"Our expectations for PGS are, and have always been, to grow alongside the sector"

Rubén Solórzano, General Manager of Affiliated Marketing Group and one of the organisers of Peru Gaming Show (PGS), described 2025 as a “very positive” year for the event held in Lima, with satisfactory results for exhibitors, operators, and gaming stakeholders.

In an exclusive interview with Yogonet, the executive also reviewed the challenges facing the Peruvian market, including the debate around the application of the Selective Consumption Tax (ISC), and warned about the risk companies face in a fiscal context that could encourage illegal gambling.

As an organiser of Peru Gaming Show, what is your assessment of 2025?

Our assessment of 2025 has been very positive for the organisation. Through AMG SAC, the company responsible for the events, we delivered educational talks that benefited professionals and executives across the industry. We covered tax matters, marketing, and enforcement for land-based and online operations.

In addition, PGS’ core activity—its annual expo held every June—delivered more than satisfactory results for exhibitors, operators, and gaming stakeholders from 40 countries. PGS, Latin America’s most anticipated trade fair, remains at the forefront of events aligned with those that, globally, set the benchmark.

The activities within PGS are primarily aimed at benefiting gaming stakeholders attending the expo, through the exhibition and offering of cutting-edge technological products and services. This is particularly relevant given that all participants are seeking new experiences and opportunities to grow and to drive greater development in their jurisdictions and other potential markets.

Which piece of news or industry event do you consider the most important of the year, and why?

In our jurisdiction, the development that had the greatest impact—after the law and regulation for online gaming and online sports betting were approved—was the controversy surrounding the application of the Selective Consumption Tax (ISC), which was initially set at 1% and later adjusted to 3%.

More broadly, along the same lines, the headlines that stand out at a regional level in markets seeking to regulate and formalise gaming relate precisely to the determination of tax burdens for the sector, many of which harm the normal development of the activity and the economic and financial structure of businesses.

Analysts and industry stakeholders share a consistent view: taxes imposed by governments with a purely revenue-driven approach put companies’ stability at risk and, most critically, push gambling activity towards informality and illegality.

What are your expectations looking ahead to 2026?

Since we assumed responsibility for the administration and organisation of Peru Gaming Show—PGS 14 years ago, we have set clear objectives and targets, all of them aimed at benefiting companies, operators, suppliers, manufacturers and every stakeholder connected to the industry. In this context, our expectations for PGS—watching it move from one cycle to the next, from one year to the next—are, and have always been, to grow alongside the sector, alongside the industry.

That is why, despite the changes we are seeing today—where online gaming is growing exponentially compared to land-based—PGS continues to maintain its leadership in the region, committed to bringing together the most important representatives from the global gaming industry. For many years, we have sustained steady growth, and we are confident that PGS 2026 will follow the same path.

Several new events were held across Latin America this year. How do you assess the region’s evolution in terms of trade fairs, and what place does Peru occupy?

Indeed, unlike the major trade fairs—the most representative ones worldwide—Latin America has seen a proliferation of events, whether truly representative or not, but in any case seeking to serve a purpose. At PGS, we do not follow that path: we focus on what is important and exclusive, even though this creates dilemmas whenever parallel events are held around the same dates, taking advantage of our organisation’s strong draw.

Many industry experts explain that the organisers of these parallel events face limitations in staging their own showcases at times different from PGS. Moreover, with so many events clustered around PGS’ core dates, repeated invitations to the same operators and clients are creating discomfort, as it is virtually impossible for them to attend everything. This is even more the case when their priority is to be present at—and be part of—the expo and main event: the PGS international trade fair, Latin America’s most anticipated.

In that same context, the growing number of events across the region is, according to industry professionals and experts, generating fatigue due to constant travel, logistical movement and staffing requirements, as well as the additional costs involved in moving from one location to another within very short timeframes.