An employee checks the machines before delivery.
Image: Frank Röth
Strict regulation on the one hand, and a growing illegal market on the other: slot machine manufacturer Löwen Entertainment is facing a highly competitive future.
EThere are a few arcades in Bingen am Rhein. Two clearly visible in the town center alone, many more in other corners of the small town with almost 25,000 inhabitants. “We have many arcades, but no illegal café-casinos,” asserted Thomas Feser (CDU), Mayor of Bingen, in an interview at Klopp Castle. “We have a drug problem,” he admits, “but no gambling problems.”
If the mayor had a problem with gambling, he would have a problem with the largest local employer and taxpayer. Löwen Entertainment has been developing and producing slot machines and other games in Bingen since the 1950s, such as electronic cheat discs, such as those found in pubs and amusement arcades. The company, which belongs to the Austrian Novomatic Group, employed around 4,200 people at the end of 2020 and brought the parent company around 261 million euros in sales in 2021.