from Gaming & Leisure Magazine
Fall 2017
In this issue’s Global Road Trip, we’re fortunate to catch up with Francisco Vidal, COO - Director of Operations at Sortis and Golden Island Casinos in Panama. Mr. Vidal provides us with insight on the Latin American gaming industry gained from a lengthy career in the international casino market, much of that based in Central America.
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| Gaming & Leisure Magazine Fall 2017 |
[FV] From my point of view, if we are looking for growth opportunities, they depend on the evolution of the gaming legislation in both Mexico and Brazil. In the case of Mexico, although they have a lot of casinos with bingo and electronic gaming devices spread around the country, full fledged operations that include a good offer of table games and poker is almost non existent, so if they regulate with common sense and a long term view, without doubt, the country will get many more investments on the sector and of better quality (even the blue chip operators could get interested in starting operations there). Regarding Brazil, it is the sleeping giant, I have been invited to the Brazilian Gaming Congress in Sao Paulo the next 25-27th of June 2017, and it will be interesting to see how the process of liberalization of the gaming industry is evolving, if there is any real advance or endless talks that lead to nowhere, depending on the direction that the country follows it could have a huge impact in the rest of the continent. The rest of the countries of the region: Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and the small ones, although they have relatively developed markets, their potential for growth is much more limited.
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| Mr. Francisco Vidal |
[FV] At the moment, I do not see that online gaming is impacting too much land based operations in Latin America, compared to western Europe or the USA, the penetration of the internet has a lot space for growth, and apart from that, the legislation on most countries is non-existent or in its infancy. Most probably in the next 5 years, many countries will liberalise online gaming and some companies (especially the more sophisticated ones) will implement an omnichannel strategy, the same thing that we can see now in United Kingdom or Spain, where gaming companies with land based operations are trying to capitalize on their presence on the different channels, that thing happening in Latin America will depend in the end on the direction in which the different countries will go regarding online gaming regulation.
[G&L] Is illegal gaming a significant issue in Panama and Latin America? What is being done to combat it?
[FV] In the case of Panama, because of its strong tradition (there has been in the country casinos for many years), and highly regulated market, illegal gaming is not such a significant issue; there are some illegal poker games and some slot machine parlours scattered around the country that do not comply with the gaming legislation, but I do not see them as a threat to the legal operators. Regarding the Latin American context, in my opinion you can not generalise, but as a principle in those countries in which a good offer exists (full fledged casinos and gaming rooms), illegal operators do not have much space to position themselves; and the contrary, so you are going to find those kinds of business in countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador; countries in which there is a demand for gaming that is not attended by professional operators. Being honest, it challenges my common sense the lack of vision of most politicians when we talk about gaming prohibition, for me is a complete waste of time, effort, and resources.
[FV] There are several events per year in which gaming agencies of the different Latin American countries meet and discuss this issue, but there is a huge gap between those conversations and real cooperation, most probably there are many other priorities such as money laundering, the fight against terrorism, and the war on drugs, just to mention a few. What we have at the moment are mainly local initiatives, in which there is some degree of collaboration between the gaming operators and the local authorities (police, Ministry of Finance, etc.).
[FV] In the last years we have seen some advances on this front, the casino associations of most countries in the Latin American region are organising workshops and conferences that discuss the issue of problem gambling, and in some jurisdictions we have some regulations that try to protect the gaming customers. From my point of view, there is a lot of room for improvement especially from the side of the land based and online operators, it would be interesting to see a more proactive attitude from the part of the established players in the region regarding the information about the gaming products that they offer their customers (house edges of the different bets on table games, slot volatility, operational procedures, etc.), the way in which their floor employees are trained, and the controls they put in place on the floor (the slot machines are connected to online systems that track the player behaviour) in order to see when players are deviating from their regular patterns of play and what actions to take according to the data.
[FV] This COO position is kind of a hybrid role, I am in charge of the day to day operations of the casinos (the casino managers report directly to my position), and at the same time, most of the support areas: Finance, Human Resources, IT, Marketing, etc., report to me as well. It is a very interesting position because you can see the business from many different angles with all the learning that this implies, one minute you are having a conversation about which are going to be the limits on Baccarat, the next you are running a meeting in which it will be discussed the marketing plan for the next month and you could finish your day talking with the IT manager about the possibilities of using wifi technology to connect the slot machines to the casino management system. In summary, a role in which you can develop yourself fully as a casino executive and learn a lot, which in the end is what keeps me illusioned every day.
[G&L] How many casinos are under your direction? Are they all within Panama, or spread out geographically?
[FV] At the moment, we have 3 casinos in Panama City, each of them in a different sector, the main one (Sortis) in Obarrio, and then the 2 Golden Lions, the first in El Dorado and the second in Marbella. The Sortis Casino is targeted to the mainstream customers, is the kind of casino that caters to a broad segment of players, apart from the mandatory slots and table games, it has a very nice Bingo area and the best poker room of the country; we run there the biggest tournaments in town, this year in March we organised the Pokerstars Championship for example. The Golden Lions, even though, they have an offer that appeals to all types of customers, is got a special focus on the chinese community of the city.
[G&L] Could you give us a bit on your background in the gaming industry?
[FV] Well, my career is divided in four stages clearly differentiated, the first as a casino dealer in both London and Las Vegas, after that comes a period as a floor manager in several casinos in Spain (up to this point I saw myself as a tourist in the casino business), on 2001 I was offered a management position in a casino in Dominican Republic, and from that point there was no coming back for me, It was the beginning of an almost 10 year period as a full casino manager both in the Caribbean and Peru. The last stage, is the current one, it was initiated on 2010, I call it the “corporate” phase, in which I have taken several positions as COO and Country Manager in Panama, Mexico, Croatia and Spain for the main Spanish gaming groups (Cirsa, Codere, LGG). Nowadays, I am back in Panama (my first experience here was between 2010 and 2012), enjoying a new challenge in this beautiful city, surrounded by a team of brilliant professionals ready to disrupt the status quo of the industry. In summary, I have touched in my life around 40 casinos, in 8 countries and for 8 different gaming companies.
[G&L] How does gaming in Panama compare to other parts of Latin America?
[FV] I have worked in Latin America for around 15 years now and I can honestly say that today Panama City is the most complicated casino market in the region, the competition is brutal, most of the casinos have seen their numbers decline in the last 5 years, some of them are operating at a loss (negative Ebitda), and the situation will not change any time soon; who´s going to survive is everyone's guess. In my case, I am pretty happy in this business environment, if you are a real professional, this is a place in which you can show your real capabilities and skills to a great extent. Compare to other Latin American markets, Panama is got a lot of flexibility in terms of the kind of activities and commercial incentives that you can offer to your customers, so there is a lot of space to use your imagination and be creative.
Gaming & Leisure Magazine would like to thank Mr. Vidal for his participation in this interview.
