Novomatic San Marino Consortium Partner

Consortium awarded an unlimited gaming licence for the Republic of San Marino

The global experience and the technological pioneering role of Novomatic Group will presently be
drawn upon in San Marino, where on Wednesday, 7 November 2001, the Group, as an exclusive partner,
joined the Consortium which on 25 October 2001 was awarded an unlimited gaming licence by the
Congresso di Stato, the government of the Republic of San Marino. The San Marino Consortium
consists of Swiss investors and Singapore-based General Hotel Management (GHM), the world´s
leading operator of genuinely luxury-class hotels such as the Aman Resorts in Asia. The Consortium
will synchronise the opening date of the gaming operation with the introduction of the Euro on 1
January 2002. The recent licence award ends all speculations on the future of gaming in the
Republic of San Marino.

As an exclusive partner to the Consortium, Novomatic Group will contribute its new Multi-Bingo
and Multi-Keno gaming systems, the most recent product developments from the Austrian high-tech
innovator in the international casino industry, including jackpot systems and management
information systems for a permanent online accounting of this extraordinary project, said
Novomatic Proprietor Johann F. Graf in an interview today. Extraordinary it is because in the
Republic of San Marino gaming has been banned ever since the closure of the San Marino Casino
in 1949, following a decision of the then Italian government. San Marino, the oldest Republic in
the world, is situated in the midst of Italy´s province of Emilia Romagna, just a few kilometres
off the Adriatic coast, and attracts over 4 million tourists annually.

Preliminarily, the gaming operation will open in the refurbished Palazzo dei Congressi, to be
relocated later to its final venue in the San Marino Resorts Entertainment Centre, the
construction of which is scheduled to be completed within three years.