The Spanish FER trade show opened its doors at the IFEMA, the Madrid exhibition grounds, this morning to a background of tentative optimism.
The AWP business in Spain, the principal gaming activity next to the lottery, had suffered badly along with the Spanish economy over the past four years.
A reduction in income of around 30 per cent at times, and the failure of some operating companies as a result, had seen the business in a deep depression. But the country’s economic fortunes took a turn for the better in 2014 and for the first time in years moved into positive figures – and the street market in gaming also showed signs of recovery.
The FER trade show, around half of the size it was 10 years ago, remains the principal annual shop window for the business in arcades and pubs, as well as in the growing number of electronic bingo shops which are beginning to be permitted in many of Spain’s 17 jurisdictions.
Most of the major contributors to Spain’s 200,000 AWP machines are at the show with strong product. Merkur Gaming with its subsidiary Dosniha, Aristocrat, Cirsa, Franco, Bally Sente, Novomatic, and the major electronic bingo manufacturers Metronia, Zitro and Ortiz are all present.
