We had the first UK show following a difficult summer last month. Preview was down in size but up in visitor numbers and sales were made. Check out the comments from the exhibitors in our show report and you will find that they were optimistic almost to a man and woman.

Nero Trade s.r.o. industrial and entertainment technology was established in 1998. The registered office of the company is located in northern Moravia (eastern Czech Republic) in the municipality of Dolní Becva. From the start, Nero Trade has manufactured, operated and leased jukeboxes, and other amusement machines as table football tables,air hockeys, touchscreens and gaming machines, both new and second-hand.

Sound Leisure and Soundnet launched their most affordable digital jukebox solution at the recent Preview show in London. The deal incorporates the futuristic SoundPod jukebox, fuelled by the budget-boosting Value music package.

Following on from it's successful world debut at the DEAL show in Dubai earlier this year, Elton Games presented the Dark Light Derby Game to the European market at the recent EAS show in Amsterdam. Generating high interest with attendees and fellow exhibitors alike, the Dark Light Derby was again a great success.

Eurocoin has increased its commitment to the Spanish Gaming market with the establishment of a new, Spanish-speaking business development team.

Eurocoin, one of Europe's leading suppliers of technical components and service to the gaming, amusement and vending industries, is reporting an excellent response from clients to their expansion into Spain.

Since its establishment in 2000, Shunhong Entertainment Equipment Co., Ltd has insisted on creating the best value for customers. Shunhong is an integrated company focused on R&D, production, sales and marketing management of entertainment equipment.

Magic Dreams has carried out another successful installation this time in the Egyptian resort of Taba. The recently opened Tabasands Casinò recipients of a number of EGO machines with a mix of Videoreel games and poker content.

The EGO cabinet was lauched at IGE London in January 2009 has proved to be a popular choice for operators worldwide.

Swiss distributor C+P Automatenhandel stands by its decision to choose the MAX FIRE Jukebox from TAB Austria. "Our customers are very enthusiastic about the unique features of the MAX FIRE Jukebox - and the good takings speak for themselves," says managing director, Bertrand Cavuscens.

KICTeam is expanding in both Europe and Asia. KIC Products UK, which operated as an independent exclusive European distributor, is now KICTeam Europe Limited and is a wholly owned subsidiary of KICTeam, Inc. located in Auburn, ME. KICTeam Asian/Pacific has also plans to establish offices in key locations in 2009 to facilitate the growth in this area of the world.

Magna Amusements, part of Megatouch Middle East based in Dubai, and Game Plus Ltd of Guangzhou, China, have formed a Joint Venture company called Game+Magna. The development is structured on Magna expanding its consultancy services world-wide as Game Plus strengthens its manufacturing production capabilities in amusement machines, rides and attractions.

EAG, London's latest exhibition dedicated to the amusement and coin-op industry will host a spectacular party aboard a vintage paddle steamer, the Dixie Queen. Making the most of the Excel Exhibition Centre's dock side location the Dixie Queen will navigate the River Thames and moor in the Queen Victoria Docks right alongside the exhibition hall.

The Remote Gambling Association has expressed its belief that the French Gambling Bill in its current form will fail to achieve any of its stated objectives. "The proposed regulatory and taxation regime will be wholly unattractive and in most cases completely unviable for private sector online gambling companies," says a spokesman for the trade body.

GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2010 will take place on May 2-4, 2010 at B&C Zones, Hall 1 of the Taipei World Trade Center in Taipei City, Taiwan. Currently, there are 600 booths available, and around 100 exhibitors from all over the world are estimated to attend, including companies from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China.

SWEDEN

The Council Working Party on gambling and betting held its second meeting last week under the guidance of the Swedish Presidency. Representatives of the 27 Member States debated how they deal with gambling problems in their jurisdictions. The focus was on what kind of penalties were applied by Member States authorities on illegal/unauthorised gambling and betting providers and on the regulation of advertising of such unauthorised services. Working Party members were asked for their opinion on whether they believed it best to block unauthorised websites and/or block bank transactions. Source: Euromat

Antonio Milo, the Neapolitan Member of Parliament of the Gruppo Misto party is reviving the idea of one or more real-estate lotteries to revitalize the hotel sales sector. Milo has told the Ministry of Finance that the general economic crisis has affected the construction and property market in a particularly serious way, resulting in some cases in the lack of interest in the purchase of real estate, in particular buildings intended for use as hotels; "The owners of hotel businesses in the province of Bolzano who find it necessary to sell a hotel, having failed to find purchasers for the reasons stated above, have been thinking of alternative solutions instead of the traditional ways of selling real-estate," he stated.

After e-commerce, online gaming is catching on fast. The amusement industry over the Internet is preparing to close the year with a turnover of just slightly less than four billion Euros, thus confirming it as the second virtual industry. "There is still enormous potential for growth," explained Giacomo Fusina, general executive manager of Human Highway that introduced its latest study on the trends in the sector at the online poker convention in Venice, yesterday.

The visible face of the Gran Scala in Spain - the Scottish executive Mark Campbell, has temporarily left his role as Director of Communications in the ILD partnership in Spain to take on other professional challenges in the United States. This does not mean the project is taking a step back, quite the opposite in fact. ILD wanted to demonstrate in October that the Gran Scala project is still going ahead. And it did this by completing the second phase of the purchase options that it had signed to acquire another 1,012 hectares of land. Although this happened scarcely two hours before the deadline, Paul Allegrini, managing partner, gave cheques to the 68 property owners who were waiting patiently in the Ontiñena social club.

At last Codere and the brothers Joaquín and Jesús Franco have formally resolved the dispute which had arisen between both parties over the payment of the 41% of the Codere capital. As a result of the agreement the Chairman and majority shareholder of Codere, José Antonio Martínez Sampedro, has reduced his shareholding in the bingo and casino operator. According to the data that appear in the CNMV* register, Martínez Sampedro controls 63.14% of the voting rights of the company, as opposed to the 65.85% that he held previously.

The Spanish Market has always been surprising and at the very least unique. It is one of most important in Europe but also surely one of the most difficult in which to operate. Whoever wants to do so must comply with the particular legislation that breaks down into different regulations within each of the different autonomous regions and the end result is a constantly changing set of gaming regulations. Take this example. Hardly had the Regulations for the Madrid autonomous region been approved than the first amendments had appeared. Something like "where it says... it must say" which qualifies several of its articles and forces a revision of its conclusions. For its part the Valencian autonomous government has approved a new Regulation for Amusement Arcades.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea and the Korea Game Industry Agency officially published the Korea Game White Paper 2009. The White Paper reported that Korea's domestic game market reached $5,605.7 billion Korean won in 2008, posing a 9% growth compared with $5,143.6 billion won in 2007. Korea's game exports reached US$1,090 million in 2008, growing by 40.1% compared with US$780 million in 2007. Also, Korea's online game exports currently continue to enjoy dramatic growth.

GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2010 will take place on May 2~4, 2010, at B&C Zones, Hall 1, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan. Currently, there are 600 booths available, and around 100 exhibitors from all over the world are estimated to come, including companies from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China.

After fighting for more than two decades to get Penghu County of Taiwan to open up casinos, Taiwan's first local casino referendum was finally held on September 26, 2009. A total of 17,350 votes against the proposition to allow the opening of casinos defeated the 13,397 votes supporting the opening of casinos by 3,000-plus votes.

After two decades of rumours and discussion, officials from both the Amusement and Music Operators Association (AMOA) and the American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) announced a show merger. On September 24, the groups disclosed that the AAMA's Amusement Showcase International (ASI) trade show will be combined into a single show with the AMOA's International Expo. The show will collocate with Fun Expo on March 10-12, 2010 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In a six-to-one decision, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in late September that prior to the Ohio Lottery Commission installing 17,500 video lottery terminals (VLTs) in the state's seven racetracks, voters must approve the action in a statewide referendum. The ruling will delay Democratic Governor Ted Strickland's July 10 executive order to install the VLTs next year.

Unlike the decades when Nevada and then Atlantic City enjoyed a casino monopoly in the U.S., legalized gaming in some form has proliferated throughout the country. Today, 40 states have some form of wagering, and casinos have sprung up on land, rivers, on Indian reservation lands and in racetracks. Also, video lottery terminals in taverns are in several states, some with operator participation and others run strictly by the state government.

The recent decision taken by its operators to close Pontins Blackpool Holiday Park before the annual pool finals of the British Association of Pool Table Operators were played there could have caused problems for the association who had been anticipating a record turnout for its annual finals this month. Since the refurbishment of Bridlington's Spa Royal Hall had caused the move to Blackpool three years ago the event had taken on a new lease of popularity with over 100 teams having registered for this month‘s contest by mid-October.

This year has not been a happy one for pool equipment manufacturers and operators although most of them appear to have come to terms with the current nature of the industry. Simply Pool amd Excel Leisure's decision to amalgamate seems to have borne success both at home and in Europe where the euro/pound situation has brought needed business to UK manufacturers. McKenna indicated the Irish Republic, France and Spain as good markets.

The pool industry from table makers to players is a fairly placid industry, whose major discontents seem to become applicable in the good times but which vanish speedily during hard times.

There has not been much legislative movement in Italy over the past 12 months, although a draft version of the regulations that will govern VLTs in Italy has now been published, giving details of the location and pricing of the new machines, and the timing of their introduction into the market.

In addition there are concerns over the Unified State Tax/Prelievo Erariale Unico (PREU) tax (the unique tax collection imposed on slot machines) modified by the 194/08 Decree.

What makes the perfect video AWP? While many factors influence the popularity of a game, the graphics remain an important consideration in influencing player immersion, while also determining the game's overall design and functionality.

The AWP industry, particularly in the UK, has been somewhat slow in its uptake of graphics-led video AWP technology. There has been an attitude of "if it ain't broke - don't fix it" about the enduring appeal of reel-based games. However, with the new stakes and prizes has come an opportunity to do more with game design and as a result video is becoming more prevalent.

FER Interazar, the International Gaming Fair, marked its twenty-ninth anniversary with FER INTERAZAR 2009 which took place on 23rd, 24th and 25th September at the Juan Carlos I exhibition centre in Madrid. It is worth mentioning that at the end of the Málaga fair in the spring, the sector was left with a bittersweet taste which, although it sustained its expectations for the Madrid fair, did not offer any guarantees for the awakening from its long period of lethargy, of the market for the sale of machines.

GLOBAL VR® is proud to announce that the first Twisted: Nitro Stunt Racing production game cabinets have shipped. As a result of an extremely successful introduction to the industry at the AMOA Show in Las Vegas, orders for the mini-motion, deluxe, and standard game models have exceeded expectations. Additionally, the company anticipates that orders and production will accelerate as familiarity with the new platform and the compelling game play increases.

The world-leading manufacturer of electronic shooting galleries, Pan Amusements, has launched a new compact three-player gallery - Sideshow.

All Pan Amusements' experience, original design and technology is packed into this new ‘mini model'. It will particularly appeal is to amusement arcades, FEC's and theme parks looking for an economically priced attraction with a rapid return on investment.

Play Mechanix is set to launch it latest installment in the Big Buck Hunter Pro series, Big Buck Hunter Pro Open Season. Big Buck Hunter Pro Open Season will astound players with an incredible amount of game play depth. Players can hunt eight North American Big Game Animals on 24 different hunting treks covering 120 challenging hunting sites. At the end of each trek, players will need to compete in one of 24 bonus round challenges for extra points. Thirty-six different critters will randomly enter each hunting site adding to the challenge, as players attempt to add bonus points to their score. Last, but not least, Play Mechanix has added full motion to the already popular Big Buck Girls.

Allstar's latest range of vending items include 1" toe rings which are adjustable to fit any size and made from all-metal. The rings sport feminine designs like ocean waves, XOXO, footprints and more. Allstar suggests a ¤0.50 vend price.

Allstar also introduces the 2.7" Plush Moshy Wild Animal key chains. These include eight different animals, such as tigers, lions and bears. These are also great for redemption style machines as they appeal to a broad consumer base.

Avalue's new StarterKits, ESK-COM and ESK-ETX, provide customers with quick testing and evaluation. The StarterKit contains the COM express or ETX CPU modules with one Micro-ATX or ATX carrier board, it also comes with complete accessories including one passive heatsink or heat-spreader, one power supply, one starter guide, and also a design guide CD in which users can find Win XP Embedded and Linux BSPs, drivers, and schematics.

CashCode, now exhibiting under the name Crane Payment Solutions will exhibit a number of new products at the upcoming G2E show.

One such product is the CashCode oneCheckTM solution. With the joint cooperation between Crane and TITO printer manufacturer, Nanoptix comes an exciting cash management and accountability solution. oneCheckTM is the newest asset reporting and tracking cashbox management solution for both bills and tickets.

Comesterogroup is introducing the RM5 HD, a new coin validator with "High Discrimination". The new validator builds on the success of the RM5, and identifies 10 different criteria of identification of the coin, related to the frequency, wideness and phase measures, as well as the diameter of the coin.