Can Spain tackle its declining machine revenues?
THERE is only one small arcade in the Spanish town of Tarifa…And that’s closed, barred and shuttered, like hundreds of other smaller locations, both arcades and bars, across the country.
In the case of Tarifa, it might be considered something of a surprise, for the town (population 17,000), in Andalucia, and incidentally the southernmost point in Europe, just 17 miles from the Moroccan coast across the Straits of Gibraltar, is an important tourist point. It has a direct ferry connection with the North African city of Tangier and thousands use it every week. But the only arcade is closed.
In the past four years thousands of Spanish arcades and bars have closed as the recession bit fiercely into the industry and machine income plunged by as much as 30 per cent. The recessionary impact on the business is always reflected in its trade shows and in that time its no.2 annual event, the show in Malaga, closed and the main shop-window, the FER in Madrid, contracted sharply.
All of these effects were in face of some sympathetic attempts by the authorities to ameliorate the problems. Taxes were reduced, more user-friendly machine features permitted, fresh and more aggressive gambling games introduced – Spain’s 17 semi-autonomous regions have shown themselves to be infinitely friendlier to the gaming industry than their colleagues in other European countries.
In has come the digital age at last. For some years the suppliers tried to interest Spanish AWP players in the wealth of features offered by video presentation of gaming, only to be frustrated by Europe’s most conservative players. Several years of hybrid machines, with mechanical reels and video feature screens followed and the provinces, one-by-one, approved their use. Now the entire country accepts the legality of the video monitor and the market is shifting across to the next logical step, the reprogrammable games.
In also have come automated bingo games, putting into a machine the game which is popular in clubs and halls across Spain. Automated casino table games are also permitted in some provinces, aping the sophistication of the international casino with an AWP-rules game. Sports betting is also a growth market in Spain as is of course the internet, which is having an adverse effect on the country’s near-50 formal casinos. There is also the positive impact from a new top prize of €500, which has been introduced in the Madrid region and which other regions are now adopting.
Mostly, however, these influences have fallen on stony ground in face of a recession which at one time saw Spain close to defaulting on its debts and unemployment reaching as high as 40 per cent in some areas. This year, thankfully, there have been the first green shoots of recovery evident with the national economy showing a tiny fraction of a positive expansion.
Read the full article in the June issue of InterGame
