Helen Popper looks at the fortunes - and politics - of Argentina
To understand what makes Argentina’s gaming industry tick, you have to visit the sprawling suburbs that encircle Buenos Aires.
At midday on a Wednesday in La Matanza, a mainly working-class district with a population of nearly 1.8 million, the Mirador slot and bingo parlour is bustling.
At least half the machines in the 24-hour machine room are occupied as housewives and pensioners drop in with their shopping bags. In the bingo hall upstairs, the restaurant does a steady trade. La Matanza lies in the vast province of Buenos Aires, which along with the federal capital is estimated to generate 70 per cent of gaming revenue in the South American country.
Spain’s Codere dominates the province’s slots business with a chain of 14 bingos, of which Mirador is the largest. Industry experts say Argentina’s mature and stable gaming market, among Latin America’s largest, is the Spanish company’s most profitable operation due partly to the economic crisis at home.
Walter Martello, a local lawmaker who wants the industry to be nationalised in the province, says the three bingos in La Matanza bring in profits of 730 million pesos (about 100 million euros) per year alone.
But while Argentina is a lucrative market, uncertainty is hanging over the gaming industry due to a worsening economic outlook, volatile policy-making and persistent demands for increased state intervention.
Read the full article in the June issue of InterGaming.
