Mitchells & Butlers Plc, the UK’s largest managed house pub operator, has selected the Games Warehouse Paragon-Pro terminal for installation across its restaurant group.

Since hitting the market in August 2003, Paragon has established itself in the independent operating sector, dominating tenanted and free trade SWP estates, with more than 8,000 UK installations. This latest achievement is therefore a significant step within the managed house sector, both for the product and for Games Warehouse.

Namco Europe has appointed Julian Goicoa as International business development manager, with specific responsibilities for the Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and African markets.

NRI – a leading manufacturer of coin handling equipment – has appointed two new sales managers – Andrea Zanella and Mark Simmons. Both Zanella and Simmons joined NRI in February 2007.

Zanella (pictured) has joined NRI as sales manager - Italy, with a clear focus on the Italian vending market. He is based in the Northern Italian town of Schio, in the Vicenza district (situated between Bergamo and Venice), where he lives with his wife and two children. The Italian market continues to grow in importance to NRI.

This year’s World of Entertainment show (WoE) in Prague has been thrown into turmoil following the decision of a number of key exhibitors not to attend the show. Novomatic’s EDP subsidiary, the clear market leader in gaming machines for street arcades and casinos and Synot, a major machine distributor that represents British firm JPM, the leading supplier of reel-based AWPs to the market have both pulled out of the show.

Digital downloads are revolutionising the UK singles charts and this is having a knock-on effect for digital jukeboxes. I t is no longer necessary to have a physical single release in order to qualify for a place in the charts, just to be available for download. Now that Apple Corps. is negotiating to digitise the entire Beatles back catalogue, history could repeat itself, with the group dominating the charts once more.

Barcrest Group has appointed Robert White (pictured) to the position of Managing Director sales and commercial, replacing Lee Berridge who is leaving Barcrest Group at the end of this month in order to start his own property business.

The top executives of four Italian gaming houses have gone to Rome with the aim of trying to stop the introduction of the European Directives against money laundering. If put into practice, such Directives would reduce takings by 50 per cent as a first estimate, a real blow for the gambling sector. The European Directives on money laundering, due to start on January 1 2008, require casinos to verify and record all chips purchased and exchange operations for amounts over Euro 2,000, whilst today such requirements apply only from a minimum of Euro 12,500.

Officials at a Blackpool regeneration company have insisted the future for the British seaside resort is still positive despite it loosing out recently on the right to host the UK’s only ‘super casino’.

This year's Dublin show had a very busy first day and busier than usual second day with many visitors returning on the Wednesday. The hotel bar ran out of Guinness for a time on Tuesday night and staff had to order emergency supplies! The number of exhibitors was up from 42 to 48 and the number of visitors by five per cent.

BMI Gaming has appointed Paul Jacobs to the newly created position of Executive Vice President. Mr. Jacobs will immediately take charge of business development for BMI Gaming, and assume the day-to-day management of both the business to-business and business-to-consumer sales units.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) have announced rigorous and robust new rules for UK gambling advertisements. The rules are designed to ensure that all gambling advertisements are socially responsible with a particular regard for the need to protect children and vulnerable members of society.

The Czech Hungarian, and Spanish markets are proving to be particularly profitable for the Gauselmann Group. The company operates arcades in the region under the name Merkur Casino. In Budapest, the arcades are branded ‘Planet’ in Györ ‘New York’ and Merkur Gaming has launched a new concept called ‘Factory’ in Klatno.

Inspired Gaming Group plc has attracted investment from the FL Group. In addition, the Inspired has entered into a global agreement to supply its Open Server-Based Gaming (SBG) technology to a leading international gaming operator. According to the company, the agreement will take Inspired’s products into some of the world’s fastest gaming jurisdictions.

Julian Bolton, Development Engineer at Bath-based Playsafe Monitoring will run the London Marathon to raise money for BACTA’s chosen charity BIBIC. Bolton, who is from Bath, has never run a full marathon before but has successfully completed two half marathons.

After more than 23 years at Crown Leisure, Jeff Fannon will be leaving the organisation this summer. Commenting on the move, Fannon said: “I am very proud of what we have accomplished here at Crown over the years.

Suzo International has announced the appointment of Bob Wiggers, who has joined the sales team as Sales Manager Benelux. Wiggers is new to the industry, but brings a wealth of sales experience in the technical field.

The UK Bingo industry is calling upon players to petition the Government to rethink its treatment of the industry. The Bingo Association believes that the effects of Government policies will place over 200 bingo clubs under threat of closure.

Euroslot is sad to report the death of popular industry personality Fred Milner. His close friend Steve Bierrum from Genesis Enterprises wrote the following obituary. “Physically and intellectually Fred was ‘larger than life’. He was one of the mainstays of the amusement industry over the last 35 years.

Games Warehouse, developer and manufacturer of the Paragon SWP terminal and the Infiniti Digital Gaming Platform, has relocated its UK Group headquarters into the centre of its home city of Nottingham. Commenting on the move, Managing Director Andy Powell said: “Games Warehouse outgrew its present home some time ago.

UK golfing fans have swapped the greens for the pub by competing in the fifth Golden Tee Live World Championships. The highly popular video golf event organised by Electrocoin and The Spirit Group – the managed house division of the UK’s largest pub company, Punch Taverns – took place in over 50 pubs and attracted more than 400 competitors.

Clarion ATE has confirmed the appointment of Charlotte Skinner as its new marketing manager with direct responsibility for the London Shows ATEI, ICE and ICEi.

Bell-Fruit Games is enjoying success with its latest Spanish model Sirenas, with sales currently over 3000 units. A reel-to-video game,

Leading gaming and amusement machine operator, Gamestec showed its support to The Navy, Army and Air-Force Institutes (NAAFI) by attending the grand opening of the new leisure facilities at RAF Brize Norton and providing a range of products to help NAAFI promote the new facilities on offer.

Austrian touchscreen giant Funworld has signed a landmark deal with a new shareholder, Hannes Niederhauser, an Austrian businessman living in Germany, now holds 40 per cent of Funworld’s shares.

The European Court of Justice ruled on the Placanica case last month involving the Italian state monopoly and Stanley International Betting and has found in favour of the private sector.