John Appleton from Six Continents with Paul Terroni from Inspired at the Electrocoin Cocktail Party

X Factor winner Steve Brookstein entertains on the Crown stand

Euroslot editor Stephanie Norbury gets hands-on treatment at the Bally Wulff stand at IMA

Euroslot’s Geeta Kesur looks on as Rowan McIntyre gets in the party mood with G3’s Karen Southall at the TAB awards

Norditalia was presented with the award for best marketing.

Triomphe! New Games France was the winner of best online performance at the TAB awards.

No pictures please! Stefan Dreizehnter, Euroslot correspondent and Editor of Games & Business magazine pictured with Ylva Howard of Preview

Some like it hot! Chris Taylor from Elton Games shares bench space with Marilyn during ATEI

For the first time, thousands of contestants at the National Dart Association’s (NDA) annual Team Dart competition at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada will be prohibited from smoking on location.

Police, prosecutors and other officials in Alabama, Florida and Texas are cracking down on adult arcades, gray-area video slots, eight-liners and other forms of “adult redemption” games.

The amusement industry’s best pinball players in the world will be crowned at this year’s Amusement Showcase International (ASI) convention, taking place on March 28-30 in Las Vegas. The ASI and the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) will sponsor the first annual championship competition.

The annual VI awards are the highest professional accolade within the social dynamics of the gaming industry in Spain and with their praise not only do they turn on the spotlight but also provide an incentive for the work of these people who, in very different ways and at different levels, have been able to promote the image of the whole sector.

FAOCAM - the Catalan Federation of Associations of Amusement Machine and Gaming Arcade Operators, which brings together the Acomar, Europer, Grecojoc and Acordjoc associations, has urged the Catalonian Autonomous Government to evaluate the effect of granting of concessions to operate the new games known as “Binjocs”.

The CIRSA Group is simplifying its structure and reducing the number of divisions it operates from five to four. The company’s objective is to increase synergy and reduce costs without any reduction in staffing levels. The decision means there will be one new division, to be known as Business to Business (B2B), which will combine the existing manufacturing division (responsible for the design, manufacture and marketing of amusement machines for bingo halls, casinos, bars, arcades and casinos) and the interactive division (responsible for the design, marketing and operation of online terminals and systems for instant lotteries, electronic bingo and interconnected amusement machines).

Densitron Gaming Ltd has undergone a successful management buyout as of January 31, 2007. The result is a company focused on the gaming industry with its leading edge computer boards and associated software. Densitron Gaming will continue to be run by the same management with all the staff and office locations remaining in place to continue to service the needs of its rapidly expanding customer base. Densitron Gaming has now improved its financial footing to continue its successful growth and allow for greater business expansion.

The Gauselmann Group subsidiary Merkur Interactive won a number of tenders for betting offices and sales points in Italy at the end of last year. A total of 76 betting shop licences were successfully procured and 157 sales point licences were also won from the central public authority the AAMS in Rome. In addition, a licence for internet gaming throughout Italy was also obtained. This means that Merkur Interactive will now be one of the major players in the newly liberalised market.

Sega Amusements Europe Ltd has announced another new appointment and the creation of a new division at the same time. Alan Smith will take the head role of the recently formed New Business Division. He has worked as a consultant for the company for the past year concentrating on the Dinosaurking title which was launched to great success in 2006.

Building on a solid reputation and expanding services, GLI Italia has signed its Testing Accreditation Agreement for the Italian Comma 6A jurisdiction. The signing took place during a meeting with the Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS) in Rome. GLI Italia also received the latest versions of the protocol documentation and a set of smart cards required to conduct the testing.

Inspired announced changes in its senior executive team just before the ATEI show last week. Paul Terroni, a former UK Managing Director of IGT subsidiary, Barcrest, has today been appointed Inspired’s new Group Director of Strategy. Working closely with Jim O’Halleran, CEO UK and Ireland, and Neale Deeley, UK Sales Director - Pubs, Paul’s focus will be the roll out of SBG AWP and jackpot gaming machines into the UK market, and the transition of the UK pubs and gaming machine base from analogue to Open SBGTM.

A cruise down the River Dart raised over £10,000 for BIBIC – British Institute for Brain Injured Children. The BACTA West of England region spent three leisurely hours enjoying the stunning scenery, listening to jazz and playing a few games of Roulette and Blackjack, whist raising funds for this most deserving cause.

Heber has announced two further engineering recruits. Lee Weekes (pictured left) has joined the Customer Support Department as a support engineer and Robert Peck (right) has joined the Engineering Department as a software engineer. “Both Lee and Robert are important new recruits to Heber,” said Richard Placito, Managing Director.

All linked Photo Play terminals will feature the new free net.game, Express, on from March 5 onwards. ‘Express’ is a variant of the popular Photo Play game, Fun Towers, which is a player favourite, especially in the MASTERS tournaments. Express’ suitability for tournaments will be known from March 12 onwards, which marks the beginning of the Photo Play Fun Cup.

The Enforcement Division of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs raided the offices of Cosmic Hitec in Penang, Malaysia on December 19 and seized 30 copies of Merit’s Force products. The seized products include complete games, motherboards and hard drives, according to Robert Fay, Director of Government Relations.

Merkur Gaming enjoyed a successful IMA and ATEI – and during both shows its theme was “All you need”. The large number of visitors at both shows exceeded the expectations of Axel F. Pawlas, CSO Mekur Gaming, and his team by far. At ATEI customers from more than 20 countries in Europe but also South America, USA, and Africa attended.

AWPS: Ace Coin Entertainments added four new £35 jackpot games to its British Dream Play compendiums now amounting to ten games being available for UK operators. The four new games for the UK consist of two low tech AWPs and two low jackpot Section 16/21 offerings and all can switch between £35 or £25 jackpots.

Success at last for the organisers of the ATEI and the IMA shows. Of course, not everyone will agree with me but as a magazine editor, I should know that it is impossible to please everybody all of the time!

It is an understatement to say that the current situation in the Italian AWP market is dramatic. A few days after the end of this year’s ATEI, it became more and more evident that one of the most important markets in Europe has been reduced to a shadow of its former self.

Lawyers Marco Ripamonti and Cino Benelli, both from the Ripamonti law firm, have expressed their complete satisfaction at the conclusion of the Conference held in Florence on 15 January with the title “Italian Gaming: the financial game”. “This was our first experience in promoting an event of interest to all the main operators in the gaming sector, and we can state that we are satisfied with the interest and the attention given to us” said Ripamonti.

For the year 2006, the Gauselmann Group reports a total consolidated turnover for the three company sectors of Euro 1.001bn. Compared with the year 2005 (732 million Euro) this means an increase of 37 per cent. The total volume of business, according to company information, was around Euro 1.33bn.

Casino giant Sun International has announced that the new restrictive gaming laws passed in Russia has affected its plans for a hotel and gaming complex in Moscow. But David Coutts-Trotter, Chief Executive of Sun International, said the was not abandoning its plans in Russia

From February 20th to 22nd Belgrade will host the Premier Gaming Expo Belgrade, the first event of this type in the South-East European region. Serbia is one of the countries which has achieved economic reforms in recent years as noted by international economists. Serbia has improved its economic development, not only by increasing production but also by the stability of its currency, and an increase in tourism.

This year the fair promised to be different and it certainly was. We shall therefore try to capture the various opinions expressed by the Spanish exhibitors and visitors at this year’s show. Yet despite being located on the fringe, the Spanish companies were once again a point of reference for many visitors.Despite the efforts that had been madet by the organisers to explain the new layout, it was not an easy task redirecting those who were regular visitors to the event to the new locations. In this market the logical division of exhibitors into amusement companies on the first floor and gaming and gambling companies on the ground floor is not always that clear, and classifying some companies with an interest in both areas is a difficult task.

Rumours about that Microsoft may possibly merge with the famous game manufacturer Capcom. It is easy to see that the relationship between Microsoft and Capcom has become quite close recently.

Two illegal gambling video game operators located in the County and City of Taipei bribed their district police stations with NT$500,000 each month. When the most recent bribery payments were delivered, people involved were arrested on the spot by the prosecution authority.

The share price of IGS has recently soared above NT$300, which is not only a personal record but also the highest level in history among game software share prices. Since IGS was listed in July 2006, its share price has demonstrated an outstanding performance based on the advantages that the company has less shares outstanding, high dividends and high profits and is favored by institutional investors.