San Román said that the law for the formalization of this activity "occurred on December 25th, 2006, with a process that concluded in 2010. From there, we interconnected 100% of the slot machines, with which the collection of taxes went from US$17 million in 2006 to close to US$90 million in 2017. For this year we expect to reach close to US$100 million."
Regarding that 100% of the activity is formal, San Román said that it is because there are no injunctions or precautionary measures in favor of the operating rooms, emphasizing that "the formalization of this activity demanded a legal battle that had good results for the Mincetur."
Currently, 60% of casino and slot machine activity is located in Lima (the capital province of Peru) followed by cities in the north of the country and then the southern cities of Arequipa, Cusco and Tacna, where the result "is related to the influx of tourists."
Among other figures, San Román said that some "76,890 people depend directly on this activity, calculation made based on the tax note of the Sunat (National Superintendency of Tax Administration)."
However, illegal operators still persist, causing local authorities to close two or three venues per month. "Before they appeared in Lima, then they went to departmental capitals, then to provincial capitals, and now to more distant places to evade supervision," said San Román.
Source: GMB / Casino Compendium
