David Snook finds that, in the casino industry, Austria really performs...

It never ceases to amaze me every time I go there. For a small country of only seven million people, Austria exerts so much influence over the international games and gaming industry.

In the amusement sector, TAB-Austria and Funworld make touchscreen terminals which are used for games, internet, music and they now build for some of the big names in the sports betting industry.

In the street market, Novomatic, Amatic, Global Draw and Cashpoint are all major international names.

But in the casino industry Austria really performs: Novomatic, Amatic, Atronic, Atronic Systems (Grips) and Casinos Austria International, are all undeniably names known and respected around the world.

The question is: why? There are many theories, but the answer is probably a combination of factors. The influence probably has its roots in the mid-1970s, about the time that the Austrian Government began to effectively close down its domestic gaming market. It concentrated its casinos into the hands of one company, Casinos Austria AG, and severely limited its street market. The people working that market, frustrated by an inability to expand, looked outside their own borders.

With the video poker business getting off the ground in the eastern European countries immediately surrounding Austria’s borders, people like Graf at Novomatic and Bauer at Amatic had a ready market. Others like Dattl at TAB and Öhlinger at Funworld went off in a slightly different direction. And later Grubmuller at Global Draw was to revolutionise the ailing British bookmakers with fixed odds betting machines.

So it was probably a combination of frustration, opportunity, natural entrepreneurism and perhaps a reflection of the excellent technical skill turned out by Austrian universities.

Whatever the reason, Austria has taken the games and gaming business on to new levels. In the purely casino sector, the suppliers are spread around three of the major cities of the country. Just outside of the capital, Vienna, Novomatic has built what is almost a small town - outside the village of Gumpoldskirchen - from where it runs a casino and street supply empire which stretches around the world.

Down in Styria, at Graz, Atronic has its base together with Atronic Systems which grew out of the Grips systems supplier. Atronic itself has a remarkable history, acquired as a tiny manufacturing unit by the German giant Gauselmann Group, which built it up to world power in the slots business.

More recently it has been acquired by GTech Corporation but remains with its Graz headquarters. In Upper Austria, just outside of Linz, is the factory of Amatic, where Reinhold Bauer has built a European-wide business in video slots for both the street and casino markets and taken a leading position with his multi-player automated table games.

But what of Austria’s domestic casino market? That monopoly situation is in the hands of Casinos Austria, itself a world power in the casino industry. It has the exclusive rights to run casinos across Austria, granted by an act of the Austrian parliament which appears to be unshakable. It runs the country’s 12 casinos and also has a stake in the lottery, the Österreichische Lotterien (ÖLG), which is the biggest tax raiser in the country.

It goes without saying that this position of eminence in the Austrian domestic scene is subject to some criticism by Casinos Austria’s compatriots. In the past, some severe comments have come from Novomatic’s Johan Graf, in particular that a company of Novomatic’s size in the world cannot operate within its own country.

It is a situation about which Casinos Austria remains sanguine. Indeed, its deputy CEO Paul Herzfeld told me that the group remains comfortable with indications from the EC that every country can control its own gambling laws. And whatever effect their sniping at one another may have, Casinos Austria remains a major customer for Novomatic equipment - a factor which is perhaps not lost on Mr Graf.

It is ironic that it was that monopoly factor, perhaps more than anything, which drove Austria’s entrepreneurs to spread their interests abroad and unwittingly helped to create an Austrian global dynasty which survives - and thrives - today.

It is by no means a cushioned life for Casinos Austria at home, however. Apart from the company’s obligation to perform in terms of its contributions to the national exchequer, Casinos Austria has to contend with considerable rivalry within its own territory.

Limited payout machines in the street locations are allowed only in four of the nine provinces of Austria, yet where they are allowed, they are of extremely high quality. One only has to go into Novomatic’s ‘casino’ in the Prater major tourist area of Vienna to see a casino of international standards - but with limited payout facilities.

Novomatic’s Admiral brand is also all over Austria in terms of sports betting shops or ‘Sportwetten’, with online betting terminals in sophisticated surroundings. Other major companies such as Cashpoint and Wettpunkt also compete strongly in this sector and offer a considerably wider product than Casinos Austria’s Tipp3. That Casinos Austria betting facility has a major advantage, however, as it is operated in conjunction with the national lottery through many thousands of tobacconist shops, petrol stations and post offices. It is a neat competition between variety and opportunity.

And it doesn’t end there, for with a totally landlocked topography and surrounded by other gaming jurisdictions, Austrians have considerable temptation to cross a border to play. The Italian, Swiss, Czech, Slovenian, German and Hungarian casino owners are not slow to issue invitations. Now there is a major new casino with 1,500 slots in the course of construction at Hegyshalom right on the border, but on the Hungarian side.

Hedging its bets neatly, Casinos Austria International actually owns or operates on a management basis some of those rival casinos, in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland.

And if betting is not illegal in Austria, then the operation of card casinos might supplement the activities of sports betting shops and terminals? This too nibbles at the potential for Casinos Austria Group. Cashpoint, for example, plans to open card casinos at some of its sports betting outlets in Lower Austria and there are other organisations such as the Concord Card Casino, which has outlets in Vienna, Innsbruck, Salzburg and Linz. That 12-year-old operation is very sophisticated with bar, restaurant and 24-hour operation.

These effects certainly serve to keep Casinos Austria ‘on its toes,’ a factor of which the group is acutely aware. Its own product, however, remains one of the most polished in the world.

A visit to one of the flagship locations at Baden, for example, reveals a casino of outstanding proportions and opulence - and thickly peopled as early as 8pm.

Casinos Austria is, however, just one part - albeit a major part - of the Austrian casinos scene.

The operations may be in one set of hands there, but the country itself can be found all over the world, in terms of a shipboard casino, a land casino in any one of 100 countries and the equipment and services supplied to the world.

It is a remarkable achievement by - in terms of geography and population - a small country that is almost, but not quite, an enigma.