"The effects of the crisis are being felt in the gambling sector"

Which are the products chosen by R. Franco to show the Colombian public this year?
In fact, the only novelty we presented in FADJA is the bingo machine, a product that is performing very well in many South American markets, and we will try to present it in Colombia on the current year.

And, as a novelty, we are presenting Bonus Box, an additional draw product for our slots that offers individual prizes per machine. It is another incentive for the operator to choose machines when betting.

How do you see the Colombian market in particular, and the Latin American market in general, with regards to the crisis?
The truth is that the effects of the crisis are being noted. Central America is presenting very low levels. In Colombia, sales have also decreased a 20% approximately. And operators are seeing what will happen in the future, so the sales movement is very low. The operator is cautious before acquiring a machine, and we can see that here in FADJA. There are a lot of visitors, that is true, but we cannot perform a relationship between that people and the usual levels of purchases and sales.

Have you released any new policy or any product in order to accommodate better within the market crisis?
Sales are complicated due to the economic situation and the perspectives that it may offer in the short term, so we are starting operating with several customers, that do not have the economic capacity to buy new equipments or are expecting improvements to take that decision, so what we do is to put machines in participation, something that we have not practically done in the past.

Will you be present in other Latin American events for the rest of the year, or do you analyze to cut those investments until 2010, at least?
There are too many events in this market and we will not assist to many of them. I have a great esteem for the organizers of such shows, but so many exhibitions are not profitable for the market. Basically we will go to SAGSE, Argentina, and we will not be present to any other event, at least for the current year.