This year’s exhibition occupied just three halls at the old Fiera in Rome. The organisation appears to have improved since the Rimini team took it in hand but we still maintain that this is a bad venue with appalling transport into the city. Even a member of the show’s organising team told of a three-hour wait for a taxi outside.

The slightly smaller size of the show (last year there were four halls) was apparently offset by the number of visitors, which, according to the organiser, was greater than last year at just under 10,000. The second day appeared to be busier, possibly because, being a Friday, more operators made the journey to the show part of a long weekend in Rome.

There were fewer overseas visitors and companies present at this year’s Enada mainly because there was nothing really for them to sell. Those who were there, were to be found walking the halls for information purposes only.

The Italian AWP market remains in transition. Comma 6 machines, which were the first to be produced under the new law, have been succeeded by the Comma 6a machines, the details of which are still being worked out. Nobody exactly knows when the details of the Comma 6a machines will be finalised but there is an outside chance that there may be some on sale by the time of the Rimini show next year.

The Comma 6a machines will all be connected to one of the 10 concessions, which are responsible for sending data from the machines to the tax department. This was the idea behind the original Comma 6 machines too, but only a fraction of those on site ever got connected. The new machines will incorporate a “smart card” for activation, which will be provided by the AAMS (gaming board). On October 12, the AAMS issued Circolare No 3 to explain how a gaming software manufacturer could obtain final certification by the AAMS. If the manufacturer is certified by the AAMS, he will obtain three testing smart cards and communication protocols from the AAMS.

The ongoing delays are understandably causing a great deal of frustration in the industry as a whole. However, at least there is now confirmation of how long operators may continue to use the original Comma 6 machines. From January 1 next year, licences issued to manufacturers to produce Comma 6 back in 2004/5 will expire immediately. Those issued in 2006 will expire on March 31, 2007.

From April 1, 2007, no further operating licences will be issued by the AAMS. Those issued in 2004 will expire on December 31, 2007. Those issued in 2005 will expire on September 30, 2008. Those issued in 2006 (or before March 31, 2007) will expire on June 30, 2009.

Robert Dykstra general manager of Octavian Europe, claimed the company had seen an upturn in sales of old Comma 6 machines since these dates were announced. However, others, such as Barcrest, claimed the market for Comma 6 is already completely dead.

And it is not just the AWP sector that is suffering. Redemption is not covered at all in the new law, which leaves it in a sort of grey area where companies can sell the machines but cannot guarantee to the operator that they won’t be confiscated further down the line by the police. Certainly a unique selling point but hardly an effective one!

The same applies to bingo machines of the type more usually seen in Belgium. However, two Belgian companies have had some success selling these in Italy, namely GAA and Seeben. Perhaps this is because Italy has a tradition for this type of machine, particularly in the south.

As for any type of amusement machine with a screen – these have also come under scrutiny from the gaming board. Its testing arm, SOGEI, has been entrusted with the job of analysing the source code to all amusements of this type to ensure they are not concealing an element of gaming.

Funworld’s Marco Huter explained, “The day before the show started, I spent nine hours in the offices of SOGEI. We went through the source code of seven games, line by line. Security was extremely tight, as it should be, for the source code is the secret of our success.” As a result, Funworld was only able to show its previous System 2006 at Enada, and this on terminals that were not networked. The company’s innovative System 2007 was shown to operators and distributors as a PowerPoint presentation at a special dinner but it will be some time before it is fully approved.

Although it is easy to shake one’s head at such high levels of security, in the Italian market it is probably advisable. In very recent times, the country was awash with illegal video pokers that could pay for themselves within a week – meaning that nobody really cared if there was suddenly a police raid and many were confiscated. It will be no mean feat to bring the market under control and to ensure it stays that way and some might say almost an impossible task. But the industry has gone along with it all, putting up with amendments upon amendments and still they have nothing concrete to put on their stands and sell to operators.

This is why there is a lot of bad feeling about the situation concerning the betting industry. Italy currently has 700 betting shops, 250 bingo halls and four casinos. The government recently announced its plans to offer another 17,000 licences to open betting concessions, which could take the form of shops or areas within bars. Perhaps this could be an opportunity for those amusement and AWP operators with nothing to operate? Wrong! The new licences are only being made available to those operators already holding betting licences. Some of these licence holders were at the show, pitching for funding from the coin-op sector in order to expand their operations.

“I am an operator who has always paid my taxes and I thought I could participate in this, but now I find out it will be given to the people who already have licences. It is incredible. Have we not suffered enough in this industry?” asked Tiziano Tredese, Managing Director of Elmac, during the show.

Well, apparently not – for it seems that tacked on to the deregulation of the betting industry will be a provision for fixed-odds betting terminals. And it will be a bit late for most of the manufacturers who have been up to their eyeballs following the progress of Comma 6a to get a slice of the pie. Not to mention the fact that the FOBTs are unlikely to come under the same scrutiny as the AWPs in the first place. These FOBTs will be in every bar and betting shop offering much higher stakes and prizes and turning the Comma 6a into the poor relation. A cynic might say that the story will then play out with an upsurge in problem gambling, which will be blamed on the AWPs, and that will be followed by swift action from the government clamping down on private operation – neatly timed to coincide with an election.

So, not surprisingly there was a schism within Enada with almost one entire hall given over to the burgeoning betting industry, while the rest showed the usual mix of unplayed and overlooked AWP machines, sports equipment and the odd video game, most notably on the Tecnoplay stand. Here there was one happy face, that of Gary Stern who claims that given the problems with video, his pinballs are doing extremely well in Italy, which is now his number one market in Europe. Every cloud has a silver lining.

To conclude: still waiting for Comma 6a, another nice trip to Rome for all concerned, but no money to be made. The big questions remain: will the machines be ready for Rimini? And if they are, will the players want them?

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