The 32nd edition of IMA closed its doors after four days at the Exhibition Centre Düsseldorf, Germany.
In its position of promoter and sole media partner of this important event, Casino Life & Business Magazine, the first magazine of the Romanian gambling industry, concluded this fair trade.
Returning after a two-year hiatus, the trade fair for amusement and vending machines counted 9,156 visitors, a figure just slightly below the 2012 result.
It appears that visitors continue to view IMA as an identification platform and information hub. The trade fair’s decisive comeback shows that no other tool is able to perform these functions.
In 2013, the Association of the German Amusement and Vending Machine Industry (VDAI) had cancelled the trade fair due to massive political restrictions placed on commercial gambling.
The full, widespread effects of across-the-board, broadly business-destroying German state laws on gambling establishments passed in recent years will become obvious by mid-2017 at the latest (if those laws are upheld).
These laws would in consequence establish a network of no-go locations in cities and municipalities. Therefore, no one could have expected medium- and long-term investments at IMA.
This market has come to a complete standstill. Expansion has halted.
Many long-term exhibitors, including shopfitters and architects, have given up or are trying their luck with new business models.
More details and a lot of pictures from the site in Casino Life & Business Magazine’s 49th edition from February.
