About this app
What is Balloon Mania?
Land-based gambling can attract international investment. Cirsa expanded its Marrakech presence last November. Private online betting has no equivalent licensing route.
Cirsa’s own IPO prospectus is blunt about it: “Online gaming only exists for betting, which is operated by a state agency,” it says of Morocco, adding that online casino games “are not allowed”.
The same divide exists in Tunisia and Egypt. Governments there have focused on prohibition and enforcement rather than opening online markets to private operators.
About Balloon Mania
After 11+ years working for Calvin and CalvinAyre.com, it’s hard to say goodbye. I’ve left this to the last couple of hours and imbibed a few Bombay Sapphires to ease me through it. Still, I’ve written and deleted and wrote again, but the best I can say right now is that it’s been an incredible ride.
Before I sign off, to the staff writers, past and present; Steven Stradbroke, Peter Amsel, Jamie Hinks, John Blaise, Erik Gibbs, Lee Davy, Kirby Garlitos, Jasmine Solana, Leonard Postrado, Paul Seaton, Dan Taylor, Derek Tonin, Criz Hombrebueno, Ed Drake, Lee Bell, Rafi Farber, Daniel Gardner, Paul How, Admir Aljic, Anton Fabico, Mike O’Donnell, Jason Kirk, and Vince Martin, and our on-camera hosts Becky Liggero-Fontana, Dana Workman, Angelia Ong, Ed Pownall, Stephanie Tower and Tatjana Pasalic, to our excellent productions team Patrick Visenio, Jerome Guidotti, Rob Peacock, Ian Matteo, Glenn Ala, Chris Roxas, Geoff Salorio, Yancy Uy, Carol Tan, Evette Borromeo, Jeks Inanuran, Janus Martinez, Giselle Ordinario, Joseph Cataan, Sandy Ventosa, Carlos Dittborn, Mani Singh, Roland Naidoo.
And to all of the people behind the scenes Giron Perez, Joey Bote, Sid Isidro, Roger Castro, Tristan Villagracia, Jeremy Beltran, Ednelyn Agulto-Manalo, Jeh Almazan, Ian Ignacio, Red Bargan, Kimmy Maclang, Xeirus Sta. Ana, Lea Nicolle Luat, Catherine Resurreccion, Alexandre Esguerra, Jayson Pimentel, Samori Joseph, Cindy Padilla, Amanda Lopez, Rogelio Gabiano, Aries Hegina, Fawn Labrie, Anthony Dohm, Adrian Eden, Paolo Ramos, Emily Haruko Leeb, Mani Chagtai, Brad Lancaster, Carl Rivera, Alfredo Abaroa, Shannon M, Aphol Angeles, Vine and Zen Alvarez, Frey Sotelo, Daves Biag, Idn Aguliar, Angela Alano, Jeremy Yap and George F.
How to play Balloon Mania
Holland Casino now pays 37.8% of GGR to the state, as per the additional increase in 2026, but with labour tax on top the business pays around 52% before they can look at their base running costs. It is not a small burden by any stretch of the imagination, so it is heartening to see the business doing well despite the tightening tax burden.
With such a significant rise in tax, you would forgive the company for cutting wherever possible, but Petra says they have made it work by maximising efficiency, restructuring, and maintaining their offering so the customer doesn’t notice that anything has changed.
“We feel that people are always interested in gambling and that we are the party who should offer that in a safe way. [Holland Casino] has been careful to maintain that, but of course our costs rose very quickly, so we restructured at our head office. We have also been looking at innovations in offerings, which we are currently also testing, including a further development of the Next Zone. We’ve also introduced the double zero in roulette, which we didn’t have previously in the Netherlands,” the CEO says.
