What a difference a year – or two or three - makes. It’s a few years since I visited Rome for the ENADA show so I was astounded this week at the buzz the event was generating.
It had always been a fairly local event where you really had to polish up your Italian language skills before venturing out on the show floor. Not any more. Obviously Italian is still the tongue most used there but the show had international overtones only normally felt at the London events.
I guess it’s a situation that has evolved since the advent of the video lottery terminal two or three years ago when all the ‘internationals’ started eyeing up the potential of a new gaming machine market. Italy has always had a good number of AWPs on site, mainly in the bars, with figures quoted of anywhere between 300,000 to 400,000 – officially I think 350,000. Of course Italian legislation is always “interesting” to say the least.
The Comma 6 legislation for AWPs graduated to Comma 6a and is shortly expected to be promoted to Comma 6a+ with each new Comma layer adding a higher degree of security and reportage. The government is always hoping that with every new step it can keep a greater track of game usage and therefore collect the appropriate taxes. Well, full marks to them for trying. Maybe one day they will be totally happy.
VLTs have been successful because tracking is easier and because the stakes and payouts are higher and because they were part of a government initiative back in 2009 to generate funds for the Abruzzo population which had been hit by an earthquake. There are only around 45,000 on site, with a possibility of around 58,000 being located overall.
But it is this phenomenon that has brought about the international status of the Italian market. Only 10 concessionaires are permitted to operate the VLTs but virtually all the major international machine manufacturers have launched a VLT for the Italian market. This has turned ENADA into an international event in terms of both exhibitors and visitors. Visitors from round the globe were seen walking the aisles.
The third element to this year’s ENADA was the growth of the i-gaming sector. Legislation has changed to allow simulated sports betting online and one hall at the show was more or less full of companies providing for the online market. Of course the pure amusement guys are looking at the show and thinking, “here we go again, it’s now all about gaming and the pure amusement side is diminishing.”
To a point this is correct and is generally the case in a country where gaming is permitted. But there are still many people in the business who dabble in all elements - amusements, gaming and now, online gaming - so you can’t ignore the positive element of crossover business at an amusement and gaming event.
I know the Italian trade association SAPAR was holding a conference about the effects of online gaming and its possible detrimental effects on the amusement industry but I hope they keep it in perspective and don’t start organising breakaway shows, which would fragment the industry.
In my book the ENADA show this year proved that all sides of the gaming coin can live together at an event and feed off each other. I was there for two days and the comprehensive elements of equipment and, possibly more importantly, the people seen there made the trip very worthwhile.
