Alaw swiftly enacted in January sees the demise of the use of privately operated gaming machines in Poland. The Polish Government’s new law has resulted in fury and indignation among businesses involved who will bring their plight to Brussels this month in a series of meetings with EU officials.

Amatic Industries has entered the Mexican gaming market and exhibited at the ELA in Mexico City last month.

The Spanish Presidency’s progress report focuses on the definition of illegal gambling, enforcement measures, transitional periods in the context of new licensing regimes in national markets and public campaigns against so-called illegal gambling. 

Innovative Technology has appointed Paul Curley as (UK) Business Development Manager.  Paul joined Innovative Technology on the 4th May and brings with him an extensive  knowledge of the industry having worked in automated payment for over 10 years.

Gaming Laboratories International has hired a new development representative to continue to grow the company’s presence and support for regulators and suppliers in the Latin American Region. Valerie Aramburú Gardener will be based in Lima, Peru.

Heber assisted Microsoft with the launch of its brand new embedded operating system (WES7) at the embedded systems conference in Silicon Valley in April; Heber featured in the Launch video and has been integrating WES7 into its range of gaming and industrial controllers for the past 6 months.

Bandai Namco has announced the formation of a new international Prize Merchandise division which will be based in London. Alan Smith, who has extensive experience working across the toy, licensing and leisure sectors, most recently with Sega Prize Europe where he launched the Sega Kids Division with Dinosaur King and the Hello Kitty prize range, is heading up the Division and will report into Namco Europe Managing Director John McKenzie.

Schmidtgruppe from Coesfeld and Berlin-based Bally Wulff  Entertainment have joined forces with the German Football Association to ensure that the German World Cup team is supplied with the latest games at their training camps for the World Cup in South Africa. The first phase of the deal means the team will have the choice of finest equipment, including pool and football tables, during their free time at the team’s pre-tournament Italian training camps in Sicily and South Tyrol.

E-Service has been chosen as the new approved service contractor to Shuffle Master Europe for their Utility Products range in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. This agreement takes place with immediate effect.

Clarion Gaming has announced the appointment of Jason Miller to the post of Sales Manager with responsibility for London’s world leading International Gaming Expo (IGE). Miller, who reports to Show Director Kate Chambers, has 16 years’ sales experience, working at senior levels across the exhibition, print, digital, recruitment and retail sectors.

Industry stalwarts Harry Levy Amusements, distributor AMG and service centre E-Services are the latest companies to announce their decision to support EAG 2011.

A circular from the State Monopolies, sent to the regional Inspector, specifies that Totem  can  only be used by authorized licensees solely for the collection of fixed quota sporting bets, and that any other use represents “an assumption of participation in the collection from gaming, prohibited by the law”.

AAMS - with decree n. 15624/ADI of 5 May 2010, signed by the Director for Gaming – informs that “it considers” the test phase for the Videolottery to be complete.  It also emphazises that each gaming system that has completed the preparatory test phase by carrying out the relative test “will be admitted to the same test on the basis of appropriate communications sent to the holders of licences for gaming systems”. The test commission will indicate “the start date for the test and the schedule for the operations”.

Nearly 112 million euros were taken in the first quarter of 2010 by the four Italian casinos representing a fall of approximately 6.8% compared to the 120 million euros taken  last year. In March total takings were approximately 35.1 million, 13.1% down on the 40.4 million in March 2009.

The Orenes Group, whose activity includes the distribution and operation of amusement machines, bingo halls and casinos at national and international level, has appointed Pedro Antonio Zaplana Pardo, as the new director of the company’s Casino Division. The new director has progressed his professional career within the group, which he joined twelve years ago, and since then he has held various senior positions, including the management of international businesses in areas such as Italy and Croatia, and since 2005, acting as Director of the Orenes Group’s Operational Division.  The present commercial director of the Operational Division, Jose Luis Ruiz Zapata, will occupy the position vacated by Zaplana.

The Cirsa Gaming Corporation, the leading gaming and leisure company, had an operating profit of 209 million euros in 2009, an increase of 8.3% on the figure for 2008. Operating income reached 1,648 million euros. The effective execution of the Company’s strategy, based on efficiency and productivity and the selective growth of its businesses, have meant that for the fourth consecutive year the Group has obtained a good level of results, against a background characterized by the world-wide crisis. In 2009 the Spanish gaming and leisure multinational saw an increase of 17% in its income from its casino division, comprising 26 halls, to which must be added 48 electronic casinos. The rise in poker tournaments, the opening of the largest casino in Latin America in Rosario (Argentina), the addition of thirteen halls in Panama and the refurbishment of the casinos at Medellín and Barranquilla, in Colombia, and Marbella, were decisive factors in the advance of the division, which contrasts with the decline in its bingo business. The sale of cards fell by 16% in Spain, where it now has a network of 58 bingo halls, after closing two halls and opening another two. Also, during the past year it managed to maintain its share of the Spanish market in the sale of vending machines for bars and restaurants. Altogether, it sold 36,000 units, which gives it 52% of the market.

Evidence of the time of generalized crisis in which the sector finds itself has stimulated companies, distributors and manufacturers alike, to combine their synergies and to accelerate the marketing of new machine models. In addition the technical departments of several of them have initiated a training campaign to improve the client’s knowledge. Gigames presented its models “Dynamite Jones” and “The Gold Mine” in Valladolid, while in Madrid and Aragón it offered technical days on the same machines. Carfama’s marketing team travelled to Barcelona to present its range of amusement and leisure machines to the Catalan operators. The unquestionable star of the event was the B type machine called “El Chiringuito”, the latest addition to the company’s catalogue that shares prominence with the “Chicago” model from Bally, imported into Spain by Costa Cálida. For its part, the “B2B” Division of the Cirsa Group through the After-sales department of UNIDESA/EUROPEA, continued with the technical training plan initiated recently. Several technical days have been held during the past month in the Autonomous regions of Madrid and Andalucia, attended by more than 180 technicians from these regions. Lastly in Cantabria, Recreativos Franco, through its distributing company Olakoa, presented its “Afrika” model, the latest reference in the market that, in addition to a new ticket vending machine, incorporates the latest generation of technology together with a broad range of technical improvements.  Frenetic activity to overcome a delicate situation.

The Governing Council of the Autonomous Government of Andalucia has terminated the employment of Macarena Bazán as Director General of Entertainment and Gaming, scarcely two years after her appointment. Her last official act was the opening of the Andalucian Amusement Fair that took place in Málaga recently and the presentation of prizes. The new Director General of Entertainment and Gaming, Manuel Brenes Rivas (Cádiz, 1950), has a diploma in Teaching. Since June 2009 he has held the position of Director General for Employability and Professional Training in the Andalucian Department of Employment.

While most leisure activities have changed and lost a portion of their audiences over time, pool has both survived and thrived in the U.S. After hosting competitions for 30 seasons, the Valley 8-Ball League Association (VNEA) celebrated the association’s 160-millionth league game. The organization was established in 1980 by a handful of operators who never anticipated the wild success of the VNEA and the international popularity of the games.

Bob Fay, longtime industry veteran and now Director of Government Relations for AMI Entertainment Network, has been appointed to serve on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Consumer Goods. He will represent AMI Entertainment and the U.S. amusements industry. Fay has vast government experience, first as a former FBI agent and longtime expert in international trade matters, and then serving 14 years in the late 1980s through the 1990s as Executive Director and President of the American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA).

In Nashville, Tennessee, The Grand Ole Opry and the Opryland Hotel, the central shrine of country music and site of several AMOA conventions, sustained serious water damage following historic floods during early May. The state sustained at least $1 billion in damages, also affecting Tennessee amusement operators.

A few Texas school districts have introduced a new curriculum that could appeal to younger students and motivate them toward a future career. The Fort Bend Independent School District (ISD) in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston, is focused on recruiting incoming freshman for the new program this fall, which will open to all Fort Bend ISD students.

The Colorado Lottery could soon operate video lottery terminals in the state's bars and restaurants, if lawmakers pass Senate Concurrent Resolution 10 by a two-thirds approval vote. Colorado voters would then have to authorize the machines in a referendum in November.

The Ministry of Culture China has published the regulations for commercial game machines at arcades. According to the new regulations, all game machines have to be examined and approved before they are distributed into the market. The new regulations apply from May 1 2010, so it is estimated that there will be a machine replacement cycle at that time. For example, IGS is expected to be a beneficiary because it will cooperate with SEGA to launch new game machines meeting the demand of new regulations.

AUSTRIA

As reps go around the country trying to sell piecemeal products, in the Americas the major business in the amusements and recreation sector is done at the expos. The major expo is the Amusement Showcase International, 10-12 April in Las Vegas, which is sponsored and produced by the American Amusement Machine Association, the international trade association for manufacturers, distributors and parts suppliers of coin-operated amusement products, which was the recipient of the 1996 US Department of Commerce “E“ Award.

Cash handling systems exist for every size of business and every set of cash management requirements. So it’s important to look at a broad selection of vendors to ensure that you’re investing in the system that best fits your needs, both now and in the future, without paying for features that you may never need.

Money handling firm Money Controls believes that innovation, flexibility and efficiency are essential requirements for its customers. These elements are designed into all of Money Controls’ products, and the service that its team delivers. And this customer-driven approach has resulted in an increasing number of OEMs across the globe specifying the use of Money Controls’ products for their gaming machines.

GBA ST2, the latest bank note validator from AstroSystems, combines the reliability of previous GBA validators with some new features and options required in today’s marketplace, such as barcode reading for TITO applications and USB connectivity allowing both simple software updates and serial communications.