The Gaming Griot: Victor Arias –Latin American Gaming Expert

Last week, I had a chance to catch up with Latin American Gaming Expert and Gaming Executive Summit speaker, Victor Arias. Victor has had an extensive and successful 13+ year career in the gaming industry. From customer service representative to Managing Director, Victor quickly rose among the ranks with in his industry. Please enjoy the interview!

1. How did you get started in gaming?

[Chuckles] Good question. It was about thirteen years ago. I was already a bilingual person and that’s when gaming started to be very popular. That’s when Costa Rica started to be a base for gaming companies and local bookies and the U.S. And Costa Rica was actually seen as a way out for tax evasion and all those guys wanting to try to get a legal way to work from the U.S. but not in the U.S. There were a lot of bookies like I said before trying to setup call centers in Costa Rica. There were a lot of investors interested. It started the gaming sector here in Costa Rica. First of all it was cheap to start here. The government was not putting any problems on that because it was a lot of employment from these investors setting up in Costa Rica.

So basically, I was studying and I was looking for a job at the same time. And I was like what should I do? That’s when all these different job positions started to get out there looking for people speaking English. The requirements were not super high. It was just “Hey do you know how to speak English? Do you know a little customer service? Hey give us a call and ask for an interview.” I ended up working in an online casino as a customer service representative and that was a temporary job. That’s when I started to know the industry. Then, I got in contact with somebody else and that somebody else offered me more money and better benefits – still as a customer service rep. It was also an online casino and there I learned a lot more and I got more involved with the gaming industry.

[…] There were two guys over there who became my mentors when it comes to sports betting. From there I started to grow and grow when it comes to knowledge. I consider myself someone that cannot stay in just one department. I’m not quiet when it comes to learning. I like to learn and I’m very – how do you say that in English? I’m in constant motion when it comes to knowledge and when it comes to learning and when it comes to being in a company and trying to make myself indispensible for that company. I got more involved in the finance part and banking part and the casino part and promotions as well. That was actually my start. [..] That’s when the gaming industry got me completely. After that I took the gaming industry as my career.

2. What is attractive about the LatAm market?

It’s a virgin market. It’s still growing. It has not stopped growing. The most attractive part is giving yourself the opportunity of knowing and working with totally different mentality. Gaming has always been concentrated in the U.S., Europe, and Asian markets. The Latin American market is totally, totally different from the others. You have Latin America as a whole but every single country works differently, every single country has a different culture, and every single country has a different way of seeing things. You can see for example Brazil you don’t have any land based casinos; so people in Brazil are always looking for ways out just to have access to a casino and play whatever games they like. Even though there are now a lot of companies working on the Latin American there is still a lot to be explored. There is a piece of cake for everybody.

3. History repeats itself. Are there any instances in the past that have shaped gaming in LatAm now?

Like we talked before, the lack of trust in online transactions or be it the lack of education – there is a big history when it comes to fraud. It is them being afraid of being scammed. If you see how many people today in Latin America using the internet, it is not an important number. It is growing everyday – yes, but it is still a small number. That also has some impact. But if you’re talking about past, the fraud has actually marked a lot of customers.

4. Enough gaming stuff. What do you enjoy to do outside of work? What are some of your passion projects?

My hobbies? [chuckles] Travelling, I love travelling. I like swimming. I like also— I cannot say that I like reading because I would be lying. I like to play poker, yeah? I like to play poker. That’s one of the games I like. Lately, you know hang out with my friends and have a beer and chit chat. Playing basketball, I like to play soccer as well. Of course spending time with my wife.

Victor Arias will be speaking at The Gaming Executive Summit Latin America 2013 on February 27, 2013.