Gaming Partner International Acquired by Angel Playing Cards

[Don Boyer]

So, it's happened.  The US market is better than 90% (if not better than 99%) foreign-owned!

Gaming Partners International was the owner of Paulson, a printer that specialized in casino decks.  They bought Gemaco from USPC when the Justice Department insisted that they divest it - y'know, anti-monopoly do still exist, even if they're pretty loosely enforced these days.  Well, as of May this year, that company was bought up by none other than Angel Playing Cards, based in Kyoto, Japan.

I have nothing but good things to say about Angel - I have a few of their decks and I love the quality of them, plus they have really nice artwork for their court cards.  But with Cartamundi buying USPC, that means the only major US-based playing card company left at this point would be Liberty Playing Cards, owned by Gambler's Warehouse in Dallas.

[Worst Bower]

Market consolidation has become intense in the past 15 to 20 years with Cartamundi leading the way in aggressively buying out their competitors. In terms of big manufacturers (ones that supply casinos), the number of parent company firms are shrinking to a handful. Angel controls the Asia-Pacific market with Macau being their biggest customers. In Europe, there are only a few regional powerhouses outside of Cartamundi's control like KZWP-Trefl of Poland, Piatnik of Austria, and Dal Negro and Modiano of Italy.