UNI-Americas Gaming Sector Bulletin

Publié: 20 Octobre 2008
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Nro 04 - OCTOBER 2008




PROGRESS MADE AT UNI-AMERICAS GAMING SECTOR’S FIRST ANNUAL MEETING


Bolivia-IN THREE MONTHS, A NEW REGULATION WILL COME INTO EFFECT WITH A VIEW TO CONTROLLING GAMING HALLS IN BOLIVIA


Brasil-NEW MEASURE TO LEGALIZE BINGO HALLS AND CASINOS IN BRAZIL


Venezuela-THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM HAS BANNED CASINOS AND BINGO HALLS IN VENEZUELA


United States-A CAMPAIGN WILL BE LAUNCHED TO ALLOW THE OPERATION OF CASINOS IN MIAMI BEACH
UNI-Americas Gaming Sector held its first Annual Meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 15-16 September 2008. The event was attended by 20 trade union leaders from Spain and six countries in Latin America. Under the lead of Alke Boessinger, UNI Gaming Sector Head of Department (Nyon, Switzerland) and Daniel Amoroso, (President of UNI-Americas Gaming Sector), the participants delved into different issues with a view to strengthening the organization of bingo and casino workers by UNI Global Union in Panama, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Brazil.

At the beginning of the meeting, a report was presented on the activities carried out by UNI-Americas Gaming Sector since its creation (4-6 September 2007 in Buenos Aires)

to date, as well as the review of the Action Plan for 2007-2008. The increasing expansion of the gaming trade in Panama and the Dominican Republic was examined carefully by two specialists in the subject who carried out an excellent analysis of the trade in said countries.



The meeting was held in Brazil, where there exists at present a gambling ban; therefore, union leaders from Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Turismo e Hospitalidade (CONTRATUH) and the Sindicato Dos Empregados em Casas de Diversões de São Paulo e Região (SINDIVERSOES) took advantage of the opportunity to make a neat presentation of their points and emphasize the need for legislation that regulates the trade in the country. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (UGT Spain) made an important contribution to the agenda by tackling the subject of gaming workers’ professional upgrading, taking into account their experience in Spain.



Besides, during the meeting they announced the creation and launching of an Electronic Discussion Forum, a tool devised by ALEARA (Argentina's Trade Union of Gaming, Entertainment, Recreation, Leisure and Allied Employees) to fulfill the needs and foster the organizing efforts of the sector.



At the end of the meeting, the participants set out a list of priorities related to the task of organising workers. Among these priorities was the design of a strategy to offer full support to CIRSA’s employees (CIRSA is a multinational company) in Panama and the Dominican Republic so that it observes and respects workers’ labour rights. Furthermore, the participants agreed to follow the discussion between bingo workers and the Brazilian State about the need for legislation to regulate the activity in the country. Finally, they decided to back up the National Bingo, Lottery and Sports Pool Sellers’ Union (Sindicato Nacional de Vendedores de Quiniela, Bingo y Juegos de Azar, SINTRAQUIBA) in their quest for specific national legislation to regulate the labour situation of workers in these trades in Paraguay, a member of Mercosur.



The two-day meeting was closed with a training seminar for gaming union leaders on 17-19 September. The training activities were carried out by ALEARA’s team with the cooperation of UGT Spain Gaming Sector. Finally, both events closed with a declaration of support for CONTRATUH and SINDIVERSOES’s efforts for gaming legislation to be passed in Brazil.


These regulation is expected to subject Bolivian gaming operators to stricter licensing conditions in an attempt to oversee and curb the proliferation of entertainment halls.



The first step for the approval of the new regulation is the administrative resolution issued by Lonabol (The National Lottery of Charity and Health) on 10 September.



Lonabol’s Executive Director, Marco Antonio Cárdenas, said: “Bolivia cannot bar off an activity that is legal in other countries.” He also said that the new gambling regulation will probably set forth the rules to grant licenses and the punishment to be applied to those gaming halls that infringe the regulations.



Temporary contracts between gaming halls and the National Lottery will terminate at the end of the year; the new ones will have to comply with the new regulation. “Just Lotex and Corhat, whose contracts expire in 2012 and 2010, respectively, will not have to comply with the new rule but after that period, they will also have to follow suit,” he said.



According to the new regulation, gambling halls will obtain a license through a tender process that will allow for a set number of gambling halls per department. Gambling halls will fall into three different categories according to the number of slot machines and the characteristics of the premises.



First-rate gaming halls will be exclusive and will operate in five-star hotels; halls in the second category will have between 200 and 250 slot machines, and those in the third category, between 60 and 100.



Furthermore, they are planning to raise the monthly royalties paid by gambling companies to the National Lottery from 18% to 20%.

They currently pay 15% of their total revenues.


The Chamber of Deputies’ Committee for Economic Development, Industry and Trade has approved the legalisation of gaming halls in Brazil. Deputy Vicentinho Alves’ draft bill, which will be further discussed by other committees, stipulates that gaming-related revenues will be channelled into the health sector.



According to the bill, casinos may operate exclusively in the north, northeast and central-eastern regions of the country and some provision should be made to ban problem gamblers from gaming halls. Non-compliance with said measures will result in severe penalties and fines.



The bill sets forth that bingo halls and casinos with a license to operate may have video lotteries. Gambling halls must be located at least 500 metres away from schools, churches and temples, and may not have a direct street-access door.



Access will be denied to underage people and pathological gamblers whose names are recorded in a National Register to be created for those purposes. According to the bill, only six casinos will operate in Brazil, two in each of the regions mentioned above and the Government will have to wait for five years before granting new operating licenses.



Casinos may only offer card games, roulette and slot machines (video lottery) and preference will be given to those states with lower human development indexes (HDI). Employees must be formally hired and one of them will be appointed “gaming manager” and will be legally and administratively liable for any problem in the gaming floor.



As for bingo halls, the bill allows for permanent and non-permanent bingo halls. Permanent bingo halls must have their own building with a seating capacity of 500 people. The halls must be connected to an online data processing system that will allow the State to control their operation. Jackpots will be paid in cash and at least 70% of the money collected from the sale of bingo cards will be devoted to said purposes.



The Ministry of Tourism ordered the National Committee for Casinos, Slots and Bingo Halls, according to Official Gazette number 39,012, to stop granting casino and bingo licenses in the country.

The new regulation is more comprehensive than the one passed in March 2008, specifically because it incorporates the requirements that casinos and bingos have to comply with it if they want their operating licenses to be renewed.



Minister of Tourism Titina Azuaje recently said that "this business is in the hands of just few people, while others operate illegally. The law must be complied with."



In May 2007, the Government of Venezuela banned the import of slots, because there were more slots than casinos really used.
The developer of a massive project in downtown Miami is quietly considering a campaign to amend Florida's Constitution to allow Las Vegas-style casinos in the city and open the door for a similar casino at Miami Beach's famed Fontainebleau Hotel.



The project is slated to first include hotels, shops, restaurants and entertainment components and later, offices and residences.



Taxes on the new Miami casinos would benefit all Florida schools, just like the successful slots initiative before it.



If successful, the campaign would put a casino in the middle of Miami Worldcenter, a mixed-use development proposed for nine blocks in downtown's Park West neighbourhood.



The multiphase project is slated to first include hotels, shops, restaurants and entertainment components and later, offices and residences. City commissioners are currently considering a zoning change for the development and an agreement that would cement the changes for the next 20 years.





Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who has worked closely with Falcone's team of advisors to advance the downtown project, said he is not opposed to a casino in Miami.



"I am not averse to a system with a limited number of licenses for casinos that cater to a higher-end clientele," Diaz said. "But what I don't want is rundown gambling places on every street corner and I don't want people walking in with their Social Security checks and blowing them."



Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, whose district includes Miami Worldcenter, said he hadn't heard of a proposal for Las Vegas-style gambling in the city. But he said that “under certain circumstances, I could support casino gambling.”