How refreshing to hear that the French minister for budgetary affairs, Jean-François Copé, has decided to cut taxes on amusement machines in order to encourage more young people to use the country’s bars and cafes.

The French minister for budgetary affairs, Jean-François Copé, has slashed taxes on amusement machines in order to encourage more young people into the country’s bars and cafes.

NSM Music Group and Sound Leisure have announced they have settled their differences in connection with key digital download and network management patents.

Bally Wulff will use the domestic show IMA to underline its position as a European rather than just a German manufacturer. In particular, Bally Wulff wants to highlight its success in the Spanish market by unveiling two new machines for that sector Lejano Oeste Rodillos and La Bruja - both of which use a video interface.

As the Bank of England announces the release of a new £20 note, Money Controls already has products geared up to deal with it.

TAB-Austria has received its largest ever order to manufacture gaming terminals for a company expanding into Czech and Austrian markets. The order is for more than 10,000 new betting terminals at a value of around E50m and will double the company’s annual turnover next year.

The 2007 edition of the Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI) will offer visitors the world’s broadest range of new products and services. And for the first time, the show will be divided into distinct zones of gaming and non-gaming equipment covering over 60 individual product sectors.

October saw the passing of a deadline for applications to the gambling authorities for licences to test AWP games.

Paul Brown of MEI leapt from 13,000ft in a tandem sky-dive with the Red Devils last month, in order to raise money for the British Institute for Brain-Injured Children (Bibic).

Namco has announced details of its UK business restructuring, which will take effect from January 1, 2007. The current Namco Europe Limited will have a name change to Namco Holdings UK Limited, and in future this will operate as a holding company.

Leisure Link, one of the UK’s largest operators, has won the service contract with Gala Coral Group for all of its gaming machines and terminals for a further five years, and extended the contract to cover the entire Gala Casino and Gala Bingo estates.

Barcrest Group and its Czech distributor Jamp recently showed an extensive line-up of new and classic products at the Forbes Show in Prague.

Smart Industries is now offering an exclusive one-year warranty on most of its imported products, including the Toy Chest cranes, Pirates Chest crane (now available in more sizes and styles), the Moving Castle, the Giant Crane, Double Up cranes, Shoot-to-Win Basketball, and Pile Up.

Suzo-Happ Group has bought Starpoint Developments, the UK-based supplier of electro-mechanical devices.

Face Place, the US photo booth manufacturer, has added an interactive blog to its website. Short for web-log, a blog is a journal or newsletter that is updated frequently and read in reverse chronological order. Blogs are used to convey news or commentary about a specific subject.

Games Warehouse, which developed the Paragon SWP platforms, has announced the appointment of Andrew Henson as commercial director.

Nanoptix, a global thermal printer solutions provider, has signed an agreement with American Gaming & Electronics (AG&E), a leading provider of gaming parts, used machines and electronic components.

Inspired Gaming Group has released an update for its financial year ended September 30, 2006. Growth continued to be driven by the deployment of server-based gaming (SBG) terminals. During the year, the number of SBG terminals increased by 54 per cent to over 36,000, of which over 17,000 were in overseas markets.

Astra Games has announced a new distribution agreement in Belgium with Seeben, one of the market’s most established companies. Astra has strengthened its export channels over the last two years with the appointment of a number of strategic partners in key European markets, resulting in major growth in 2006 and an expansive product range across 13 countries.

The 14th GTI Expo is scheduled to take place from May 10-12 in 2007. Organised by Game Time International (GTI) and Taiwan Slot magazine, the show has grown to be one of the most representative in Asia and attracts numerous international buyers.

GLI Australia has announced that it has recently moved its Adelaide testing laboratory into a new and larger facility located south of the city.

Keith Healey and Andy Powell, Chairman and Managing Director respectively of Games Warehouse, have been appointed joint UK Country Managers of the Rowe and Merit brands, both sister businesses within the Harbour Group’s entertainment portfolio.

Stern Pinball recently gave a World Poker Tour pinball machine to US troops in Afghanistan. The machine was sent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, located in Tucson, Arizona, and was then flown over to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, where the troops are playing it today.

Sega Amusements Europe has confirmed that the Preview show was a great success. With a move upstairs to the main floor and a bigger stand, the range of product was strong and varied.

Visaton is a German-based company that manufactures high-end speakers. The company offers an extensive range of speakers. Having a moisturised cone and metal basket as standard, Visaton speakers offer the reliability that the market is looking for.

Danoptra Holdings and Aristocrat Leisure are planning to work together on a development for a new gaming product, targeted at the UK betting industry.

Eduardo Antoja, President of Euromat, the European trade body, criticised the thinking behind the new Italian law for AWP machines during a speech at the opening meeting of the Enada show in Rome, saying it would lead to the collapse of the industry.

The renowned Keane family of showmen has reinvested in the amusement machine manufacturer Elton Games International.

Leading UK gaming and amusement machine operator Gamestec has expanded its long-term relationship with the dynamic pub and bar company Barracuda Group.

Global VR’s EA Sports PGA Tour Golf Challenge Edition is a well-proven video game that enables players to join a national online (option) tournament to win cash prizes, while at the same time accruing Plus Points that entitle them to access a choice of websites to purchase a wide array of goods.

Funworld has developed a management system that will work on all types of machines. This system, called Operation Network, is based on the comprehensive know-how Funworld has developed with its own Fun.service management system, which it developed for its Photo Play terminals.

Games Media, a leading designer and publisher of game content for a variety of technology platforms, has announced that it has been accredited with the ISO 9001 quality standard for its entire business operations.

3M UK has appointed Brad Pianta-McGill as European business development manager for its digital signage business.

Pianta-McGill’s remit is to build on the market growth achieved by the digital signage business in the UK through strategic focus on customers, resellers and projects throughout Europe.

With the help of Sapar, the Taiwan Pavilion made a successful debut in Italy at Enada Rome 2006. The show, which ran from October 12-15, was organised by GTI and managed by Rimini Fiera.

According to figures announced on September 22 by Gaungzhou Customs’ General Affairs of Statistics Division, the number of electronic gaming commodities exported from January to August - including household consoles and commercial products - was 452,202.

After more than a year’s preparation, the Microsoft Game Technology Platform was officially unveiled at the national video-game industrial centre in Chengdu, Sichuan on September 19.

Over the coming months, Europer will be sponsoring the news in this section. Europer is a Spanish business association that brings together most of the independent amusement-machine operators in Catalonia. Since its foundation in 1989 it has dedicated itself - in addition to defending the general interests of its members - to encouraging dialogue with the administrative bodies and collaborating with other Spanish business associations in the gaming and entertainment markets.

The Andalusian cities of Seville and Granada have hosted open days in which Adeslink, the system produced by Informatica Programas y Serveis (IPS) for playing Acumulado (progressive jackpot) in interconnected halls, was on display. The Adeslink system has been developed specifically by IPS for Andaluza de Desarrollos Electrónicos.

The government of Navarre is to restrict the use of special amusement machines - those that give large prizes - solely to amusement arcades. The measure, contained in a decree approved last month, is intended to restrict compulsive gambling and has recently been sent to parliament.

On October 30, decree 106/2006 - by which the plan was approved for type B amusement machines in the Autonomous Region of Cantabria - was published in the official bulletin of the Cantabrian regional government.

Gaming machines declared compliant with Article 110 of the Testo Unico delle Leggi di Pubblica Sicurezza - Unified Text of Public Security Laws (Tulps) - have already attracted the attention of police authorities and, after a careful assessment, have been judged non-compliant.

A wider network of games and betting in Italy could result in a veritable boom in takings. According to forecasts, the size of the market could practically double by 2009, with takings rising from E4.6bn in 2005 to E8.9bn.

Jukebox Sports Network (JSN) - the world’s first video-on-demand sports highlight network for bars, chain restaurants and other public venues - made its commercial service debut at the AMOA International Expo, Las Vegas, in late September.

The National Dart Association (NDA), a division of the Amusement and Music Operators’ Association, is making plans for its international Team Dart XXII tournament. The competition will be held from April 27 to May 5 at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

President George W. Bush has signed a bill that cuts off the use of credit cards and various bank instruments for online gambling, which took effect on October 13. The new law is intended to shut down the $7bn online gaming industry in the USA.

Waterland Private Equity has announced the acquisition of a majority share-holding in Löwen Play, Germany’s second-largest arcade operator.

The commercial magazine Impulse has brought the major family-run company Gauselmann under the spotlight. According to Impulse, the Gauselmann Group occupies 54th place in the top 100 strongest German family firms, with a productivity increase of 29 per cent between 1995 and 2005.

At the FER-Interazar trade fair in Madrid, Merkur Gaming did not merely introduce attractive cash-payout machines and entertainment innovations.

Vewu, the Association of European Businessmen in the Betting Sector, has strongly criticised the draft of a new German national lottery treaty.

The fifth Surexpo took place at the Warsaw Exhibition Hall from October 19-21. A total of 121 firms exhibited, five less than last year. There were 34 companies who exhibited from outside Poland.

JPM International won the best foreign product award category at Surexpo 2006 last month for its Linear cabinet. In addition, JPM’s exclusive distributor in Eastern Europe, Synot, was highly commended in best foreign stand category.

Josep Tarres is Managing Director of the Spanish company Digital Center, which is dedicated to the manufacture of photo cabinets. Digital Center has been a regular exhibitor at recent ATEI shows and some of its products continue to have an impact on visitors to the fair, such as Ping-pong Combat, which today remains a point of reference in the market.

Unfortunately, political events are having an ever-greater influence on social activities above all, bringing together professionals from several countries in the same place at the same time.

Like all components of the coin-op amusement sector, the video scene depends on currency. But as the second phase of the digital revolution takes hold, the small change of life is being sidelined by electronic payment.

The introduction of Astra’s single- player Bullion Bars Player marks the third anniversary since the release of Bullion Bars Deluxe and Bullion Bars Arena, Astra’s evergreen multiplayers.

Brent Sales/Namco Europe have gained exclusive distribution rights to the latest novelty photo vending booth developed by industry-leading manufacturer Fusence, Magic Photo Land.

Densitron’s new DPX-117 is the first industrial computer board to offer today’s latest dual-core CPU technology on a board specifically designed for the gaming industry. The DPX-117 supports Intel Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors.

JPM International has launched a Category B AWP for Spain, follow-ing its debut on the Comatel stand in Madrid. Bank Raid is a new six-reel game housed in the highly successful JPM Linear cabinet. The Wild West-themed game is available in the two-stake format for various regions in Spain.

Suzo International is now the continental European distributor for Arizona-based Pyramid Technologies (PTI). The Trilogy is a stackerless banknote reader that is competitively priced and designed for indoor use in the amusement, gaming, vending, lottery and kiosk markets.

Forge Europa will be exhibiting at Electronica 2006. At the exhibition, the company will launch a new range of standard and custom-designed LED assemblies along with new product developments such as aLED high-power LED lighting assemblies, high-intensity traffic LEDs and long-life LED technology.

DT Productions/Sound Leisure offered serious savings to new and existing jukebox customers at this year’s Preview. Operators were able to buy a Digitracks video jukebox featuring 1,000 profiled WM9 videos, previously only available on the top-of-the-range Browser and Music Express models.

Fun Park from Harry Levy Amusements is an eight-player round pusher with a footprint of 6ft in diameter. Fun Park has been designed with a slightly bigger playfield than Hippodrome (intermediate size), another Harry Levy classic.