Asian companies dominate the latest list of the top 50 gambling firms by market capitalisation, produced by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC).

The list, updated at the beginning of January, sees seven Asian companies in the top ten. Although Las Vegas Sands of the U.S. is the world’s biggest gaming firm by market cap, the second, third and fourth places are all taken by Asian companies – Sands China, Wynn Macau, and Genting Singapore respectively.

Quixant, the maker of computing platforms for slot machines, has moved its Taiwan operations to a new location more than three times the size of its previous facility.

Early March sees the Chinese city of Guangzhou host two gaming and amusement trade fairs.

At the Panyu Startoon E-Game Expo (SEM), running 5-7 March, organisers promise a range of “China-manufactured innovations and products including amusement machines, amusement games, theme park facilities, and fitness equipment”.

The king of game companies listed on the Taiwan stock market, MacroWell OMG Digital Entertainment (OMG), and China-based HNA Group are partnering to launch a cloud-based entertainment platform, YH Youth DreamNet.

They will also build YH Entertainment Mall, a new-style entertainment business which combines the virtual and real worlds.

The city of Zhongshan in China’s Guangdong province has gained good results from the policy it adopted last year of focusing on content for the game industry.

Zhongshan companies including Golden Horse, Golden Dragon and Unis showcased new products that they had independently developed at the China Zhongshan International Games & Amusement Fair 2011, with an enthusiastic reception from buyers.

Chang Ping Elementary School in the Hsinchuang district of New Taipei City has taken advantage of unused space on its campus to install amusement facilities such as a rock climbing gym, basketball machines, a golf range and hammering machines.

The new sports and leisure area, called Chang Ping Disney, opened on 19 November and can be used by students for physical fitness training or physical education classes.

Italyis the largest electronic gaming market in southernEurope, and Taiwanese companies successfully penetrated it a long time ago. So at this year’s autumn Enada event in Rome – focused on Comma 6a AWPs and Comma 6b video lottery terminals (VLTs) as well as a wide range of amusement and sports machines and peripherals – it was not surprising that they enjoyed extensive exposure.

Matsu, one ofTaiwan’s offshore islands, will hold a referendum on gambling at the end of 2011 at the earliest. Many civil groups went to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) this autumn and presented eight inquiries and three petitions.

They believe that authorising gaming-related parties to draft the rules on international resorts housing casinos is like asking the fox to guard the hens.

A group of governmental leaders from Panyu District inGuangzhou,Chinarecently investigated theHuachuangAnimation & CartoonPark, an industrial park devoted to commercial animation.

President Pei-wen Liu of Huachuang introduced its development and position, outlining progress of projects and future plans. He emphasised Huachuang’s plan of independently developing commercial game-machine platforms.

The scale of illegal gaming in China is highlighted by reports from Luzhou City in Sichuan province, which has so far this year destroyed more than 300 gambling machines. Jiangyang deputy district chief Hong Xu said the action was part of “the movement for collectively rectifying the city’s electronic amusement venues and destroying gambling machines”.

Tekken Tag Tournament (Tekken TT) was released in July of 1999 in Japan and, after 12 years of waiting, the sequel Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (Tekken TT2) is now out. Mega Biotech & Electronics has obtained the exclusive distribution rights in Taiwan from Namco Bandai Games.

Held 10-12 May next year at Hall One of the Taipei World Trade Center, GTI Asia Taipei Expo is marching toward its 19th birthday. It is an international event, with exhibitors from Japan, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Britain, Italy, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau participating annually, and attracts buyers from more than 60 different countries.

Organised by National Chin-Yi University of Technology and sponsored by IGS and Feiloli, registration has begun for the first phase of the second IGS International Creative Game Design and Feiloli International Creative Gaming Machine Design contests.

The Russian Open this year becomes part of the European Bowling Tour and is moving to a new venue, the Cosmik Belaya Dacha bowling centre in Moscow. The four-year-old, Brunswick-equipped 30-lane facility is one of the capital’s biggest, situated in the Mega Belaya Dacha mall. It has Anvilane lanes, a Vector scoring system, Score King pins and GS-X pinsetters.

The meeting for booth allocation and preliminary co-ordination of GTI Asia China Expo 2011 took place on 10 June, attended by more than 200 registrants from Japan and Malaysia as well as local Chinese companies.

TTo let local residents fully understand their rights and the details of a new gambling law, Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has held an explanatory meeting in Kinmen County.

Organised by Saint-Fun International, the RB Grand Prize Championship, which features total prize money of NT$300,000 (€7400), held its spring tournament in May at the GTI Asia Taipei Expo. Entering its sixth year, the China Cup Street Basketball International Tournament-Taiwan qualification competition also kicked off at the GTI Asia Taipei Expo.

Sixteen professionals from the Korean anime industry, brought together by the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation, visited Panyu district in Guangzhou, China on 3 March to observe and make an on-the-spot investigation of the development of the anime industry within this region.

Taiwan-based Astro now is actively seeking co-operation with local operators of gaming centres in Italy, the Czech Republic, and Greece. Nan-Ping Yang, president of Astro, said: “Starting in 2010, Astro has spent €9m and acquired 450 of the 56,000 VLT licences in total in the Italian market. We will be ready to export our machines in the second half of 2011.”

The governments of Korea and Vietnam have established new laws prohibiting online gaming companies and Internet cafes from supplying services at night, to prevent under-age gamers from playing games round the clock.

However, although the law directly affects the income of Taiwanese online gaming companies including Chinesegamer, Userjoy, and Softworld, they say the revenue impact will be small. There are few players gaming at night, and Korea and Vietnam are not their major markets.

The third GTI Asia China Expo will be held 25-27 August at the Poly World Trade Center in Guangzhou.

When the GTI Expo brand made its debut in China in 2009, it broke records for local Chinese gaming events, with high square footage in the exhibition area, exhibitor numbers and visitor attendance. And the 2010 event showed surprising growth.

During an institutional investor conference in November, IGS admitted that its online game revenue has slightly declined as a result of seasonal trends. But the company has big plans for 2011 – it will launch a car-racing game, Speed Driver, in China in the fourth quarter and its revenue from gaming machines is expected to see slight growth over the last quarter.

Taking place 5 to 7 May at the Taipei World Trade Center in Taipei City, Taiwan, GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2011 is preparing to welcome VIP exhibitors including Saint-Fun (with the equivalent of 42 booths), IGS (40), and Feiloli (30).

Other major exhibitors will include Subsino (25), Bingotimes (25), Borden (20), Mega (20), Youal-Jifh (18) and Joymax (16).

Ever since the global financial turmoil hit two years ago, the Asian gaming-technology industry has been stricken by a dwindled market. But it’s not all bad news.

Zheng-yi Yang, general manager of embedded systems maker Adlink Technology, has confirmed that Adlink is ready to enter the gaming sector and make its first deployments in this new field. The company has gained orders from a large American client and sent product samples for client confirmation.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has completed the draft of a new gaming law. It is tentatively proposed that the number of licences and the amount of business capital will not be limited; the regulation of these two aspects will essentially follow the rules of the Offshore Islands Development Act regarding the scale of resorts that can be built.

GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2011, which runs from 5 to 7 May next year, strikes a balance between edutainment and gambling machines, and always attracts thousands of international visitors and buyers. Many are not just exploring the market or looking to see what’s new: they are also actively buying or developing partnerships with other companies.

The range of Taiwanese gaming products used in the Italian market was evident at the Enada expo held in Rome in October.

Taiwan-made crane machines, ticket-redemption machines, AWPs and VLTs were among those displayed at the show, while one of the top Taiwan-based gaming-machine developers, Subsino, also had product exhibited at the stand of Hit Game.

Famous for its design and manufacture of AWP gambling machines, Mega Biotech & Electronics has always been one of the leading companies in Asia’s gaming industry. And, unable to ignore the trend of industry toward the Internet, Mega has also devoted itself to the production of online games.

GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2011 will take place from 5 to 7 May next year, with the goal of connecting Asian companies in the gaming and amusements sector – including firms from Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, as well as international groups from other corners of the globe.

China’s Jilin province expanded its monetary subsidy to cultural enterprises this year, tripling it to RMB30m (€3.2m). It has also established a RMB20m (€2.1m) fund for encouraging cultural enterprises to invest and develop strategic and pioneering projects, through bank loans and issuing corporate bonds.

The next step for Jilin province is to aggressively develop its ten key industries, which include radio and television, press and publication, acting and entertainment, digital transmission, Internet service, cultural expositions, and art.

Gaming Laboratories International’s Macau lab has achieved ISO accreditation for testing gaming software and hardware.

The GLI Asia lab, which the firm says was the first comprehensive test facility for gaming in Macau, is the only one in the region to be accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) for ISO/ISE 17025:2005.

A British company is supplying pool and snooker cloths to the Asian Games that open in Guangzhou next month.

Milliken will provide its SuperPro cloth for eight- and nine-ball pool, and Strachan 6811 for snooker. It is the first time the firm has supplied the Asian Games, although it has been developing business in the region for some time and is official cloth provider for the Asian Confederation of Billiard Sports.

“Snooker is extremely popular in China and the Far East and we are delighted to be invited to take part as a specified supplier,” said Milliken marketing director Duncan Kettell.

Entering its 18th year soon, the GTI Asia Taipei Expo will take place on 5-7 May 2011 at Zones B & C of Hall 1 in the Taipei World Trade Center.

More than 100 companies from Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan will participate.

For global buyers, a trip to the GTI Asia Taipei Expo will allow them to see a massive quantity of independently-developed game products including software, hardware and parts. Indeed, each year the event attracts buyers from more than 50 countries across the world.

Taking place in Hall 1 and 2 of the Poly World Trade Expo Center in Guangzhou City, China from 26 to 28 August, GTI Asia China Expo 2010 had 135 exhibitors displaying their latest products on 21,000 square meters of show floor.

Almost every well-known China-based company in the sector was there, including Shiyu Group & Unis Technology, Wahlap Technology, Guangzhou Sun-wing Electronics Technology, Bao Hui Technology, Mecpower Electronics, HuaTong Technology, Zhongshan Dragon World (International) Game & Amusement Sourcing Platform, Guangzhou Belrare Electronic Technology, 3D Gaming（Hangzhou)/3D Gaming（Guangzhou), Guangzhou Ruo Hai Electronic Equipment, Game Plus, KN&U Electronics, Shuang Yi Animation Technology/Shuang Ying Software Development, Liuzhou Lanhai Technology, Macrown Animation Technology, and more.

Sony Computer Entertainment Taiwan (SCET) is predicted to move into the Pier-2 Art District in the city of Kaohsiung this October at the latest and will work with local software companies on five game-development projects.

Liu Shin-jeng of Kaohsiung’s Economic Development Bureau said that Sony chose the Pier-2 Art District, near Kaohsiung’s harbour, for its software testing centre after long discussions involving the firm’s president Tetsuhiko Yasuda.

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.

Many illegal amusement venues have recently emerged in Guilin City and caused a lot of social problems, which made the public dissatisfied and also raised strong concerns of the culture department.

In recent years, discussions on casino legalization in Japan have alternated between dynamic enthusiasm and stagnation.

After the House of Representatives election was held last year, a new administration was inaugurated and the industry was keen to discover what kind of attitude the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) as the center party held on the casino issue.

The Ministry of Culture of China has warned that, “as of April 30, 2010, all amusement and entertainment venues are not allowed to operate games and amusement machines that are not listed in the guiding directory of machine models for market access issued by culture administrative departments.” Understandably, this has caused the industry some concern.

Founded in 1992, Saint-Fun started off with the import of video game motherboards. Dedicated to developing sports leisure products, the company has successfully created the Street Basketball frenzy. For the period from the second half of 2009 to the first half of 2010, Saint-Fun is focused on expanding into ODM and OEM for international companies.

Since China passed the “Notice Regarding Further Strengthening the Administration of Amusement and Entertainment Venues”, the government of Shaanxi Province has established the “Amusement and entertainment Venue Administration Methods” based on the Notice and also prescribed the “Notice Regarding Related Issues about the Implementation of Fixed-direction Purchase and Supply on Amusement and Entertainment Venues’ Games and Amusement Facilities”.

The culture administrative departments of all levels in Qinghai Province cooperated with industry and commerce departments and public security departments to conduct a four-month collective culture market rectification movement focused on inspecting internet cafes, amusement and entertainment venues.  During the movement period, 14,314 law enforcement officers were mobilized to inspect 14,061 cultural entities.Twenty-five illegal operations were found and 31,862 websites and games were blocked.

During 2009, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province has actively supported and promoted the animation and online game industry’s development and enthusiastically explored new directions for the development and management of e-game venues. 

Scheduled to take place from May 2 to 4, 2010 in Taipei City, Taiwan, the VIP exhibitor registration for GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2010 kicked off on December 30, 2009.  So far GTI, the show organizer, has confirmed the registration of the first 10 VIP exhibitors with the total booking of 200 booths (1,800sqm). 

Founded in 1992, Saint-Fun started off with the import of video game motherboards. Dedicated to developing sports leisure products, the company successfully created the Street Basketball frenzy. For the period from the second half of 2009 to the first half of 2010, Saint-Fun is focused on expanding into ODM and OEM international companies. 

Subsino showed its newly developed air hockey table Kung Fun Ball at the recent IAAPA show.

The air hockey table features an innovative design and vivid sound effects and provides three modes: Practice, Single Player and Dual Player competition/ challenge modes. The game attracted many players and received enthusiastic feedback. 

On October 28, 2009, the “Chinese-Korean Game Talent Training Base” officially went into operation in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China.  Both Chinese and Korean parties announced and signed the “Agreement for Jointly Operating the Chinese-Korean Game Talent Training Base”. They will jointly operate the base and cultivate game talents through running online or offline courses.

The three events in London this month, namely IGE/ATEI at Earls Court and EAG Expo at Excel Exhibition Center, will mark the beginning of the new year 2010. 

The Annual Conference of Chinese e-Game Industry convened in Beijing early December. Submission for Golden Finger Awards applications commenced in September. To encourage and support more creative enterprises and start-up groups, the Golden Finger Awards has started paying more attention to the small and medium-sized enterprises and groups in the game industry since 2008. 

Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province will start constructing the first yacht club in the area around Beibu Gulf at the end of 2009. The project will cost close to RMB$400 million and is predicted to be completed in 2013. 

Organized by GTI Magazine, GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2010 will take place at B & C Zones, Hall 1, Taipei World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan on May 2~4, 2010.  The registration for overseas exhibitors has kicked off.  The first phase of booth selection and assignment process for close to 20 VIP companies will begin in mid December. 

Minister Mao Chi-kuo of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications went to Singapore to attend the APEC Ministerial Meeting. Considering the future planning and development of Taiwan’s gaming industry, Mao Chi-kuo listened to the briefing given by the casino regulatory authority in Singapore and casino operator Genting Group which runs Resorts World at Sentosa.

To further promote economic interactions between China and Taiwan, the Guangzhou Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade organized a delegation to Taipei to attend the “Taipei-Guangzhou Trade Week 2009” from November 4 to 11. 

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.

GeneralTouch, one of the global leading touch solution providers, combines high-performance LCD panels with GeneralTouch's unique Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) touch technology to create a new family of large-screen, wide-aspect open-frame LCD touchmonitors.

The Culture Department of Shandong Province recently issued the "opinions on the practice of improving the administration of amusement and province-wide entertainment venues" to the Culture Bureaus of all its cities.

There is good news for FEC owners - three new games from Belrare, Super Hot Skiing, Speed Flyer and Happy Balance Ball (in one and two-player versions). The games feature the revolutionary balancing mechanism and provide a healthy FEC concept - which enriches the mind with games and the body with physical exercise.

To promote China's animation and comic industry, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation of China announced on July 31 new taxation policies for supporting the animation and comics industry's development. 

GTI Asia China Expo was successfully held on September 3-6, at Liuhua Exhibition Center, located on the intersection of the four main roads in Yuexiu, Guangzhou, which is the most prosperous area in the city.  As a part of Guangzhou Fair Organizing Committee's expo projects, it received great support from both the authorities and the industry, presenting an extraordinary debut.

Having confidence in the future of gaming business on Taiwan's offshore islands, the Hsiuping Institute of Technology in central Taiwan signed a contract with Ocean-Tech Group from Macau and inaugurated the "Global Gaming Training Center" on June 15th, 2009 to launch the first gaming extension education program in central Taiwan. 

Sony Japan announced on June 29th that it will establish a digital content cooperative R&D center in Taiwan and will cooperate with Taiwanese companies to develop 20 console games within three years. 

Minister Mao Chi-kuo of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication, has said the basic gaming law in Taiwan could be completed by the end of 2009 when preparations for investor recruitment could start. 

G2E Asia 2009 that was held at the Venetian Macao on June 3~4 showed signs of being affected by the global financial crisis. The show's scale dwindled; booth and visitor numbers decreased. Among nearly 150 exhibitors, there were 21 exhibitors coming from Taiwan, including Astro, Borden, Bingotimes, Jumbo, IGS, Subsino, Homer, Taiwan Fulgent, Huai I, New Sun Yu, Shang Yang, Jyuee Ang, Grantech, Advantech, King Cabinet, IBASE, Taiwan Yuanmei, Axiomtek, Paokai, and GTI Magazine. 

Shenzhen Huaqiang Holding Limited will establish a cultural and technological theme park in Johannesburg, South Africa with the investment of USD 250 million.

Although there are many gaming locations closing down in Tokyo, due to the financial crisis, there are some arcades that are finding no change in business - or even a slight increase.

Subsino's R&D ability has always been highly praised among the global industry; its game software, cabinets, parts, kiddie rides and the R&D and production of children's teaching machines are well received globally. Subsino has successfully built up its own brand in the world and become one of the leading manufacturers in Taiwan. It exhibited at GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2009 at booth B59, demonstrating Happy Land series of kiddie rides, CO-Dream interactive skill and redemption games - Panda Train and Skills. 

An indoor amusement hall that costs RMB 1 billion is going to be built in the Happy Valley in Beijing. Attractions like a Pirate Ship, Roller Coaster and Shipwreck Rapids will be presented in the indoor amusement hall in various sizes.

The Global Gaming Research Center (GGRC) which provides key techniques in operating the global gambling industry is the subsidiary of the Macao-based Ke Hai Group and is planning to extend its training project in to Taiwan. GGRC collaborates with Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) in the United States and is going to issue diplomas for single subjects to those in Taiwan who pass the special training certificate course of GGTC, in order to nurture the gambling talents in Taiwan. 

Some Taiwanese game companies recorded new highs in revenues in January and February this year. With new game releases in March, these developers have the chance to create new records again. IGS, Chinesegamer and Soft-World all had outstanding performance in the first quarter of 2009. IGS has started to ship new machines to Italy and China. With the closed beta test of Prophecy Online starting, IGS is expected to reach a new revenue high in the second quarter.

KN&U, which successfully distributed Korean dance games, has always had a close relationship with Korean firms. It has built co-operative relationships with several Korean game developers on diverse contents including game distribution and collaborative development.

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), a Japanese governmental organization, published last month the 2008-2009 Content Market Status in the North America Market. The white paper announced a series of market statistics, which included that the output of Japanese comics and cartoon products reached US$2.829 billion (280 billion Japanese yen) in the market of North America for 2007.

Think Services, organizer of the world famous Game Developers Conference (GDC), have said the event will return to China this October. In March, the Ministry of Culture of China officially became the guiding unit of the GDC China 2009.

Saint-Fun, which will have a spacious booth spanning an area of 270 square meters at GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2009, specializes in developing intellectual, entertainment and non-electronic categories of game machines. Founded in 1992, Saint-Fun has achieved outstanding results in product sales, operating site planning and cooperative operations. The firm also has acquired ISO900 certification and successfully built a good reputation and wide sales networks in Taiwan, China and other countries like the US and Italy. The Saint-Fun brand is widely and profoundly recognized.

GTI Asia Taipei Expo, which will take place at Areas B & C, Hall 1 of the Taipei World Trade Center on May 7-9, has completed the first phase of booth assignment for VIP exhibitors.

IGS sells AWPs, music games, FEC games, simulators and PGM2.

When hit by waves of the financial crisis, cutting expenditure has become a major matter for all trade events. Recently, Korea's largest game trade event, G-Star, has also considered changing venue to cut costs.

Organized by Astro and the Economic Daily News, the first Taiwan Gaming Industry Forum took place at the Westin Taipei Hotel on February 13. The forum invited and was attended by governmental officials, civil representatives, scientific search organizations, academic institutions, legal representatives, and Taiwanese and overseas industry experts and associates. The forum served to build connections between Taiwan's gaming industry and international casinos.