If there is one part of the world where the amusement machine is not under pressure, it is the Middle East. Having just returned from a gruelling slog through the desert – well, Dubai, anyway and a few other hotspots like Doha and Riyadh – it never ceases to amaze how well amusement machines can do when not whipped out of sight by gaming machines.
OK, they are different businesses, but in many respects they collide, merge, even cross-pollinate. They are both generally coin operated, or with bills or debit cards if you want to split hairs, but you know what I mean; they both entertain; they both repay, even if it is just a smile rather than cash or fluffy toys.
But the amusement machine, the video game, the redemption machine, the novelty, the kiddie ride, the pinball, pool table or air hockey, is always minor league next to the Premier League or La Liga of the slot machine or even the AWP.
In the Middle East there aren’t any slot machines (OK, a dozen casinos in Egypt, one in Lebanon etc, but they are not for locals so let’s not muddy the waters). The amusement machines are housed in family entertainment centres, all indoor, all air-conditioned, all next to the food court, all in major shopping malls. And the shopping malls are glittering palaces to retail. All the big names are there - Hermes, DKNY, Massimo Dutti, Faberge and more.
The shopping malls are spreading like wildfire; every big new development in each of the forward-looking countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council, like the UAE, Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, is a shimmering palace of concrete, steel and glass with every expensive brand name you can think of among the retailers.
But they are empty. You can walk around them and there’s no-one there. How do they make money? The FECs do OK by all accounts, but in the retail areas people are like gold dust. In a European shopping mall you can’t swing a cat on a Saturday; in a Dubai shopping mall on the same day you can easily swing several giraffes tied end-to-end.
The bottom line is that they don’t have to make money; most of them are the playthings of the glitterati of Middle Eastern oil revenues, testimony to egos, whatever. Not all of them, you understand, but certainly some of them.
Whatever. As long as their FECs do OK and they buy games, why should we worry?
