Cirsa reports gambling business recovering

Spanish gambling giant Cirsa saw €28.6m in operating profits during the first quarter of 2021, the company has announced.

Income for the quarter was €156.4m, all of which was impacted by the continued pandemic restrictions on schedules and capacity up to mid-March.

The company said that in April and the beginning of May there was a strong improvement in operating hours in Spain where the restrictions had impacted casinos, bingo halls, arcades and the hospitality business of the group. Cirsa’s Sportium online business was the only sector that remained fully operational in the quarter.

The Latin American business saw the casinos in Panama and Peru closed for two months. Activity in Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic was hit by sporadic closure and capacity restrictions.

Elsewhere, in Morocco and Italy activity had been minimal since last November.

Cirsa operates in nine countries with 151 casinos and has over 82,800 machines in arcades; it has 79 bingo halls, 237 arcades, 3,000 sports betting points and a machine manufacturing company, Unidesa.