ledesma Martínez, showing to the many visitors the latest IGT innovations in gaming machines and systems were on display under the theme ‘The Right Vision.’
Further down, Nevena Aleksieva, Casino Technology Latin America director was run off her feet showing the Bulgarian company’s new luxury slot machine series ‘Gemini’, which boasts a dual 19” LCD display. This elegant and attractive game is proving very popular in Latin America as it introduces a new set of ergonomic designs that encourages longer play from casino visitors. The Gemini is a perfect solution for linking video slots to the multi-level jackpot system ‘Quatro Cash Mania’, where the second monitor can be easily integrated with the rich multimedia animations of the jackpot display.
Atronic launched the popular game “Deal or No Deal – The Experience” for the region. The Experience is a two-level progressive system offering three bonus features including The Experience, the Case Bonus and the Mystery Prize Bonus.  Lately, The Latin American Atronic office has moved in Lima, Peru to the San Borja district where dozens of slots salons line up in a Las Vegas-style ‘strip’ in Avenida Aviacion.   
In all, some 140 companies exhibited n FADJA 2008, and according to Mery Luz Londoño, president of the government entity ETESA, which regulates gaming in Colombia for the benefit of health and welfare: “This fair is very important for the government. It brings together the businessmen, operators and the government in meetings to strengthen strategic alliances and promote the development of this important industry in Colombia.”
Londoño explained that the money collected by the government from the gaming industry finances health and welfare programmes in the country. She added that FADJA is an excellent opportunity to advance and adjust the national gaming industry to developments in the international markets.
The Latin American event had a sector dedicated to the local lotteries, where Janneth Vélez, director of a lottery firm that employs some 500,000 sales people, most of whom are women said that they have a project to revive the local horse racing industry in the country: “We are making a large investment with the backing of the Bogota local government to develop a new race track in the capital city”.
The Colombia event, which celebrated its 10th Anniversary this year also housed the launch of the novel ‘En tierra derecha’ (In the Straight), penned by writer Alfredo Arango and Colombia’s veteran race track commentator Guillermo Davila, also known as The Magician, who is an institution in the country on a par with UK’s legendary Peter O’Sullivan. A first reading of the book after experiencing a week in Bogota only left me with one word: “Magic!”

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