FINAL PRESS RELEASE-ENADA PRIMAVERA, +13%: GAMING WINS HANDS DOWN

Rimini, 20th March 2010 . Gaming wins, or rather: comes up trumps. SAPAR´s 22nd ENADA SPRING International Amusement & Gaming Machine Show, organized by Rimini Fiera for the members of the gaming and amusement trade, closed this afternoon at Rimini expo centre after an extraordinary success as far as attendance was concerned. The expo, leader in Italy and Southern Europe, was attended by a total of 28,865 trade visitors (13% more than 2009). No less than 3,540 foreign trade members took part (26% up on the previous edition).
The show is organized by the Rimini company in March in Rimini and in October in Rome, with the sponsorship of the AAMS, the support of EUROMAT and the collaboration of ASCOB, FIDART, ANESV and S.I.CON.

Simone Castelli, manager of Rimini Fiera´s business unit 2 comments: ´This edition met with the utmost satisfaction of both exhibitors and organizers. The large increase in its international profile was decisive. At the show, exhibitors included really big names on the market: American, English, German and Austrian companies played a decisive role. We added two halls to the expo, increase space to 40,000 square metres. Companies taking part - over 400 exhibited directly or were represented - showcased important new products on very high profile stands. Important business was done and, on the visitor front, we increased Italian attendance, while activity done at international level enabled us to considerably increase foreign visitor attendance. Confirming the good market trend, the show was also very appreciated for the opportunities it offered for in-depth discussion and training, in a period in which the entire sector is rapidly evolving.´

ENADA project manager Gabriella Zoni adds, ´The excellent situation of the new slot machines revitalized the sector, and the upcoming video lottery debut is also raising optimism. Entrepreneurs continue to bank on the future of their business, which shows it is expanding rapidly.´

The turnover generated each year in Italy by the betting and public game sector was equivalent to 3.5% of the GDP. In 2009, overall takings totalled 54.4 billion euros.

SAPAR Chairman Raffaele Curcio continues, ´As an association, we are particularly proud of how this edition turned out. ENADA SPRING grows year by year and represents a winning cooperation between networks and owners. Rimini Fiera´s professionalism is an absolute guarantee and the expo just held has strengthened it even more. The interaction launched here between State Monopoly, associations, owners and companies is an excellent auspice for ensuring the development of the gaming industry and the entire chain.´

The State Monopoly, which sets the sector´s rules, turned out in force and in a convinced manner at the Rimini expo. On Wednesday 17th, after the ribbon-cutting ceremony with SAPAR chairman Raffaele Curcio and Rimini Fiera chairman Lorenzo Cagnoni, a press conference was held in which participants included Francesco Rodano, director of Office 1 (control of management and surveillance) of Italy´s State Monopoly Administration.

THE CONFERENCES
SAPAR, the association whose members manage amusement and gaming machines and is the promoter of ENADA SPRING, held a conference entitled ´New slot machines and Video Lottery. Management companies and concessionaires, cooperation for the future´, moderated by Monica Cuprifi of jamma.it.
In a few words, the two machines have very different playing methods and win prospects. The new slot machines have a maximum bet of 1 euro, a maximum win of 100 euros and a percentage payout of at least 75% of bets placed. New slot machines are widespread in public venues.
Video Lotteries have a maximum bet of 10 euros, a maximum win of 5,000 euros and a percentage payout of at least 85% of the bets and also features a jackpot. up to 100.000 euro in the hall, up to 500,000 euros on behalf of the concessionaire. Video lotteries can only be installed in halls exclusively reserved for licensed gaming establishments.
SAPAR chairman Raffaele Curcio expressed a wish: ´With Video lotteries we hope to repeat the winning format achieved with new slot machines. In fact, owners will undertake to ensure they are an even greater success.´
But what role will new slot machines play in the context of the new scenario when the Video Lotteries arrive? On this matter, various positions were heard.
Vitaliano Casalone, chairman of concessionaire Gamenet said, ´I do not share owners´ alarm for the arrival of Video Lotteries. It will be necessary to increase our knowledge and expertise to adapt to suit new responsibilities, but in my opinion ´hall managers´ coincide with the current managers, even if we shall have a reduced activity chain.´
SNAI chairman Maurizio Ughi is less reassuring: ´The figure of the traditional owner will no longer exist in the Video Lottery sector - that will become the job of the concessionaire. We shall also have halls along the lines of mini casinos. If current owners/managers manage to unite and acquire a concession, they will retain their role.´
HBG Group chairman Antonio Porsia reminded, ´Our tradition started with Bingo halls and many VLTs will end up in these halls. The owner or manager will have over 50% of our VLTs and will have to run a sort of electronic casino´. New Slot machines and VLTs will overlap, but from a numerical point of view there will be no losses.´
Armando Iaccarino, director in charge of Office 12 of the AAMS, concluded: ´In my opinion, the figure of the business chain will be established by the strategy of the concessionaire. The experimental phase of the VLT system will close at the end of April, then throughout the country the activities will gradually be checked and we shall begin to really see new slot machines and VLT side by side. 2011 will be the year in which the system will fully up and running.´ Iaccarino also reminded attendees of statistics gathered regarding new slot machines, of which there are 330,000 throughout Italy: ´In the first two months, there was an increase of 27% compared to 2009´.

Training in the gaming sector is one of the primary objectives of the UNIGIOCO Foundation (chaired by the Rt. Hon. Giorgio Benvenuto), founded to provide in-dept understanding of the gaming phenomenon in all its dynamics, and which, on the occasion of ENADA SPRING, presented EURISPEA s.r.l., the first company in Italy to organize training courses for managers and owners of gaming halls. At the meeting, moderated by Monica Cuprifi, chief editor of Jamma, participants included Francesco Tolotti, Vice chairman of the Foundation UNIGIOCO, Prof. Giuseppe Strampelli, MD of EURISPEA, and the General Manager of Venice Casino, Prof. Carlo Pagan.
The training course provided by Eurispea, thanks to the contribution of two of the sector´s experts, such as Venice Casino, for the large amount of expertise accumulated in centuries of casino activity, and Gamenet S.p.A., AAMS concessionaire one of the major experts of the Public Gaming chain, will provide the experience necessary to trade members who in the near future will have to manage the activities of VLT halls. More in detail, the new figures will be specialized in operational hall management (Gaming Hall Assistants), in the analysis of the flow of clients and the gaming offer (Gaming Hall CRM Assistant), and the management of several connected halls (Gaming Hall Manager).
These new professionals will have to pay particular attention, in their relationship with clients, to spread the culture of responsible gaming to prevent and combat the phenomenon of compulsive gaming.


The meeting ´Between online and VLT, what does the future have in store for Bingo halls?´, organized by JEA on behalf of the ASCOB association of Bingo concessionaires, was for certain aspects historical. In fact, the chairman of the ASCOB, Salvatore Barbieri and the chairman of FEDERBINGO, Italo Marcotti met for the first time in public. Along with them, there was Massimo Ruta, country manager Italy of the Codere Group, Antonio Porsia, chairman of the HBG Group and Stefano Sbordoni, an expert lawyer in this sector. Two specialized journalists moderated the meeting: Fabio Felici of Agicos and Maurizio Brodo of Jamma. After years of crisis, Bingo is now beginning to see the light again and the sector´s figures are rising, thanks above all to taxes being halved, which has enabled an inversion in the trend for the sector. The other element of this ground-breaking turning point will be video lotteries: it has been said that bingo halls are in fact the ideal location for VLTs since, as well as being halls in which games are held, they also offer food service and meeting facilities. The figures are impressive: Porsia said, ´If all the bingo halls were to use every one of the 150 VLTs that each could install, in Italy we would have something like 25,000 to 30,000 VLTs, which means an extraordinary opportunity for attracting new clients.´
The meeting was also the opportunity for stressing the fact that there is no rivalry between the associations, only constructive collaboration: for the benefit of Bingo.

The Awedacity team on the other hand organized a one-day seminar to provide all the necessary means for in-depth knowledge of the Italian video lottery market (Comma 6b). Important representatives of the sector alternated on stage, managing directors of well known gaming concessionaires, CEO of avant-garde technological platforms and the creators of the scene´s most innovative games. All for the benefit of those Italian and international trade members and suppliers who are considering becoming part of an increasingly growing market

Last but not least, an ´SOS´ was launched from the conference organized by CNA Play Areas, a new association sponsored by CNA Forlì-Cesena and CNA National Production, made up of companies manufacturing and importing inflatable games, as well and owners of equipped playground facilities. The alarm call regards the use of inflatable items and also small amusement machines such as table soccer and trampolines. This is all due to the enforcement of the Legislative Decree of 18.5.2007, which lists these games in the context of those used by the companies in the ´travelling show´ sector. i.e. fun fairs. This has resulted in very strict regulations, to the point of requiring a specific licence in order to be able to use them. The Decree, regarding ´Safety Regulations for travelling show activities´ was followed by a circular on 1st December 2009, which emended this Decree. Measures that have brought the companies involved to their knees.

THE EXHIBITIONS
ENADA SPRING hosted the no-profit association Tilt!, founded in Bologna by a group of fans of coin-op machines (mainly pinball machines and video games, but also juke-boxes, antique slot machines and more) to give an official character to its activity of historical research on these machines.
The value of this collection was acknowledged in 2008 by the UNESCO, which include a link to www.tilt.it on its Web site, indicating the association´s library as being of great interest for scholars or other people studying the history of the Italian and international coin-op world.
Now, fifteen years after its foundation, the Tilt! association and the site that represents it are famous in Italy and abroad as reference points for everything to do with coin-op games in Italy at non-professional level. This is also thanks to the continuous activities open to the public that Tilt! hold constantly.

At TOTEM SAIL, it was possible to admire a new exhibition dedicated to games and gaming by Amato Patriarca, an artist trained in Milan, where he gained his first experience as a painter and as a fashion and costume designer. Patriarca then followed his instinct as a tireless traveller and culture ´accumulator,´ moving between Europe, America, Australia and Indonesia, attracting the attention of the public and critics, thanks above all to the originality of his painting technique, with which puts the style of publicity and graphics on canvas. The theme of this year´s exhibition is ´A Master´s Win & Artist´s Games´. The exhibition, and its catalogue, strongly emphasized the commitment of Totem Sail, AAMS, Providers and Concessionaires in support of gaming and sport and, at the same time, showed the value of amusement intended as an important element of day to day life.

Once again this year, one of the big attractions will be the exhibition of period gaming and amusement machines from the Morlacchi collection. A few curious facts: The 100 year-old Mills ´Commercial Ben Hur´ wheel machine, which was in San Francisco saloons in the days of the Gold Rush. The Watling Rol-A-Top from 1935, the most widespread and best-known in the Thirties, the 1933 Daval Gum Vendor, one of the smallest ever manufactured, the Jenning ´Sun Chief´ (1948), the one most frequently used in the first casinos in Reno and Las Vegas. Then there´s the Stafford Nickelodeon automatic piano, with an eight-piece ´band´ inside, the 1948 ´Pla-Mor´ juke box with 78 rpm records manufactured by Packard, a company owned by Homer Capeheart (US Republican Senator from 1944 to 1962) or the better known 1955 Seeburg ´V200´ and the 1962 Ami ´Continental 2´, which offer an insight on the various stages of audio entertainment. Pinball machines were also much admired: from those of the late Fifties, such as the Williams ´Jig Saw´ from 1957, the year in which it was prohibited in Italy, since it was considered gambling, to those from the mid Sixties, such as the Gottlieb ´World Fair´. Petrol pumps from Forties and Fifties US gas stations, a Coca Cola chest cooler, ornaments and decorative items that form the setting for one of the most beautiful unique collections of this kind.



The next appointment for gaming and amusement trade members is ENADA ROME, from October 6th to 8th 2010.


The press releases of this edition of ENADA SPRING can be downloaded from the Web site www.enadaprimavera.it



PRESS CONTACTS:
Rimini Fiera SpA Communication and Media Relations Service
Tel. +39 0541 744510 press@riminifiera.it manager: Elisabetta Vitali; press office coordinator: Marco Forcellini; press and PR staff (Italy and abroad): Nicoletta Evangelisti Mancini and Alessandro Caprio; media consultant: Cesare Trevisani, Nuova Comunicazione Associati.