The allure of mobile gaming appears irresistible, to real-world and online operators alike: it’s as up close and personal with the consumer as you can get.

On the online front, one of the biggest recent affirmations for mobile comes from Microgaming, probably the leading provider of Web gaming software. It sees an increasing amount of business coming from mobile, and has recently added an Android-based tablet and smartphone app to its line-up.

The system makes its debut with eight games, and another 20 or more should be added by the end of the year.

NSM Music plans to show its new Icon Lite jukebox at January’s EAG International Expo, alongside established models such as the Fusion, Apollo, and Icon2.

American Gaming Systems is to license GameTech International’s library of games for VLTs.

Slovenian regulators have approved a range of Viridian widescreen games from Aristocrat Technologies.

International Brand Gaming is now supplying the Nitro-XL cabinet from Elite Casino Products.

Genting Casinos has acquired Fox Poker Club,London’s only dedicated poker facility. Situated onShaftesbury Avenuein theWest End, and opened with a full casino licence just over a year ago, it has more than 20,000 members.

January’s EAG International Expo inLondonhas named the speaker line-up for its seminar programme.

Said Martin Burlin, chairman of the event: “We’ve been extremely fortunate in re-securing the services of leading industry consultants Frank Seninsky and Michael Getlan, whose inspirational seminars were very popular last year. Frank and Michael will be joined by BACTA chief executive Leslie Macleod-Miller.”

Getlan is director of enthusiasm and opportunity forU.S.firms Amusement Consultants, New Roc Entertainment and Smiles Amusement, and a former board member of IAAPA and operator of family amusement centres.

Exhibitors from more than 50 countries have now signed up for January’s ICE Totally Gaming event inLondon.

TheUKis the biggest contributor of exhibitors, followed byMalta, theU.S.,Austria,GermanyandItaly. Also figuring near the top of the list are theNetherlands,Slovenia,Taiwan,Sweden,CanadaandGibraltar.

Social responsibility is never far from managers’ minds in the gaming and amusements sector, thanks to their efforts to prevent and help with problem gambling.

But many are going beyond that, with projects that aid local communities, charities and the environment in a plethora of other ways. Such generosity has even been elevated to a philosophy, in MBA-land: corporate social responsibility, or CSR.

And though CSR may be a rather grand tag to apply to smaller businesses’ philanthropic activities such as sponsorships, in larger gaming and amusements organisations it can become a matter of policy as much as spontaneous wallet-opening.

Areas with a high concentration of gambling machines tend to be poorer than average, according to a new study conducted forBritain’s Responsible Gambling Fund (RGF).

Researchers NatCen and Geofutures “found that areas with a higher density of gambling machines were more likely to be poorer, with lower-than-average economic activity and more people in lower-status jobs. The populations of higher-density zones also tend to have higher-than-average proportions of residents aged 16-34 and over 75.”

Kitty Cash is the latest multi-level progressive from Spielo International, the new firm uniting the former Spielo and Atronic.

Running on its Oxygen cabinet, the game “has been designed for regular players who have a good sense for paybacks and can feel the chance of hitting a jackpot on a more frequent basis”, the firm said.

“Through a well-balanced mix of supporting game titles, this link covers a wide range of player preferences which are suitable for different market segments, all based on proven math systems,” it added.

There could soon be more bookmakers than banks on British high streets, according to the Gambling Commission.

It says there are 8927 betting shops in operation, with 11 more opening each month – bucking the trend of closures in many segments of the retail sector.

By contrast, although there are are 9600 banks, 14 are closing each month. At these rates, bookmakers and banks will achieve parity in a little over two years.

Not many British cue sports manufacturing companies can currently say that they are flat out with production. Even fewer can say that the bulk of their sales are going to a hungry market inChina.

But this is exactly what is happening to the historic Liverpool-based company Peradon, which has been making cues since 1885.

Peradon has remained focused on  handmade, high-quality English cues. The result has been a significant increase in demand from a discerning Chinese customer base.

Two decades after it was bought by U.S.-based Milliken & Company, the Stroud textile business Milliken Woollen Speciality Products has returned to British ownership.

The business has been christened WSP Textiles Ltd., with three senior members of the management team joining a new board of directors.

The former Milliken Woollen Specialty Products management team who have seats on the board are the new chief executive David Smith, sales director Duncan Kettell and manufacturing director Malcolm Fallows.

British pool cloth manufacturer Strachan is    backing the new International Professional Pool Players Association (IPA) eight-ball tour in 2012.

The company has joined Hilton Worldwide and pool table maker Heywood Supreme in backing a new committee now heading up the organisation, which has attracted more than £120,000 in prize money.

The committee is keen to develop the amateur and professional game in 2012 and hopes to see eight-ball pool return to TV screens followed next year by the launch of a televised premier league.

The 2012 IPA tour has been conceived by pool professional Morray Dolan (pictured), and a committee keen to provide the game with a professionally-managed circuit that also appeals to the European market.

The new season starts in March with the British Open and the amateur championships inBlackpool. It will end inNewportin October with the Welsh Open and the Welsh amateur championships.

The Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) recently released the results of its first comprehensive member survey in more than ten years. Conducted in the spring, the poll invited the organisation’s 1400 members to participate via SurveyMonkey, an online tool. More than 70 operators in 26 states responded, and most answered the 61 questions.

The results suggest that the typical operator is independently-minded and in their forties or fifties, with some college education. They typically employ fewer than ten people. Member operators prefer to deal with smaller local banks and make their own travel reservations. It is an ageing business, and more than 93 percent of respondents are over 40. Almost a third are over 60.

Once again,Illinoisoperators are caught in the middle of legislative brinksmanship. Waiting for two years to start operating within the 2009 Video Game Act (VGA), they have been plagued by delays and changes.

Companies have already been approved to operate, distribute and manufacture games withinIllinois. But now, once again, Governor Pat Quinn is pressing for possible regulatory modifications.

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.

Every month Euroslot updates you on the latest news affecting gaming policy and regulation around the world.

 ARGENTINA

Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) hosted 58 regulators from 22 jurisdictions in Latin America and the Caribbean at its latest Latin American Regulators Roundtable inBuenos Aires. The day-long event included contributions by regulators fromArgentina,Chile, theDominican Republic,MexicoandPanama. GLI’s next event for regulators, covering North America, will be held inLas Vegason 7-8 March.

Cash can be a pain for businesses to handle – but is going cashless really the answer? Jon Bruford investigates.

 Cash makes life difficult for leisure venues in a host of ways: it’s inherently insecure, it’s expensive to handle, and it requires dedicated machinery in the form of hoppers, coin acceptors and the like, with moving parts that need attention. All in all, if you could run your business without cash – or at least minimise its presence – wouldn’t you?

There are a few options available to businesses wanting to take the cashless route, but it’s not as straightforward as it might first appear.

David Stenning, MD at Embed Playsafe, shares his thoughts on the cash-vs-cashless debate.

Is theUKmarket truly ready for cashless debit-card systems? That is the question which is becoming asked more and more. The answer is: yes, the customer is ready, but maybe not the operators just yet, although if you had been inOrlandoat the IAAPA show in November you may have thought otherwise.

The automation of cash counting can improve security – and give you more time to do your job

Usually, the person counting cash in a venue is the owner or manager. So if the cash is counted more quickly and more efficiently, with reporting downloaded into your computer system, that staff member or owner has more free time to do what they’re really good at, which is presumably not just counting cash.

Cash is very much alive, argues Dave Ellwood,UKandIrelandsales manager for Crane Payment Solutions

Read the papers these days and you’d believe cash is dead, or at the very least dying. Just recently the Daily Mail screamed: “Smartphones will put paid to cash in five years.” Talk to some people in the amusements and gaming industry and within the other markets Crane Payments Solutions operates in, and they’d tell you the same.

But while cashless payment systems are becoming increasingly popular, statistics show it is far too early to be sounding the death knell for coins and notes. In fact, just take a look at the recent figures released by the European Central Bank, which demonstrate that the opposite is actually the case.

Thomas Automatics, the change machine and cash processing specialist of Loughborough, is set to launch a new range of products in 2012 which have been specifically designed to allow gaming machine operators to enhance security and improve their operating efficiency. The first in the series to be launched is the Thomas PayStation.

The contemporary-looking Thomas PayStation will allow the automation of hand-pay jackpots. This multifunctional arcade device will serve as a change-giver and cash dispenser for the arcade and bingo sector. Its 21-inch screen with touch technology is both appealing and easy to use.

This money-changer from Suzo-Happ combines flexibility and security at a very reasonable price. Customers can choose from a Trilogy note reader from Pyramid Technologies or an electronic coin acceptor from Comestero.

In payout, either one or two Cube hoppers can be used, so operators can easily switch from one-coin payout (Evolution) to two-coin payout (two Cube hoppers). Security is provided in the housing with an Assa Desmo lock.

The Hopper Flow is the latest addition to the coin payout hopper family at Suzo-Happ.

Population 313m

Under 15 62.9m

Aged 15-64 209.2m

Urban population 82 percent

Major cities Nine over 1m, a further 24 over 500,000

GDP per capita $47,200

A relative latecomer to the industry, Lottomatica’s gaming CEO wishes he’d got here earlier.

How did you first get involved with the amusements industry?

In 2003, I was approached by Stargames, which is now owned by Shuffle Master, to join their board as an independent director. This was my first exposure to the world of gaming from a supplier’s perspective. Later, in 2006, I joined Tabcorp as the CEO of its casino business, and was able to view it from the operators’ side.