CIRSA executive says land-based gambling is evolving, not reconverting

CIRSA corporate institutional relations director Carlos Duelo said the land-based gambling sector is undergoing an evolution rather than a reconversion, at the XIX Congreso de Juego de Castilla y León in Soria. Duelo opened the conference's first panel discussion, titled on whether the different gambling games are at a crossroads of evolution or reconversion, and answered that there is an evolution and no crossroads, but that there are challenges.

Duelo said gaming halls had once been warehouses of hospitality machines and had been converted into leisure venues for adults, with more capable technology and product offerings. He said the product remains the same but that current multigame and video machines have little in common with the reels and lights of three decades ago, and that the sector has evolved alongside changes in society and regulation. On artificial intelligence, he said he did not think it would be traumatic for the gambling sector and that it would help with matters such as management.

On bingo, Duelo said tax issues in all regions need to be fixed if the hall industry is to be revitalised, and cited a 50% tax rate in Catalonia that he said makes the activity unviable. He also referred to Andalucía's recent initiative to regulate bingos in bars for older people and social entities, saying it surely has a clear purpose but carries the risk that such venues could become clandestine bingos, which he said must be watched closely.

For gaming halls, Duelo called for harmonising rules across regions, in line with what regional presidency minister Luis Miguel González Gago has raised. He said loyalty programmes require information about the player and provide tools to prevent harmful gambling behaviour. For casinos, he said electronic tables should be permitted in all regions and treated as machines, describing this as an improvement for both the offering and management.