On February 22nd 2008 in Rome, the first phase of the auction sale of the dominion name www.poker.it will take place at the offices of the Public Notary Igor Genghini.

www.poker.it is to become the symbol of the new Italian skill games market. Antonio Vallese, Managing Director of Aequiti, the company that is organizing the auction, declared, “We have adopted a procedure that enables us to give the highest level of transparency to the tender, to the benefit of the participants and of the seller.”

The recent IAAPA Show provided another successful sales opportunity for Pan Amusements, the world leader in the manufacture of electronic shooting galleries. Paul Whittaker, Managing Director of Pan explained, “Exhibitions currently appear to be the strongest way of promoting our products. At IAAPA we met a number of buyers, who it is very unlikely we would have attracted, in the normal course of our business.”

Earlier this year, Money Controls appointed leading Czech distributor Jamp as its official distribution partner for Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Since then the partnership has gone from strength to strength with record sales of Money Controls’ products in the region. Initially focussing on Ardac Elite, the top performing bill and ticket acceptor,

Merit Entertainment has announced its new, market-expanding partnership with European distributor Avranches Automatic. The companies have teamed up to serve the French market for years and now seek to extend their reach throughout Europe and into North Africa. Avranches Automatic’s expert knowledge of the amusement industry, experience with Merit products, and solid export contacts will allow Merit to make its games easily accessible to an expanding global market

Next March there will finally be a great European trade show dedicated to bowling: a sector with a total of approximately 4,000 centres and over 40,000 bowlers – the myriad of ‘weekend bowlers’ who also fill the venues – and a turnover with truly impressive figures in every European country.

Spider-Man is back and this time in black! Stern Pinball, Inc. is making 500 limited edition Black-Suited Spider-Man pinball machines that will never be built again. The Black Spider-Man is featured in Columbia Pictures’ Spider-Man 3 as Peter Parker’s darker, more dangerous persona.

Sound Leisure will be looking backwards as well as to the future at ATEI 2008. Not only will the Leeds-based jukebox manufacturer be showing the latest in digital audio video technology, such as its futuristic Milestones range, but it will also be celebrating three landmark anniversaries.

The Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries (IAAPI) will hold the 8th Annual Trade Show from February 14 to 16, 2008 at Hall V at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, in Mumbai, India.

Harry Levy Amusements has revealed two of the hottest new machines from its huge range of games ahead of this year’s ATEI. Dazzler does exactly what its name suggests. It’s one of the most eye-catching 12-player pushers Harry Levy has ever produced.

Innovative Technology Ltd was represented by one of its subsidiary companies ‘Automated Transactions’ at the IMA show in January. The exciting range of both new and established products on show will include the recently launched BV20 and BV100 validators as well as the ever-popular NV9 and NV10.

A new exclusive UK distribution agreement has been renewed and agreed between Californian-based manufacturer, Global VR and its UK distributor Cosmic Video Amusements.

ACE Interactive, part of the Aristocrat group of companies, has moved to bigger, purpose-built premises on 1st December. Located in a waterfront setting in Stockholm’s Marievik district, the 2,000 square-metre offices will provide an ideal facility to make further progress on the development of its Server Centric Gaming solutions for casinos and lottery markets.

TAB-Austria has launched the new V13 update for all Silverball terminals from December 1 2007. The new update consists of 10 new games and a lot of new features. In addition to the new games, TAB-Austria has developed a completely new game concept for touch screen terminals. The new game generation, called Silver Eye, demands precision and speed.

Ritzio Entertainment Group, one of the leading East European gaming operators, has announced it has completed an acquisition of three casinos in Prague, in the Czech Republic. The purchase strengthens the company’s presence in the local market and diversifies its current national operations with a new “retail gaming” format.

Innocore Gaming Ltd. has signed two new exclusive representation and distribution agreements for Spain and Latin America. The first agreement extends the company’s collaboration with Money Controls to the fast growing gaming markets in the countries of Central and South America.

As of December 1, Betson Enterprises is no longer an authorized distributor of Bay Tek Games, Inc. Bay Tek said in a statement that it has “decided to move forward without Betson's affiliation due to the introduction of Betson's own line of redemption games into the marketplace and due to Bay Tek's concerns with Betson's commitment to sell Bay Tek products at a time when it appears that Betson is increasing its efforts to market its own proprietary products.”