Spanish companies like IPS (Informatica Programes Serveis), Azkoyen and Industrias Lorenzo are good examples of this. The first of these, which was exhibiting on the first floor, is dedicated to control software and its basic market is gaming machines, but these were to be found mostly on the ground floor. The second, Azkoyen, designs and produces payment media, that is to say, a wide range of coin selectors used in the manufacture of many machines and like IPS, they were also to be found on the first floor. Quite the opposite happened to Industrias Lorenzo whose products are used in all types of machines with many different end-users, they were exhibiting their products in the area dedicated to casinos. They showed an interesting innovation - a pushbutton capable of working interactively with the machine’s electronics, making it possible to change its functions and to display the new function on its screen, or to act simply as a traditional pushbutton. Yet taking into consideration this apparent confusion, the large group of Spanish companies that exhibited at ATEI stated that they were satisfied with the results obtained, although some of them expressed their desire to make sure they were given a better location in future. Such is the case with Laiv Expemocar which, having had an excellent position for more than fifteen years, found themselves moved away from the main corridors. “In spite of this disadvantage, all our regular clients had no problems in finding us”, stated José Luis Monleón, Managing Director of the company.Urbano Lozano, the Managing Director of FAMAI said, “In my opinion, the new distribution seems to be correct, because it creates a homogenous area that helps to compare the products on offer from the different suppliers in the same sector. In our case, as manufacturers of Kiddy Rides, we feel quite satisfied with the results. Nevertheless the system, from my point of view, does place some people at a comparative disadvantage, as it favours those with the best locations”. Among all the companies that were exhibiting their products on the first floor we should mention the return, after several years’ absence, of Talleres Emit, one of the longest-established companies manufacturing counters. Discapa, Expemocar Laiv and Peñastigi showed itsvending machines for encapsulated products. As for Kiddy Rides, Industrias Falgas continues to lead with a variety of products and great international prestige. In addition. FAMAI offered a variety of models with a price to quality relationship worthy of mention. Recreativos Presas is a company specializing in the design and production of a wide variety of products that range from sports machines to online terminals. This year it came up with a new design of air table that simultaneously allows the player greater control of the game and facilitates the movement of the puck across the board. OM Vending showed its full range of crane type redemption machines which, as Ramon Olloqui the Managing Director told us, are widely accepted in the UK market. There were also two other Spanish companies on the first floor, Digital Center and Billares Sam. The former presented a number of photo machines with different features that join together into a platform forming a business unit. A new concept that will be offered to clients through franchises, designed especially for large commercial centres. Billiares Sam has for a long time been one of the European leaders in the manufacture of billiards and pool tables. This year they showed a new model with excellent presentation and a superb finish. In the casino area in addition to Industrias Lorenzo, there were three other Spanish companies. Unidesa Gaming, Recreativos Franco and Nova Desitec. The first, Unidesa, presented six new video slot games. All of them incorporated the latest technological advances and featured high quality graphics in their games. Nevertheless, the real innovation was the “Multifortune Roulette” model, a multiplayer machine that uses four cylinders instead of one. Recreativos Franco presented three lines of cabinets, “XPassion”, “Box Passion” and “Metal Passion”, which combine different options in terms of size and aesthetics. These machines are based on an electronic platform which incorporates innovative hardware and software solutions and which also allows the machine operator to configure the games according to his needs, using an internal navigation program that makes it possible to fix the price of the game and the percentage return, to update the version of the game, to detect failures and to set any jackpot amount. This platform goes by the name of “Digital Passion Platform” and it provides the ideal medium for the wide range of games currently on offer from this company. Nova Desitec, in its fourth year at ATEI, showed its extensive catalogue of games for AWPs and casinos. “Despite reservations about the new layout of the fair, we are satisfied with the results. In comparison with last year the quality of the visitors and investors was better and, what is more important, all of them were impressed by the variety and quality of our designs”, said Thore Noll, the company’s sales manager. Once again, there were many Spanish companies represented indirectly at the London fair. To name but two: Gigames and MGA (Machines Games Automatic). The former, as it did last year, showed its complete range of products on the stand of Games Media with whom it has a distribution agreement for the UK market. The “Boomerang” and “Boomy” games platforms are sold in the British market under the names of “Juice” and “Indego” respectively, and both have achieved unquestionable success. The second, MGA, was to be found on a large number of stands, since the company is a distributor for international companies like Shuffle Master, Interblock, Harry Levy, Mazooma, Sega, Elaut, Merkur and Astra, among others. This firm has been recognized by Interblock as the best distribution company for its products in 2006. We can liken the Spanish gaming industry, with more than thirty companies represented at ATEI / ICE, to an iceberg where only a small part is visible, namely the exhibitors. And the rest, the participants.

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