The president of the Business Confederation of the Valencian Community (CEV), Salvador Navarro, held a meeting this morning with the president, vice president and general secretary of the Association of Entrepreneurs of Recreational Machines of the C.V. (ANDEMAR CV), Encarna Gaspar, Luís Carrasco and Miguel Ángel González Barona; the president of the Association of Entrepreneurs of Game Rooms of the C.V. (ANESAR CV), Miriam Mayordomo; the general secretary of the Association of Casinos, Enrique Mateu, and the general secretary of the Business Federation of Hospitality of Valencia (FEHV), Rafael Ferrando.
The CEV shares the concern of the gaming and hospitality sector in the face of certain amendments proposed by the political groups – PSPV, Compromís and Unides PODEM – to the new game law. As the businesswomen and businessmen of the sector, mainly SMEs, assure that the proposed amendments are approved, no gaming establishment, or any hotel and restaurant premises with recreational machines, could renew their administrative authorization after its expiration, since it would be impossible to comply with the rule which forces to maintain a distance of 850 meters with respect to educational, health and sports centers.
The economic impact of other proposed amendments, such as the activation command and the identification system on machines installed in hospitality, would, according to previous studies, mean a decrease in revenue of between 30% and 65%, respectively, that would make business activity unfeasible.
The new law will seriously damage an industry – that of the game – that in the Valencian Community maintains more than 7,000 direct and 30,000 indirect jobs in hospitality, and that contributes to public coffers with 144 million direct taxation and another 130 million in indirect taxes, that the Administration would stop collecting.
In that sense, the CEV joins the request of ANDEMAR CV, ANESAR CV, the Association of Casinos and FEHV so that there is no regulatory change without at least a previous dialogue, which allows the affected sectors to transfer to the Administration which It is the current situation, explaining the consequences that the application of the new Game Law would have for Valencian companies and raising alternatives. The data, which place the problematic game in just 0.3% of the population, does not justify such restrictive regulation that far from solving the problem would cause an unjustified social alarm. The new framework exclusively benefits the online game and the public game, and could increase illegal or clandestine play.
