• 2016 May
• How do you evaluate SAGSE Central America & the Caribbean 2016?
Surely all participants of this year's event would share our opinion that the show has grown bigger. Its organization was in all senses professional: booth installation and dismantle were quick, while both days of the show were busy with operators and managers from Panama and other countries of the region.
Surely all participants of this year's event would share our opinion that the show has grown bigger. Its organization was in all senses professional: booth installation and dismantle were quick, while both days of the show were busy with operators and managers from Panama and other countries of the region.
• At the show, DLV presented its new cabinet Diamond Excel. What is the potential of the product? What elements, in your opinion, might appear attractive to operators and players?
We are convinced that this product will show even greater results than our previous ones. It should, of course, be mentioned that Diamond Excel was initially meant to be operated just in casinos and not in gaming halls or in street operation, therefore visually and by its specifications it lives up to all casino equipment standards, including high-quality peripherals such as, for example, iVizion bill acceptor from JCM. The same as previous models it is reliable and easy to use, which is good for operators, as well as features gaming programs, which, as did our previous programs, offer a wide selection of games with different themes and mathematics, which will definitely catch fancy of players.
• Panama is one of the markets where DLV is actively working this year. How many machines did you sell in the country last year? What are your plans for 2016? Are you close to fulfilling them?
Last year was more of a test period, as we just completed homologation procedure and installed various machines in Panama and Santiago, as well as sold a number of machines to our partners who installed them in their venues. This year one more casino has been added to the list; that casino is situated in the Chinatown of the city and we are testing our Dragon jackpot there. In 2016 first and foremost we plan to get approval for our new cabinet and multigame and then actively distribute them in the casinos of the country.
• The latest data revealed by the Gaming Control Board are not very positive for the gaming industry of Panama. Which factors, in your opinion, have led to this situation and how do you think would be possible to go back to previous state?
Our local customers commented upon that, and yogonet itself mentioned in some of its articles, that this was, most probably, caused by the introduction of 5% tax on bets. After all, for many local players gambling is not so much a pastime as it is a source of income, they go to casinos having winning as a goal, so it's quite logical to expect that if now they are forced to leave 5% of their win at the casino, many start questioning whether it's worth gambling at all.
• What other countries of Central America are of interest to DLV? Have you concluded any contracts there lately?
Apart from Panama, this is first of all Costa Rica for the simple reason that we already work there and know that our products are very profitable in the country. During the show of Panama we got once again assured of that, as we were visited by many people from Costa Rica who had our older machines and were asking about our other more modern ones. Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua are among other countries where DLV products are present and, thanks to their good results, their number continues to increase. Generally, we are interested in all countries of the region, we enter them slowly but systematically and at the moment it seems that everything is shaping up quite well for us.