Still a force to be reckoned with

Europe

IT may well be the spiritual home of casino gaming, but Europe has taken a back seat in recent times as other regions such as Asia and Latin America have taken the limelight.

The continent is, however, home to almost 900 casinos and therefore remains a major player in the industry in global terms. Many jurisdictions are saturated, some have witnessed casino closures, but there have also been significant additions over the past couple of years.

France leads the way with 195 casinos, although revenues have fallen in recent years due to a smoking ban and restrictions on the checking of player IDs. Only around a third of France’s casinos have seen increases in gross gaming revenue recently. There are 185 casinos in the Czech Republic although many of these are small venues. Revenues fell two years ago but are now at a higher level than they were in 2010 when the recession hit the hardest. However, there were a total of 199 casinos in the country in 2010.

The country with the third highest casino figure is the UK, which has 146 locations. Revenues and visitor numbers are both up in recent times, with both table games and slot incomes increasing. It has to be said though that the growth is mainly led by London’s casinos. Two-thirds of the venues are run by two operators - Genting and Rank Group.

Germany has 73 casinos, half of which are owned by the state and half by state-licensed private companies. There has been a slight decline in revenue recently but a mitigating factor is the fact that the country’s casinos have one of the world’s biggest tax burdens. Smoking bans and ATM access restrictions have not helped either.

There are 57 casinos in Estonia. However, seven years ago there were a total of 171. A lot of these were nothing more than slot arcades and a law that came into force in 2010 required that casinos should have at least 40 slots and/or five live gaming tables. Estonia-based operator Olympic Entertainment has a 56 per cent market share.

Read the full article in the February issue of InterGaming