The sticking point is the communication from the machines to the various Concessionaire’s networks, which is to be activated by a smart card. The protocols have yet to be worked out to everyone’s satisfaction. The Monopoly (Gaming Board) has therefore realised that the market could literally grind to a halt, should the Comma 6 be removed from site by the July 07 deadline. Therefore, just before the show, it allowed a stay of execution, extending the operation of these machines until September 15 this year. This has led to a strange situation within the Italian market, as many suppliers have already run out of machines to sell. This is particularly true of the most successful machines, which sold out quickly. “Before the December deadline, the manufacturers decided how many machines they thought they could sell and applied to have them licensed. If they did not have a good machine, they didn’t make too many more. Meanwhile, with the better machines, they made a few hundred and sold them quickly,” said Elmac’s Managing Director Tiziano Tredese. “Now even the bad machines are selling, because there is nothing left to buy.” The situation is made more complicated by the interference of a judge in the Venice region, who discovered while playing a Comma 6 machine, the possibility of playing using the points accrued on the winning meter of certain machines to double up jackpots. These machines, called Blackslot, have been the runaway winner in the Comma 6 race. Of the 200,000 Comma 6 machines on site in Italy, 40,000 are Blackslot-type machines. It appears that when the games were approved, many were housed in different cabinets and submitted by different suppliers, but actually contained Blackslot software. The judge was horrified at what he saw as a blatant bending of the spirit of the law. He took the case to court and declared the machines illegal and commenced a regime of confiscations. To date, almost 2,000 have been confiscated in the region, however, the judge is determined to remove as many as possible from operation before they are all removed in September. This situation has led to some strained relationships between various licensing, testing and local police authorities, which is unfortunate for everyone at this strategic time just before the introduction of the new Comma 6a machines. “The situation here is crazy, the police is disagreeing with the state over what is legal, it makes life very difficult, especially for companies like us, who have products which are not even covered in the legislation, such as our traditional bingo machines,” said Renato Bazzarini from GAA. A slightly better situation is emerging in the amusement sector where the impasse over source codes appears to have passed. Funworld is one of those companies who is now free to sell its products in Italy, following many hours of negotiations with the SOGEI ( responsible for amusement licensing). “We are so pleased, it has taken a lot of work but we are now able to sell our full range of machines, even our online networked games and our previous System software,” said Marco Huter, Funworld CSO. Funworld also appointed a new Italian manager in November 2006. Andrea Scampini replaced Johannes Mayr and comes from outside of the industry. “It has been a steep learning curve but I feel we have achieved a lot,” he said at the show. According to data released by the show’s organiser, last year, the public game sector reported an overall growth of 24%, reaching Euro 35.2bnfrom game revenue, the sector that grew most in 2006 was precisely that of the coin-op machines, whose takings compared to 2005 rose by 34.6%, reaching Euro 15.4bn. The amusement machine sector on its own accounts for almost half the overall takings of the public game market and has a full and part-time workforce of almost 100,000, resulting in 2006 taxes for the inland revenue of approximately two billion Euros (25% up on 2005). The sector comprises approximately 4,000 companies, above all small and medium sized business distributed throughout Italy. Certainly, despite the difficulties described above, the overall impression of the show was one of a booming industry. Yet some prominent companies were noticeably absent from the proceedings, perhaps tired of appearing at yet another show, where nothing could really be legally sold. These included the Barcrest distributor Elettronolo and ILLI – the Italian arm of Leisure Link/Inspired Broadcast Networks. There were certainly fewer international visitors present and those who were to be seen, such as Astra and Bell-Fruit, were wandering the aisles. As for the show itself, it remains a popular destination for visitors and numbers were up seven per cent on the previous year. Despite, remaining a little tricky to get to for international visitors, the show is a draw, due to the proximity of the exhibition hall to the town centre and the many good hotels and restaurants available nearby. Exhibitors reported that sales in Rimini regularly outstrip those at the Rome show in October and therefore, its position on the Spring show calendar seems to be assured for future years.

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