G3 June 2017

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oFFiCial MagazinEAssociation of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers

The Hippodrome in London played host to the latestand ‘best ever’ European Dealer Championship

Dealer Championship

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Crown Resorts has exited the Macau sector,selling its remaining shares in Melco Crown China P26

MGM Resorts’ strong start to 2017 with revenuesincreasing 29 per cent over the prior year quarterus P20

A new CEO for Casinos Austria is appointed asthe Group posts its best financial year everaustria P18

Sheldon Adelson meets with the mayor of Rio deJaneiro Marcelo Crivella to discuss legislation Brazil P8

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June 2017

EuropEan Casino assoCiation and nCF

June 2017Contents

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InsightEDC 2017

ReportsBulgaria

Hippodrome hosts ‘best ever’ecA Dealer championshipInsight P28Organised by the ECA and NCF,the 2017 championships tookplace in the heart of London’scapital, a first in thecompetition’s 11-year history.

The Top 5 Hottest TechSolutions - cMSInsight P30G3 asked five of the world’sleading independent systemsexperts to describe one piece ofoutstanding systems technologyeveryone should know about

Advanced computingenhances casino gaming Insight P50In an exclusive article for G3,AMD’s Colin Cureton discussesthe immersive technologies;virtual reality, augementedreality and machine learning

A gaming tour of Sofia - from the inside outReports P60Accepting an invitation to revisitthe gaming halls of Sofia in thewake of the latest Gaming Act, wediscover a market unrecognisablefrom the past

NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / 247.COM P3

Brazil P8Las Vegas Sands Chairman meets with themayor of Rio de Janeiro Marcelo Crivella to

discuss a new government programme

FranCe P14The French Ministry of Interior defines a three-year experiment to allow gaming clubs tooperate in the city of Paris

austria P16Admiral Arena Prater opened on May 1following six months of conversion work tobecome the largest sports bar in Europe

austria P18Alexander Labak, is to be appointed to theManagement Board of Casinos Austria and willtake over the functions of Director General

mexiCo P10A bid to raise over one billion pesos in new

taxes is proving spectacularly unsuccessful,raising only 2.13 per cent of the total in Q1

Bolivia P12The National Director in control of gaming

has announced that the country is looking toregulate the country’s online gaming sector

us P20Operating income of $477m at the MGM's

domestic resorts, represented a 31 per centincrease over the prior year quarter

new zealand P24The New Zealand Racing Board has selectedOpenBet and Paddy Power Betfair to deliverthe technology solution for FOBts

China P26Crown Resorts has now completely exited theMacau casino sector, selling off its remainingshares in Melco Crown Entertainment

China P27Results continue to improve for casinooperations in Macau, despite the increasedcompetition from new resort openings

Canada P22Hard Rock Casino Ottawa will take over day-

to-day operations at the Rideau CarletonRaceway towards the end of 2017

Bahamas P23The long gestating Baha Mar resort opened to

words of great positivity from The BahamasPrime Minister, Perry Christie

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CommentJune 2017

It’s been 11 years since G3 attended the first European DealerChampionship in Malaga, Spain, which featured a handful of operatorsand participants - and despite visiting the event on many occasionssince, last month’s competition at the Hippodrome in Londonimpressed the most with the scale and professionalism of the event.The venue certainly helped, with the Hippodrome taking to the taskwith gusto, bringing theatre, performance and even adding goodweather to the mix this year. To see all 33 participants from 21 countriesgathered to celebrate the best dealing on the continent, was a specialmoment. And to witness the 31 judges grilling those entrants, seeking totrip with clever/horrible complexities at the tables, was thrilling. The Hippodrome had been preparing and planning for over six months- and it showed. Each of the dealers was totally invested and it wasgreat to see representation from the UK once again, even though it wasan all European final. Being a great dealer is a combination of technical skill, mental agility,engaging personality and a belief that delivering great customer serviceis the best feeling in the world. All of the above was present in theprivate rooms at the Hippodrome, where skill, flare and obsession werein evidence throughout.

I’m fairly sure there can’t be many international sports/gamescompetitions conducted in such a good-natured yet ruthlessly efficientmanner as the European Dealer Championship. The sense of fun,hospitality and razor-sharp professionalism that pervades every aspectof the event, from the tables to the evening events and entertainment,makes it a fabulous experience from start to finish. This year wasjustifiably the ‘best ever.’Speaking of hospitality, G3 would also like to thank our hosts inBulgaria for taking care of the team as we compiled this month’s Sofiamarket update. We spent the most ‘dynamic’ two days visiting, well, justabout everything, only catching our breath on the flight home. It was afascinating insight into a market that has experienced a revolution in itsgaming offer thanks to an altogether reasonable Gaming Act. Next timewe hope to spend more than “10 minutes” there...

a CoMbination oF MEntal agility, pErsonality, tEChniCal skill and an ability to dElivEr grEat CustoMEr sErviCE

lewis PekEditor

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G3 Magazine Editorlewis Pek

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ConsultantJohn Carroll

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International News EditorJames marrison

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Contributorszorair asadour (BetConstruct)

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Calendar

EMEA

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NORTH AMERCIA

Juegos Miami 2017May 31-June 2, 2017

LOCAtIONThe Biltmore, Coral Gables, Miami,Florida, United StatesORGANISERClarion EventsFulham Green, Bedford House69-79 Fulham High StreetLondon SW6 3JW, UK

CONtACtGreg Saintt: +44 207 384 2771E: [email protected]

Euromat & DAW Gaming Summit 2017June 1, 2017

LOCAtIONAXICA Berlin, Pariser Platz 3 Berlin, D-10117 GermanyORGANISEREuromatRue de Luxembourg 22-24Brussels, Belgium 1000

CONtACtt: +32 2 761 6684E: [email protected]/euromat-gam-ing-summit

IAGA Summit 2017May 30-June 2, 2017

LOCAtIONJW Marriott Essex House, NewYork, USORGANISERInternational Association of Gam-ing AdvisorsPO Box 92495, Henderson, NV89009, USA

CONtACtKirsten ClarkE: [email protected]

Russian Gaming Week - RGW 2017June 7-8, 2017

LOCAtIONECC Sokolniki, Moscow, RussiaORGANISERSmile Expo11/10 Letnikovskaya StrMoscowRussia 115114

CONtACtBogdana Yatsenkot: +7 495 212 1128E: [email protected]/en

WrB Africa 2017June 7-8, 2017

LOCAtIONVilla Rosa Kempinski, Nairobi, KenyaORGANISERClarion EventsFulham Green, Bedford House69-79 Fulham High StreetLondon SW6 3JW, UK

CONtACtCurtis Roacht: +44 207 384 7700E: [email protected]

June 2017

SOuTH AMERICA

SOuTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA

EMEA


NORTH AMERICA

Gaming in Holland Conference & Expo 2017June 13-14, 2017

LOCAtIONDe Hallen Studios, HannieDankbaarpassage 18, 1053 Rt Amsterdam, NetherlandsORGANISERGaming in Holland

CONtACtWillem van Oort t: +31 2080 81937E: [email protected]/conference

Canadian Gaming Summit 2017June 20-22, 2017

LOCAtIONVancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, CanadaORGANISERMediaEdge Communications5255 Yonge Street, Suite 1000toronto

Ontario, CanadaM2N 6P4, MI 48084CONtACtRachel Lesliet: +1 416 512 8186 E: [email protected]

NCLGS Summer Meeting 2017June 9-11, 2017

LOCAtIONWestin Denver Downtown Hotel,Denver, Colorado, United StatesORGANISERNCLGS National Office1201 New Road, Suite 308LinwoodNew Jersey

United StatesNJ 08221CONtACtMariah Echelet: +1 609 926 5100E: [email protected]

BgC 4 - Brasilian Gaming Congress 2017June 26-27, 2017

LOCAtIONtivoli Mofarrej, Sao Paulo, BrazilORGANISERClarion EventsFulham Green, Bedford House69-79 Fulham High StreetLondon

United KingdomSW6 3JWCONtACtEwa Bakunt: +44 207 384 7700E: [email protected]

Peru Gaming Show 2017June 21-22, 2017

LOCAtIONJockey Exposition Center, Lima, PeruORGANISERAffiliated Marketing GroupPje Los Pinos 114, Ofic 508Miraflores, LimaPeru

CONtACtJoe Lopezt: +51 1 447 3635 / 365E: [email protected]


eike Batista, un millonario brasileño del sector del petróleo y la minería que fue en su díauno de los hombres más ricos del mundo, haaccedido a revelar supuestos errores que implicana los legisladores en relación con la nueva ley quetiene como objetivo dar luz verde a los casinos enBrasil. Estas noticias ejercerán un impacto sobre elproyecto de ley del juego, ya que podrían implicarque los legisladores retiren su apoyo al mismo.

el instituto de Juego y Casinos (ipJyC) de laprovincia de Mendoza ha decidido no renovar laslicencias de los casinos debido a que ya no encajandentro de la política gubernamental. El cierre delos casinos de las ciudades de Tunuyán y Tupun-gato tuvo lugar en mayo.

sheldon adelson, presidente de las VegasSands, junto con toda una serie de empresarios ypolíticos locales, se ha reunido con el alcalde de Ríode Janeiro, Marcelo Crivella, para debatir un nuevoprograma gubernamental destinado a impulsar elcrecimiento económico.

el Gobierno de nuevo león no está consiguiendo los resultados esperados en suintento de recaudar más de 1000 millones depesos con nuevos impuestos sobre los casinos.Durante el primer trimestre del año, el estado soloha recaudado algo más de 2,6 millones de pesos através de la imposición fiscal sobre el juego, esdecir, solo un 2,13 por ciento de lo que se habíaestimado para 2017.

el Director nacional de la autoridad de Fiscalización del Juego de Bolivia (AJ), MarcoSánchez Vaca, ha afirmado que la organizaciónestá trabajando en reglamentos legales destina-dos a regular el juego online.

el operador chileno enjoy ha tomado un bonopúblico en Estados unidos a fin de financiar lacompra del restante 55 por ciento del Punta delEste Resort de Conrad. La deuda es de aprox. 188millones de dólares más intereses.

el 10 de mayo, el Gobierno de Francia emitióun decreto firmado por el Ministro del Interiordonde se especificaban las condiciones para los«clubs de jeux (clubes de juego) de París» y lasdisposiciones relativas a los casinos. El propósitodel decreto es revocar el régimen legal que rige losclubes de juego, al principio durante un período detres años en París a partir del 1 de enero de 2018,con la apertura de clubes de juego autorizados aoperar ciertos juegos.

en la capital austríaca, el admiral arenaPrater abrió sus puertas el 1 de mayo tras seismeses de obras de renovación que lo han llevado aconvertirse en el mayor bar deportivo de Europa.Acudieron a la presentación unos 3500 invitados,entre los que destacaron Niki Lauda, leyenda delas carreras y embajador de marca de Novomatic,y Harald Neumann, Director General de NovomaticAG.

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Eike Batista, a Brazilian oil andmining millionaire, who wasonce one of the richest men inthe world, has agreed to revealalleged wrongs involvinglawmakers dealing with the newlaw seeking to give casinos thegreen light. Now in negotiationsto reduce his sentence withprosecutors, Batista wants toprovide details regarding “thebribe he gave to Congressmen sothat the law that legalisescasinos is approved.”

As well as planning to transformthe Hotel Glória in Rio de Janeirointo a casino in partnership withforeign investors, it is believedthat Batista was planning toinvest heavily in the industryand had already signed acontract with two slot suppliers.

Batista was released from prisonmid-May and put under housearrest. He is now awaiting trial

and faces corruption and moneylaundering charges. Prosecutorshave charged Batista with payingUS$16.5m in bribes to SergioCabral, the former governor ofthe state of Rio de Janeiro. Thenews will have an impact on thegaming bill as it could mean thatlawmakers may withdraw theirsupport for the bill.

The spectre of corruption haslong hung over the industry andto this day gambling in Brazilremains the most politicallycharged issue in the region dueprimarily to the proven linksbetween gambling andorganised crime. In 2004, just asthe government was consideringnew legislation, Brazil was hit byone of the largest politicalscandals in its history during theso-named “Mensalao Scandal,”when it was revealed thatgangsters, who had made theirfortunes running numbers, hadnot only become involved in thebingo industry, but were alsofound to be bribing members ofthe Worker’s Party and otherhigh-ranking governmentofficials in return for stays ofclosure and influence.

Corruption ScandalCould be Major Setbackfor Gaming Law

Brazil

Las Vegas Sands Chairman meetswith the mayor of Rio de JaneiroMarcelo Crivella to discuss a newgovernment programme aimed atdriving economic growth

brAzil LICENCES

sheldon adelson meets mayor of rioSheldon Adelson, Chairman of Las Vegas Sands,alongside a number of businessmen and localpoliticians has met with mayor of Rio de JaneiroMarcelo Crivella to discuss a new governmentprogramme aimed at driving economic growth.

The Governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, LuizFernando Pezão, was also present at themeeting held the major’s office in the CityPalace. Lawmakers and businessmen discussedthe National Registration and CompanyLegalisation Simplification Network(RedeSimples) a government programme aimedat reducing bureaucracy and encouraging smalland medium-sized businesses so thatentrepreneurs and businessmen can registerand legalise their companies within five daysand create jobs.

According to the Mayor, it is not the first timethat Adelson has been to Rio and he said that hehopes to be able to count on him in the futurewhen it comes to the development of the regionof Porto Maravilha. Operation Porto Maravilha isa urban renewal project in Rio de Janeiro’sDowntown Port Zone, involving an area of fivemillion sq.m. and aimed at completely changingRio de Janeiro’s neglected port area. It is the

largest urban revitalisation programme inBrazilian history and has the support of boththe mayor’s office and the central government.Both have allocated funds to the renewal of thecity’s public services and transportation systemto be supplemented later by private investorsinterested in helping renew the port area’scommercial potential.

Crivella commenting on the businessman’s visitto Brazil said: "He is a great real estate investor,with many casino hotels in Las Vegas and thelargest of all in Singapore. He came to Rio and isgoing to Brasilia to talk about tourism. He hasan interest in investing in tourism here and canhelp us in Porto Maravilha by building hotels,squares and recreation areas."

Legislation which is being considered in theSenate would allow for 35 casinos, with at leastone per state while some states would bepermitted to have as many as three, dependingon the population and the economic outlook ineach state. The resorts would only be permittedto use 10 per cent of the available space forgaming while the remaining space would beused for restaurants, shops, theatres, exhibitionspace, as well as others facilities.

Chile

The Institute of Gaming andCasinos, (IPJyC) of the provinceof Mendoza has decided not torenew the licences of twocasinos because they no longerfit with government policy. The closure of the casinos in thecity of Tunuyán and in the city ofTupungato took place in May.The Indendant of TunuyánMartín Aveiro opposed the moveand informed the IPJyC that theclosures would lead to job lossesand would negatively affecttourism in the area. He alsorequested that they should bemoved rather than closed down.However the measures are partof a larger policy currently beingpushed forward by the Governorof the province of MendozaAlfredo Cornejo. In JanuaryCornejo closed the Casino deMendoza La Consulta, located inthe town of La Consulta. It wasthe third casino to be closed inthe province after both thecasino in the district of Uspallataand the casino in the district ofEugenio Bustos were also forcedto close in 2016 for failing toattract tourists.


el concejal de podemos Julio Concepción hadenunciado toda una serie de graves infraccionescon relación a las operaciones de tres casinos públi-cos: el Playa de Las Américas, el Casino Santa Cruzde Tenerife y el Casino Taoro.

las nuevas leyes que se están aprobando ensu primera fase en el Parlamento de Islandia tienencomo objetivo la apertura de más establecimientosen la isla. El proyecto de enmienda de la ley sobrelos casinos se someterá a una segunda vista trashaber sido aprobado por la Cámara Baja.

en españa, el operador de casinosestadounidense Cordish Companies ha vuelto apresentar planes revisados en su intento de con-struir un resort-casino a las afueras de Madrid queincluye el proyecto de instalar una playa por primeravez en la capital española. El complejo situado enTorres de Alameda y valorado en 2200 millones deeuros tendría ahora un lago artificial de 6 hectáreascon playa incluida en el centro de su nuevo recinto.

la empresa de capital privado Waterland Private Equity asumirá en el mes de septiembre laoperación de la licencia del Middelkerke Casino, enla costa de Bélgica, a través de su filial belgaNapoleon Games. La empresa ha hecho públicoque cerrará el casino existente en el puerto y desar-rollará un complejo futurista de casino abovedadoque se erigirá a 20 metros de altura formando unaonda de cristal en el céntrico barrio de Epernay.

el rideau Carleton raceway se dispone asometerse a una expansión multimillonaria queincorporará en el tercer trimestre de 2017 un hotel,un auditorio y cientos de nuevos puestos de trabajoal hipódromo y establecimiento de juego de Ottawa,que actualmente está atravesando dificultades.

Crane payment innovations (Cpi), unaempresa de Crane Co., ha anunciado la incorpo-ración de una nueva plataforma empresarial a lacartera de tecnologías de pago y merchandising deCrane: Crane Connectivity Solutions (CCS).

el Comité de Carreras de nueva Zelanda(NZRB) ha aprobado la selección de OpenBet (OB,una empresa del NYX Gaming Group) y PaddyPower Betfair (PPBF) para el suministro de la solu-ción tecnológica y los datos de soporte para sunegocio de Fixed Odds Betting (apuestas con cuo-tas fijas, FOB).

el Gobierno de macau está llevando un pasomás allá las comprobaciones de seguridad en lasretiradas de dinero, tras anunciar que los titularesde una tarjeta de unionPay para cajero automáticotendrán que presentar documentos de identidad yparticipar en reconocimiento facial para poder retirardinero.

Crown asia investments ha concluido suacuerdo con Melco Resorts & Entertainment para larecompra de su interés restante en Melco Resorts.Según dicho acuerdo de recompra, CAI ha vendido165,3 millones de acciones ordinarias de MelcoResorts, lo que representa un 11,2 por ciento deltotal de acciones ordinarias de Melco Resorts, a unprecio de 7,04 dólares por acción.

Proof that higher taxation actuallykills receipts, the Government ofMexico’s Nuevo León is falling alittle short of its one billion pesogoal for 2017

Mexico GOVERNMENT

new Tax Failing in mexico’s nuevo león

The Government of Nuevo Leon's bid to raisejust over a billion pesos with new casino taxes isfailing. During the first quarter of the year, thestate has raised just over US2.6m pesos via thetaxation on gaming only 2.13 per cent of whathad been estimated for 2017.

The information comes from the FinancialReport delivered by the State treasury on April29 to Congress. The treasury announcedafterwards that all gaming houses in NuevoLeón would now be subject to an audit.

The new tax is part of this year’s tax reform bill.Local officials were hoping that the new taxcould raise up to one billion pesos in a year, with30 per cent going to the fund for a specialsecurity fund and the rest to the state coffers inorder to reduce the deficit. The new tax rulesthat for every 100 pesos that the player spendsten per cent tax is payable by the player. The taxis charged the moment the player buys chips ortokens.

At the end of January it was revealed that thegovernment had yet to impose the 10 per centcharge on bets in casinos.

According to Deputy Marco González Valdésalthough the tax has been in force since January1st the state government had yet to put it intopractice which is not only illegal but also putsfunds earmarked for security at risk. Accordingto Valdés, the decision was the result of “anagreement in the dark” between the stategovernment and the owners of gamingestablishments who are handing money to thegovernment under the table instead of payingthe new tax as stated under new laws.

At the same time the Mexican GamingAssociation (AIEJA) argues that the new taxesare unfair as other businesses in theentertainment sector do not pay such a high rateof tax and that the new law does not includeonline gaming, lotteries or illegal gamblingmachines which are widespread in the state.

In a statement published in January the AIEJAsaid while it recognised the decision of the stateto correct flaws in the 2017 budget in order tohelp the local population it said that the new taxon gaming would hit older people especiallyhard. It is estimated that around 70 per cent ofthe income generated by casinos and bettingcentres in the state derive from senior citizens.

Panama

Revenues generated by thegaming industry are downagain according to datareleased by The Ministry ofEconomy and Finance (MEF ).In March revenue stood atUS$5,639,646 compared toUS$6,156,557 in the samemonth last year. According tothe MEF the downturn ofUS$516,911 was due to mainlyto a decrease in activity in thecountry’s casinos whichgenerated US$430,830 lessthan they did last March.

Revenue generated by type Aslot machines in March (slotswhich do not have a payoutceiling) were down and stoodat US$3,219,983 compared toUS$3,235,169 in the samemonth last year. Howeverrevenues for betting andbetting on international sportsand greyhounds were up by88.5 per cent with betting inbingo halls up by 34.9 per cent.

A bid to raise over one billion pesos from new casino taxes is provingspectacularly unsuccessful, raising only 2.13 per cent of the total in Q1

The Supreme Court of Justice of theNation has permanently dismissedJudge Luis Armando JerezanoTreviño. In private session theSupreme Court confirmed thedismissal of Judge Luis ArmandoJerezano Treviño, accused ofissuing irregular sentences thatbenefited casino owners.

At the beginning of 2014, the judgewas denounced before theAttorney General's Office (PGR) foralleged illicit enrichment. He isalso under investigation for allegedmoney laundering in the UnitedStates. The Judiciary Councildetermined that it was fullydemonstrated that as federal judgeJerezano Treviño had actedirregularly in resolving a numberof lawsuits related to the grantingof permits for the operation ofcasinos owned by Juan José RojasCardonas the so called "Czar ofCasinos.” The Supreme Court of

Justice confirmed the judge’sdefinitive dismissal, who whileworking as a federal judge illegallyreceived more than $20m pesosallegedly in return for favouringthe operation of casinos.

The court unanimously ruledagainst a motion filed by the judgeagainst his dismissal. According tothe court as a Fourth District JudgeJerezano ruled in favour of anumber of decisions revolvingaround the operational permits ofcasinos as he had close ties withthe operators.

Court stays of closure andoperator’s ability to reverse courtdecisions when it comes torevoking licences has been one ofthe key issues plaguing theindustry. Operators haveconsistently been able to turn tothe courts in order to counteractmeasures put in place by theInterior Ministry (SEGOB). This hasled to speculation that the largenumber of casinos which havebeen able to remain open points tocollusion with local judges.

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mexico

Judge dismissed over licensing dispute

Following a 2012 study, theBolivian government is movingahead with plans to legislate foronline gaming in the country

boliviA ONLINE GAMING

Bolivia Working on online regulation

The National Director of Bolivia’s Authority oftaxation and Social Control over Gaming (AJ)Marco Sánchez Vaca, has said that theorganisation is working on legal regulationswhich would regulate online gaming.

Sánchez Vaca said that there was no controlover offshore operators offering their serviceslocally and that rules could also be brought inwhich would also cover overseas lotteries whichare targeting local players.

"We have received several complaints frompeople who bought a lottery ticket from othercountries, but are being sold within the country.Apparently they won some prizes, but there areno ways or means to claim them,” he said.Sánchez Vaca said that these games were illegaland paid no taxes in Bolivia.

However Sánchez Vaca did highlight the factthat the government was making someheadway against illegal land based gaming withthe AJ securing five recent convictions againstthose found to be running illegal gamingparlours.

Locals could be turning to offshore lotteries andother games due to the fact that the land basedoffer is so limited.

The only institute permitted to run lotteries arethose still run by the National LotteryCommission of Charity and Health (LONABOL)which runs a single traditional paper lotterycalled the Lotería Beneficencia Salubridad,which has the lowest turnover in the entireregion. Sports betting is also extremely underdeveloped with only a small handful of sportsbetting shops nationwide.

In October 2016 the AJ announced that it was intalks with the national government over theneed to create a new gaming law which wouldallow the gaming board to intervene in onlinegaming and take legal action against thosefound to be operating outside of the law.Meanwhile online gaming especially via socialnetworking sites and via online betting centres(which are often disguised as internet cafes) aregrowing at a fast pace but the board does nothave the legal or technological resources toregulate them.

Chile

Chilean operator Enjoy hastaken on a public bond in theUnites States in order to financethe purchasing of the remaining55 per cent of the Conrad Puntadel Este Resort. The debt isequivalent to about US188m plusinterest. Since December 31st thecompany has been accruinginterest on the debt it owesCaesars and had until May 30thto pay the payment according tothe company's President JavierMartinez, following an ordinaryshareholders meeting held mid-May.

Enjoy CEO Gerard Cood said:"We had a couple of alternatives,and we made the decision to gothe way of a public bond in theUS. We are supported today byfour banks, which are two majorinternational banks, MorganStanley and Credit Suisse, whoplay a more important role, andthen BTG (BTG Pactual) withBBVA.” The bond was launchedmid-May, implying that debtscould have been paid off beforethe end of the month.

The National Director in control of gaming in Bolivia has announced that thecountry is looking to regulate the country’s online gaming sector

CoLoMBIA – The 2017 edition of FADJA gamingexhibition in Bogota, Colombia, proved to be theperfect stage for Alfastreet gaming, as the companyenjoyed performing in front of a crowd of localgaming operators. The occasion was perfect topresent Slovenia-based manufacturer's latestnovelties, its Multi-touch, Lucky 8 and Felix slotmachines. The company’s branch office, AlfastreetColombia, guided by Alexander Rodriguez Illera isexceeding expectations, ensuring that Alfastreethas remained the most successful ETG producer inlast three years in the local market.

The elegant stand design compensated for anorganisation and location change that left a lot to bedesired this year. However, the attendees had achance to experience the latest edition of thecompact R6 electronic roulette and a host ofinnovations for the Colombian market. Alfastreet'sMulti-touch automated electronic Roulette witheight play stations can be combined with anautomated or live wheel. The distinct advantageover competitor solutions is the compactdimensions, considering that there are eight playstations available and a clear division betweenthem, making it as close to a live table, as possible.The feedback from visitors was excellent andAlfastreet is already placing its first units on casinofloors.

CoLoMBIA – Merkur Gaming Colombia has heldan official launch party for the Merkurstar cabinet,gathering together an A-list of operators fromacross the country.

The event took place in a private salon within theHotel Estelar Grand Playa Manzanillo in the city ofCartagena.

The cabinet features two 24“ widescreen highdefinition displays (full HD widescreen monitors)that are further enhanced by brilliant colour effectson the monitor surrounds that compliment thecabinet’s striking overall appearance, Merkurstarhas a high performance, multi or single game,enabled technology platform for stress freeperformance in operation. Compatible with all majoronline systems, Merkurstar offers easy serviceaccess to all its technical components and is heardas well as seen in action thanks to its excellentacoustic and powerful sound projection.

Tomas Mieles, Director of Sales for Latin America,Merkur Gaming Americas, said: "Merkurstar is acabinet of the highest ‘Made in Germany’ qualityand its performance matches the thrilling gamesthat it hosts. Indeed, as the 40+ visitors thatattended its official launch in Cartagena found outfor themselves tonight, truly, the key is in thegame."

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The Department of Valle delCauca has become the first inColombia to sign the Pact forLegality of the GamblingSector, a strategy with whichColjuegos aims to combatillegal gaming and raise fundsfor the health sector.

Head of The ColombianGaming Control Board(Coljuegos) Juan B. Pérezhighlighted the importance ofthe Valle de Cauca as incomegenerated by the sector makesup 10 per cent of the incomegenerated by the industry forthe health sector but was oneof the departments with thehighest level of illegality.

“We have detected about 6,500complaints regarding illegalgaming. We are losing about$350,000m pesos and Valle delCauca, within the overall

income of the sector,represents 10 per cent of that,so we consider that thisdepartment is very importantfor starting this fight,” he said.

Governor of the Department ofValle del Cauca DilianFrancisca toro, , said that itwas vital that otherdepartmental leaders worktogether to put a stop to illegalgaming. Illegal gaming she saidwas having a direct affect onresources generated for health.

“In Valle del Cauca we losearound $15,000m pesos a yearand it is important to draw themayor’s attention to it becauseit is they in the municipalitieswho have to control andmonitor raffles and games ofchance and illegal gambling, "she said. According to thegovernor, lottery salesincreased by 19.54 percent inValle del Cauca while healthtransfers due to the lotteryincreased by 34 percent,becoming the second lotterywith the highest growth interms of sales nationwide

Colombia’s Coljuegossigns illegal gamingcrackdown pact

Colombia



eike Batista, ein brasilianischer Öl- undBergbaumillionär und vormals einer der reichstenMenschen der Welt, hat eingewilligt, vermeintlicheunregelmäßigkeiten im umgang einiger Abge-ordneter mit dem neuen Gesetz offenzulegen,durch das die Einrichtung von Spielbanken inBrasilien ermöglicht werden sollte. Die Nachrichtdürfte Auswirkungen auf das Glücksspielgesetzhaben, da es dazu führen könnte, dass Abgeord-nete ihre unterstützung dafür zurückziehenkönnten.

Die Glücksspiel- und spielbankenaufsicht(IPJyC) der Provinz Mendoza hat beschlossen, dieZulassungen von zwei Spielbanken nicht zu ver-längern, da diese nicht länger mit der Politik derRegierung vereinbar seien. Die Schließung derKasinos in Tunuyán und Tupungato erfolgte imMai.

sheldon adelson, der Vorstandsvorsitzendevon Las Vegas Sands, hat sich gemeinsam miteiner Reihe von Geschäftsleuten und örtlichenPolitikern mit dem Bürgermeister von Rio deJaneiro, Marcelo Crivella, getroffen, um das neueRegierungsprogramm zur Förderung desWirtschaftswachstums zu erörtern.

Das Bemühen der regierung von nuevo Leon, etwas über eine Milliarde Pesos an neuenSpielbanksteuereinnahmen einzunehmen, stehtvor dem Scheitern. Im ersten Vierteljahr hat derStaat Glücksspielsteuereinnahmen in Höhe vonetwas über 2,6 Millionen Pesos erzielt, dasentspricht etwa 2,13 Prozent der Erwartung für2017.

Der leiter der staatlichen bolivianischenFinanz- und Sozialaufsicht über das Glücksspiel(AJ), Marco Sánchez Vaca, hat verlauten lassen,dass seine Institution an gesetzlichen Bestim-mungen zur Regulierung des Online-Glücksspielsarbeitet.

Der chilenische Betreiber enjoy hat zurFinanzierung der Übernahme der verbleibenden55 Prozent an der Hotel- und SpielbankanlageConrad in Punta del Este Resort in den VereinigtenStaaten eine Staatsanleihe aufgenommen. DieFremdkapitalaufnahme entspricht ungefähr 188Mio. uSD zuzüglich Zinsen.

am 10. mai veröffentlichte die französischeRegierung einen vom Innenminister unterzeich-neten Erlass, in dem die Betriebsbedingungen fürSpielhallen (Clubs de jeux) in Paris sowie die Bes-timmungen in Bezug auf den Betrieb vonSpielbanken festgelegt werden. Zweck desErlasses ist die Aufhebung der bisherigen geset-zlichen Bestimmungen für Spielhallen in Paris fürdrei Jahre ab dem 1. Januar 2018 durch die Eröff-nung für das Angebot bestimmter Glücksspielezugelassener Spielhallen.

in der österreichischen Bundeshauptstadtwurde am 1. Mai nach einer sechsmonatigenumbauphase der Admiral Arena Prater als größteSportbar Europas eröffnet. Zur Einweihung gabensich neben etwa 3.500 Gästen auch Rennsportle-gende und Novomatic-Markenbotschafter NikiLauda und der Vorstandsvorsitzende der Novo-matic AG Harald Neumann ein Stelldichein.

The French Ministry of Interiordefines which games are to bepermitted in three-yearexperiment to allow gaming clubsto operate in the city of Paris

FrAnce OPERATIONS

French experiment to Begin in new Year

On May 10, the French government published adecree signed by the Minister of the Interior,laying down the conditions for “clubs de jeux(gaming clubs) in Paris” and the provisionsrelating to casinos. The text completes the law ofFebruary 28, 2017 relating to the status of Parisand metropolitan planning, which puts an endto the prohibition of gaming within Paris as ofJanuary 1, 2018, replacing it with anexperimental period of three years withcommercial companies operating gaming clubs.This decree indicates which games will beallowed in these clubs.

The purpose of the decree is the repeal of thelegal regime governing gaming clubs;commencing for a period of three years in Parisfrom January 1, 2018, with the opening ofgaming clubs authorised to operate certaingames; strengthening the administration'scapacity to combat what it describes as thecapitalist takeover of companies operatingcasinos and gambling clubs by capital of‘doubtful origin - ie. money laundering.

There is only one authorised gaming operationin Paris, Clichy-Montmartre, which, if it wishesto eventually become a gaming club, will benefitfrom transitional provisions specific to clubs dejeux.

The text enters into force the day after it ispublished, with the exception of the provisions

of Chapter II, 1 of Article 20 and 2 of Article 21 ofthe Decree which come into force on January 1,2018. However, for a period of one year from thesame date, the gaming clubs benefit from anoperating license coming into force onDecember 31, 2017 which shall continue to begoverned by the provisions concerning them intheir drafting prior to this decree. However, inorder to be able to benefit from the status ofgaming clubs as from January 1, 2018, the filingof applications for authorisation is authorisedfrom September 1, 2017.

The games allowed in the new game clubsconsist of the following: stud poker; puntobanco; Hold'em poker casino; Ultimate poker;Three card poker; Poker 21; Multicolouredbilliards; Railway baccarat; two-bank baccaratlimited-bank; two-bank open-bank baccarat;forms of poker determined by the ordermentioned in article R. 321-39 of the code ofinternal security; and Mahjong.

Candidates for the operation of a gaming clubare now awaiting the tax component of thislegislation as Ministry of the Budget has not yetdecided on the issue of taxation. The provisionsconcerning the clubs could be part of asupplementary budget law in July or September.If it's in September, in view of administrativedelays in the opening of a club, there is verylittle chance for everything to be completed by 1January 2018.

malta

Rabbit Entertainment signs up for Amanet

Czech republic

NMi, the global compliancetesting and auditing laboratory,has secured accreditation totest and certify in the CzechRepublic, for iGamingcertification and land-basedgame machines and systems.The approval further advancesthe laboratory's coverage inEastern Europe, with recentaccreditations also includingHungary and Romania. Following a bill to amend theCzech Republic's gamblinglegislation, this accreditationfurther adds to NMi’s coverageof European jurisdictions anddemonstrates its commitmentto meet its customer's needs.The bill, effective on the 1stJanuary 2017, allows EU/EEAcompanies to apply for onlinelicences.

The French government is to permit casino gaming clubs to operate, a nowspecified list of, games in the once prohibited zone of the capital, Paris

Amanet, the online gamingdivision of Amatic Industries hasadded another prestigious memberto its growing customer base.Maltese operator RabbitEntertainment recently signed upto integrate Amanet video slotsinto its online casino platformLapalingo.com.

The casino is licensed by the MaltaGaming Authority and operates inaccordance with European legalstandards; implying fair onlinegaming and security.

The online division Amanet fromthe gaming technology providerAmatic Industries brings thecompany’s renowned Multi-Gamelibrary from the land-basedsegment to the online market.

Amatic’s online gaming managerTatjana Bauer-Engstberger is verypleased to welcome Lapalingo.comto the growing customer base “Itmakes us proud that Amanetgames will now also be availableat Lapalingo.com as this onlinecasino platform. Indeed, it is not anexaggeration to say that our vastexperience in land-based gamingfor more than 20 years is bothbasis and guarantee for the highquality of the Amanet gamelibrary. We truly believe thatgames which work well in land-based casinos will also be asuccess in the online gamingmarket. It is naturally a bigadvantage that we transfer thebest from the conventional gamingworld into the fast growing onlinesegment.”

emea

Evolution Gaming has signedan agreement with gaminggiant Nederlandse Loterij,operator of the Dutch Lotteryand numerous other brands.

The partnership yet againhighlights Evolution’s strategyto be provide the best solutionsin all regulated markets andfurther cements their positionas market leaders in the fastestgrowing vertical in gaming.

Nederlandse Loterij has beenformed in April 2016 throughthe merger of de NederlandseLoterij and De Lotto.Nederlandse Loterij offersseven well-known games ofchance in the Netherlands,including brands likeStaatsloterij, Lotto, toto,Eurojackpot, Miljoenenspel,Lucky Day and Krasloten. Itsmission is to invest in a happierand healthier society bydonating a large sum, 37 per

cent, of its revenues to nationalsport and charityorganisations. The remaining63 per cent is donated to theDutch national treasury.

Bas van de Bunt, DirectorOnline & Businessdevelopment, said: “Wewanted to work with a market-leading provider with a proventrack record of delivering first-to-market advantage inre-regulated jurisdictions.Evolution has achieved this anumber of times for majorlicensees in new marketsacross Europe.”

Evolution Group CEO MartinCarlesund commented: “Weare delighted to be workingwith the largest gamingoperator in the Netherlandswith huge reach across thecountry — and an organisationcommitted to contributing to ahappy and healthy Dutchsociety. We are confident thatwe will further enhance thewide range of games on offerfor safe and responsible play.Signing a client of this caliberis yet another accomplishmentfor Evolution.”


eine reihe schwerer Verstöße beim Betriebder drei staatlichen Spielbanken, Playa de LasAméricas, Casino Santa Cruz de Tenerife undCasino Taoro, meldet Julio Concepción, der diePartei Podemos (Wir schaffen das!) im Stadtratvertritt.

Die neuen Gesetze zur eröffnung weitererGlücksspieleinrichtungen auf der Isle of Manhaben die erste Lesung im Parlament passiert.Das überarbeitete Spielbankengesetz wird demTynwald nach der Verabschiedung durch dasunterhaus, das House of Keys, zur zweitenLesung vorgelegt.

Der spanisch-Us-amerikanischeSpielbankenbetreiber Cordish hat mit überarbeit-eten Plänen, die erstmals einen Strand in diespanische Hauptstadt bringen sollen, einenerneuten Anlauf zur Errichtung einer Glücksspiel-und Ferienanlage unmittelbar vor den TorenMadrids genommen. Der 2,2 Mrd. Euro teureKomplex in Torres de Alameda soll nach demaktuellen Modell als Mittelpunkt einen über 6 Hek-tar großen künstlichen See mit Strand aufweisen.

Die Beteiligungsgesellschaft WaterlandPrivate Equity übernimmt im September über ihrebelgische Tochtergesellschaft Napoleon Gamesdie Betriebsgenehmigung für die Spielbank inMiddelkerke an der belgischen Küste. Es wurdeverlautbart, dass das bestehende Kasino auf derStrandpromenade geschlossen und durch einenfuturistischen gewölbten Spielbankkomplexersetzt werden soll, der 20 Meter in die Höheragen wird, um auf dem zentralen Epernay-Platzeine gläserne Welle darzustellen.

interblock meldet einen Vertragsabschlussmit Galaxy Gaming, aufgrund dessen Interblockdie branchenführenden Tischspielinhalte vonGalaxy anbieten kann.

im mai hat die spielbank von montréal dankdes neuen Spielautomaten von Powerbucks, desLoto-Québec, einen der höchsten Gewinne in ihrerGeschichte ausgezahlt, ein Einzelspieler gewannmit einem Einsatz von 15 uSD 1,7 Mio. uSD.

Die rennbahn von rideau Carleton steht voreiner millionenschweren Erweiterung um ein Hotelund eine Konzerthalle, die dem schwächelndenPferderenn- und Glücksspielkomplex im kanadis-chen Ottawa im dritten Quartal 2017 hunderteneuer Arbeitsplätze bescheren soll.

Crane payment innovations (Cpi), einunternehmen der unternehmensgruppe Crane,meldet die Erweiterung seines Angebotes vonZahlungsabwicklungs- und Verkaufsförderung-stechnologien um eine neue Plattform fürunternehmen namens Crane Connectivity Solu-tions (CCS).

Die neuseeländische rennsportkommissionhat die Entscheidung für OpenBet (OB, einunternehmen der Glücksspielgruppe NYX) undPaddy Power Betfair (PPBF) als Anbieter für dietechnischen Lösungen und Hilfsdaten für ihr Fes-tquotenwettgeschäft (FOB) bestätigt.

Around 70 betting terminals and adedicated horse racing area arepart of a new sports-bettingflagship created by Novomatic

AuSTriA SPORTS-BETTING

admiral opens europe’s largest sports Bar

In the Austrian capital, Admiral Arena Prateropened on May 1 following six months ofconversion work to become the largest sportsbar in Europe.

The launch event was attended by around 3,500guests as well as racing legend and Novomaticbrand ambassador Niki Lauda and NovomaticAG CEO Harald Neumann.

A range of activities and events were on offerboth outdoors and inside the venue – actionstages, football modules, and autograph sessionsby the Vienna Capitals ice hockey team, theAustrian woman’s national football team, aswell as Rapid Vienna and FK Austria Wienfootball teams.

With Admiral Arena Prater, HtM Hotel undtourismusmanagement GmbH and ADMIRALSportwetten GmbH are setting new standards inthe entertainment sector. The Admiral Arena inVienna’s Prater offers sports betting of the

highest caliber over two floors covering a totalarea of 1,350 qm. At the centre of the venue,reminiscent of an American sports bar, there is alarge, semi-circular bar with a 15 qm LED wall inhigh definition picture quality. Another LEDwall, and at 42 qm is one of the largest LEDwalls in Europe, extends along the back wall.Here sporting events are broadcast in supremequality from 9 am to midnight daily. This mainwall is the size of a small flat with anapproximate length of 15m and height of 3m,weighing around 2 tonnes. The wall consists of180 individual panels with a total of 4,608,000LED image points. About 6 km of cables werelaid to operate the two LED walls.

The main wall can also be split into manydifferent screens thanks to Novomatic-developed software. “This means that, forinstance, all Champions League games playingat the same time can be broadcast together –this broadcasting possibility is unique inEurope,” said Harald Neumann.

Located in a prime location in Vienna, Admiral Arena Prater opened on May 1following six months of conversion work to become the largest sports bar in

Europe with a launch attended by 3,500 guests, including Niki Lauda

emea

malta

BetConstruct has secured aControlled Skill Games SupplyLicence from the Malta GamingAuthority. This license allowsBetConstruct to offer its FantasySports product, including soccer,American football, basketball,baseball and ice hockey, on aB2C and B2B level. BetConstructCOO, Sergey Harutyunyan, said:“BetConstruct we have beendeveloping and improving ourunique fantasy sports productover the past year whilecomplying to the strict MGAtechnical standards. Operatorscan integrate BetConstruct’sfantasy product onto theirexisting platforms or use as partof our full turnkey solution,utilising the Spring Gamingplatform. It provides playerswith more choice and operatorswith new revenue channels andunique products.” Europeanoperators can take fulladvantage of BetConstruct’sFantasy Sports that has beenupgraded with a number ofinnovative functions, includingcustomisable points systems,contest duration flexibility andin-play substitutions in soccer.

Evolution signs deal tosupply NederlandseLoterij

The netherlands

Serious anomalies have beenreported by council officialsinvestigating tenerife’s threepublic casinos

SPAin CASINO OPERATIONS

Tenerife Casinos Face prosecution

A number of serious infractions regarding therunning of three public casinos the Playa de LasAméricas, Casino Santa Cruz de tenerife and theCasino taoro have been reported by a councillorfor the Podemos (We Can) Party JulioConcepción. Mr Concepción said that auditscarried out on the casinos in the years 2012,2013 and 2014 have found a number of seriousanomalies in the accounts which “areimpermissible in public companies like these.”These breaches with current legislation hadnegatively affected the financial management,of the casinos which in turn he said had affectedthe hiring of staff and including in the mostserious of cases irregularities in the granting ofcontracts for services.

“The management of these public companieseven handpicked contracts outside of anylegally established tender process,” he said.

"This legal violation that negatively affects thesolvency of companies that supply goods and

services is difficult to understand, becausecasino companies have sufficient liquidity andsufficient staff to meet their economicobligations in a timely manner," he went ontosay. Concepción said that contract irregularitiesaffected almost all contracts including cleaningcontracts, security, catering and advertising andsaid that legal action could be forthcoming.

During a general meeting regarding casinos heldlast Friday Concepción also stated that theeconomic data over recent years and, especially,for 2016, confirmed the high profitability of thecasinos in tenerife despite the efforts of thePresident of the Council of tenerife CarlosAlonso to dismantle these public companies inorder to privatise them. Casino companies onthe island closed 2016 with an increase inrevenue of more than €500,000 and a decreasein expenses of another €500,000, which meansin general terms that last year that incomegenerated by these publicly owned companiesstood at €13m.

France

A new decree, published in theOfficial Gazette, concerningcasinos installed on boardmerchant ships carrying Frenchpassengers, comes into force onJuly 1, 2017. The decree specifiesthe operating conditions forcasinos on board commercialvessels flying the French flag,irrespective of their registrationregistry and casinos installed onboard. Ships operating on aregular intra-community route,such as ferries, may operate upto 15 gaming machines. Shipsoperating in internationalwaters may operate in additionto traditional table games.

Applications for authorisation tooperate games must beaddressed to the French Ministerof the Interior. The operatingagreement between the shipowner and the casino operator isa maximum of 15 years.

Finally, the staff must also beapproved by the Ministry of theInterior, while the controllerstation at the entrance to thegaming area can be combinedwith that of the cashier.

A number of serious infractions regarding the running of three public casinos thePlaya de Las Américas, Casino Santa Cruz de tenerife and the Casino taoro havebeen reported by a councillor for the Podemos (We Can) Party Julio Concepción

SPAIN – Luckia Group has chosen JCM Global’saward-winning iVIZION bill validator for three of itscasinos in Spain: Casino de Bilbao, and Casino deCeuta, and Casino de Mallorca.

JCM’s iVIZION will replace a competitor’s product ateach of the casinos. Luckia made the decision toupgrade to iVIZION after a month’s-long live fieldtest during which iVIZION demonstrated its highquality, fast acceptance speed, and technicalcapabilities, all backed by JCM’s high level of serviceand support.

JCM EMEA General Manager Payam Zadeh said,“We are excited that Luckia Group has choseniVIZION for these three distinguished Spanishcasinos. Operators worldwide rely on JCM’s iVIZIONbill validator to offer unparalleled levels of protectionagainst counterfeiters and other types of cheats, allwith the exceptional speed that makes iVIZION thebetter, smarter, faster solution.”

CzECH REPUBLIC – STS, the biggest bookmakerin Poland, has bought into Czech company Greep, aleading software provider for gambling companiesfrom the Central Europe region.

The deal saw STS became one of the majorshareholders in the Czech company, making it a co-owner of the company and the bookmaker systemBetsys that it uses. The investment allows forfurther dynamic development of activity of STS onPolish market and, in the future, also on Europeanmarket.

Mateusz Juroszek, the President of STS, said: “ForSTS, the deal means greater independence fromproviders, as well as stability in future development.”

ISLE of MAN – New laws being approved at thefirst stage of the Island’s parliament aim to seemore venues open on the island. The CasinoAmendment Bill will be given a second hearinghaving been passed by the House of Keys. The changes would give greater freedom to theisland’s only existing casino, the Western PalaceHotel & Casino in the capital, Douglas, to relocateand would also allow it to open multiple satellitecasino sites, via just one gaming licence. The newlaws would also give greater power to the GamblingSupervision Commission allowing it to revoke acasino licence.

Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan commented:"While online gambling has become a significantpart of the Isle of Man’s economy, the island hasalways supported a small but well-regulateddomestic gambling sector, which includes licensedcasinos."

emea

In 2016, the 21 Swiss casinosgenerated a turnover ofCHF689m, up 1.2 per centyear-on-year with taxies tothe cantons coming in at CHF323m.

Although the continuousdecline in recent years hasbeen halted, the market is stillcharacterised by the migrationof guests to online casinos, toforeign casinos on the Swissborder and to illegal slot halls.

During the year, 12 casinosrecorded a slight increase andnine casinos a slight reductionin their Gross Gaming Revenuecompared to the previous year.The turnover of Swiss casinospeaked in 2007. Since then,sales have fallen by a third. In2016, it was below the value of2004, the first year after theopening of the Swiss casino. Since their opening in 2004,

Switzerland’s casinos havepaid a total of CHF 5.7bn intaxation.

Marc Friedrich, ManagingDirector Swiss CasinoAssociation, said: “Onlinecasinos are a growingcompetition for the Swisscasinos. Although they areillegal in Switzerland, they arefreely accessible on theInternet.

An estimated CHF 250m isspent abroad each year.Organized gangs operate inSwitzerland to a growingextent illegal slot clubs.

The illegal turnover is expectedto move around CHF 150m peryear. Over the last few years,new casinos, numerousgambling halls and thousandsof money-playing machineshave been put into operationon the German, Austrian,Italian and French side of thenational border, which appealto many guests fromSwitzerland. This means that atleast CHF 100m in sales toneighbouring countries flowsfrom Switzerland every year.”

Switzerland’s 21casinos post slightincrease

switzerland


A new CEO for Casinos Austria isappointed as the Group posts itsbest financial year in the 50-yearcorporate history of the company

AuSTriA CASINOS & LOTTERIES

new incoming Ceo at Casinos austria

Alexander Labak has been named as thedesignated successor to Karl Stoss, currentCasinos Austria CEO, and is to be appointed tothe Management Board of Casinos Austria as ofJune 1 and will take over the functions ofDirector General of Casinos Austria andChairman of Austrian Lotteries’ Board on July 1.

In an extraordinary meeting of the CasinosAustria AG Supervisory Board chaired by itsPresident, Walther Rothensteiner, the Boardvoted to appoint Alexander Labak to theManagement Board as designated successor toKarl Stoss. Alexander Labak (born 1962) holds adegree in Business Studies and has extensiveinternational experience above all in thefinancial services and insurance sector, mostrecently in London, UK. At the same time, hewill be appointed to the Board of AustrianLotteries with effect from 1 July 2017, where hewill assume the role of Chairman.

“For the sake of continuity, it was important tous to appoint a successor as quickly as possible,and I am delighted with our excellent choice ofAlexander Labak,” said Supervisory BoardPresident Rothensteiner. Alexander Labaklikewise expressed his delight with the decision:

“Joining Casinos Austria as only the thirdDirector General in the company’s 50-yearhistory gives me a special responsibility when itcomes to leading the company to continued andlong-term success.

“The gaming industry is currently in a period ofdynamic change, which brings with itopportunities, but also risks, for our companies.I am looking forward immensely to the newchallenge and am confident that we as a strongteam will be successful in all strategic areas ofour business,” said Mr. Labak.

Casinos Austria and Austrian Lotteries Grouphave just posted the best financial year in their50-year corporate history. In 2016, the groupposted increases in revenues in all its businessunits. This led to an eight per cent rise in grouprevenues to a record €3,885.95m.

Sustained investments in improving andextending its portfolio as well as measures toimprove efficiency also led to the groupachieving clear increases in results: operatingresults rose by 49 per cent to €150.1m, whilegroup consolidated results were up by 65 percent to €91.2m.

slovakia

Czech operator and supplier,Synot, is celebrating the firstanniversary of its contentdivision. The company wasestablished 12 months ago tocommence the production oforiginal gaming content. startingwith just a handful of gamingenthusiasts the company hastaken its plentiful ideas and putthem into motion. TheBratislava-based Synot Gamesis now celebrating its firstachievements.

Several successfully launchedgames, ready to be integrated toany platform and a successfulrepresentation at ICE 2017 inLondon has created a host ofbusiness connections andcooperations with leadingplatforms, such as Easit, Maxbetand Joker Latvia, with go-lives inthree markets, just a couple ofthe important milestones thathave helped Synot Games makea visible entrance on the market.

Alexander Labak, is to be appointed to the Management Board of Casinos Austriaand will take over the functions of Director General of Casinos Austriaemea

two products of Euro Gamestechnology are gaining groundin France, speeding up theplans of the company todevelop further in the localmarket. Over 30 Super Premierslot models have alreadycaptivated players in 13 casinosaround the country.

The Chinese-themed four-level progressive jackpotsystem Fu Gui Rong Hua hasestablished itself in CasinoBarrière de Blotzheim, ownedby Groupe Lucien Barrière, andCasino Villers-sur-Mer, ofGroupe tranchant. The productis soon to be expected in ArzonCasino of the JOA group andother establishments as well.

Borislav Prokopiev, EGt’s sales

manager for France, Monacoand Belgium adds: “We havehad numerous highlysuccessful installations inFrance that have establishedthe image of EGt as one of themost innovative andappreciated manufacturers inthe gaming industry. Adding tothis overall opinion was alsoour recent delivery of thenewest products of thecompany, including SuperPremier and Fu Gui Rong Hua,at Sun Casino, Monaco, thatmade a splash in the playerscircles.”

Soon after its first installationSuper Premier became one ofthe top five best performingcabinets in France. Many newcontracts for the model havebeen inked to be executedwithin the next month. Fu GuiRong Hua begins its localjourney with 12 cabinetsinstalled, which has also beenwarmly welcomed by theplayers.

EGT builds on its Top 5performance in Francewith latest jackpot

France


fRANCE – The Arévian Group has invested €1.3mto renovate the interior of its casino in Alvignac inthe Lot region in south west France. The group,which operates nine casinos and three hotels inFrance, has also spent €500,000 on ten new slotmachines. Antoine Arévian, CEO of the group, saidthe most spectacular element of the new interiorwas a panoramic bar, which allows 360 ° viewing ofthe entire casino.

The commune of Alvignac has a little more than700 inhabitants. The casino is therefore one of themain contributors to the municipal budget. In fiscalyear 2015/2016, it GGR of €6,043,531, down 2.14per cent over the previous year. It is hopeful thatthis latest investment will allow the casino toreverse this trend.

LATvIA – Greentube is rolling out its game contentwith Optibet, the fully owned and operated by theNordic Leisure Group. NOVOMATIC’s famous bluechip slots such as Book of Ra deluxe, Lucky Lady’sCharm deluxe, Sizzling Hot deluxe and many morepopular casino games are available for Optibetplayers with immediate effect.

Gernot Baumgartner, Greentube Head of Marketing& Sales, commented: “Greentube is very proud ofanother successful partnership. We are happy tooffer our well-known premium slot games toOptibet players and feel certain the game selectionwill be well-received by the customers.”

Peter Åström, Nordic Leisure Group CEO, added: “Iam extremely excited to be adding Greentube’squality casino content to our regional Optibet.lvbrand. Greentube titles such as Book of Ra andSizzling Hot are very well-known in Latvia due totheir high street presence, so it made perfect sensefor us to bring these great games to our onlinecustomers.”

SPAIN – uS casino operator Cordish Companieshas come back with revised plans in its attempts tobuild a casino resort just outside Madrid with plansto bring a beach to the Spanish capital for the firsttime. The €2.2bn complex in Torres de Alamedawould now have a 15 acre man-made lakecomplete with beach at the centre of its newblueprint. It has also added a World Soccer Hall ofFame Museum to its initial plans along withcinemas, themed discos and a centre for e-sports.

It was told to revise its initial plans by the localgovernment two months ago. David Cordish,Cordish Chairman and Chief Executive, said in theFT: “It’s a 15-acre lake, which is perpetuallycleaning itself. The water is crystal clear and blue.We are putting in a full beach. It will be Madrid’sbeach.”

Futuristic arched casino complexset to replace the Middelkerkecasino on the Belgian coastaccording to developer

neTHerlAnDS OPERATIONS

Waterland to replace middelkerke Casino

Private equity firm Waterland Private Equity willtake over the operation of Belgium’sMiddelkerke Casino licence on the Belgiancoast, through its Belgian subsidiary NapoleonGames, in September.

The UK’s Rank Group was the previous holder ofthe Middelkerke casino licence, which is locatedon the coast of the North Sea in the province ofWest Flanders. Waterland, based in theNetherlands, has been granted a 15-year licence.It said it would close the existing casino on theseafront and develop a futuristic, arched casinocomplex., stretching 20 meters high into the airto form a glass wave in the central EpernaySquare. It will cost €30m. Under the arch will behoused an event square of 1,200 square metersfor all seasons. At the foot of the arch there is amultipurpose room of 650 square meters andspace for commercial uses. The hotel will havethree floors with 60 rooms.

Mayor Janna Rommel-Opstaele said: "We areextremely satisfied. This can only benefit ourcitizens, businesses and tourists. After a longlegal battle, this is a relief. I would like to

emphasize that the construction of this newcasino to Middelkerke will not cost the taxpayeranything. It will certainly be unique.”

During the two year construction of the arch,the casino will be relocated to a temporaryvenue. Napoleon Games has two of the nineBelgian A licences, having already bought thenearby Knokke Casino.

Napoleon Games also operates 22 gamingarcades, of which most are located in Flanders.It also owns street operator JvH in theNetherlands. Napoleon Games is one of theBelgian market leaders in gaming and sportsbetting. The group is primarily known for itssuccesful online platform (napoleongames.be),and is among others sponsoring AA Gent, thereigning champion in Belgian football, as well asthe professional cycling team Sunweb-Napoleon Games. Over the last few years, thegroup has grown rapidly and completed itsproduct offering through significant investmentsin the online platform. In February 2016, thecompany opened Live Casino studio inpartnership with Evolution Gaming.

Napoleon Games is expanding its casino operations with the creation of a newlocation on the Belgian coast to replace the Middelkerke casino emea

Century Casinos’ subsidiaryCasinos Poland has receivedapproval from the Ministry ofFinance to move its secondcasino license in Warsaw to adifferent location.

The Century license currentlyoperated at LIM center on agaming floor of less than3,000sq.ft will be moved to a17,000sq.ft gaming floorsituated at the Hilton hotel inWarsaw. The location is wellestablished, as CasinosPoland’s main competitor inthe Warsaw market used tooperate its flagship casinothere until their casino licenseexpired in late 2016.

Casinos Poland will refurbishthe new venue, which willoffer approximately 24 gamingtables and 70 slot machines,

and plans to open it in thesecond half of Q2 2017. “We areexcited about this new locationand believe it has the potentialto contribute significantly toCasinos Poland’s successfulperformance,” ErwinHaitzmann and PeterHoetzinger, Co CEOs ofCentury Casinos, said.

Olympic EntertainmentGroup’s Polish subsidiaryCasino Polonia-Wrocław,which operated the flagshipcasino of OEG in Warsaw untilSeptember 2016, OlympicCasino Sunrise, submitted tothe court its bankruptcypetition.

The Baltic-based operator hadinformed back in Septemberthat its bid for a local specificactivity license had beenrejected by the Ministry ofFinance. Olympic CasinoSunrise had been open for nineyears. The casino generatedGGR of €9.4m and operatingprofit of €500,000 in the firsthalf of 2016.

Century snaps upchance of fillingOlympic’s shoes

Poland

UK – SIS has announced theappointment of SandraMcWilliams as its new SalesDirector. The move supportsthe company’s on-goingefforts to further drive its offerinternationally, as well asexpanding its customer base

in the uK and Ireland.

McWilliams has over 15 years’ experience invarious sales roles, most recently as Director ofSales with payment firm Equiniti.She has previously worked in the online gamblingindustry, having enjoyed a four-year spell as SalesDirector at Experian, providing data and securityservices to online operators.

McWilliams, who started her new role in April, said:“I’m thrilled to have joined SIS and look forward toworking with one of the industry’s most recognisedbrands. SIS has a strong heritage and I lookforward to working with the team to help provideoptimal betting solutions for our customers, and togrowing both our domestic and internationalcustomer base.”

SIS Commercial Director Paul Witten added: “We’redelighted to welcome Sandra to SIS and I believethat she is a valuable asset for the company. Shehas a wealth of experience working in sales andhas prior knowledge of the betting industry, whichwill prove to be invaluable as we continue todevelop our customer base globally.”

SoUTH AfRICA – Kiron Interactive has extendedits operations in Africa after agreeing a deal withDafabet – Asia’s No 1 online betting and gamingsite. The specialist virtuals provider will make anumber of its racing titles, including horse racing,dog racing, and motor racing available to Dafabetfor both its online and retail operations in Africa. Theoperator has recently taken its first steps into theAfrican market, launching in Kenya.

The deal comes just weeks after Kiron expandedinto South America with IVISA, an Argentina-licensed lottery and gaming solutions supplier withboth retail and online channels.

Steven Spartinos, CEO of Kiron Interactive, said:“We are always looking to establish strongpartnerships in new and exciting regulatedterritories and that’s exactly what we have achievedwith Dafabet. Continuing our growth into theAfrican continent with an established brand such asDafabet offers an exciting prospect and one whichwe are sure will yield great result especially in therapidly developing online and mobile betting spacein Africa.”

uK

BetConstruct has successfullyadded both Casino and PoolBetting to its B2C UKGCRemote gambling licences.This is a variation ofBetConstruct’s existing remotesports betting licence, grantedin 2016.

“We have worked tirelessly ingrowing in a number ofsignificant regulated marketsand the UK is a very importantpart of this for BetConstruct.We have already secured anumber of high profile UKfacing clients and 2017 will seethis grow exponentially.Having the addition of casinoand pool betting to our market-leading sportsbook will equipour partners to compete in theUK,” commented BetConstructCOO Sergey Harutyunyan.

“BetConstruct is constantlylooking at new opportunitiesfor growth and strengthen theirpresence in core regulatedmarkets,” he added.



eike Batista, le millionnaire brésilien, anciennement homme le plus riche du monde quia fait fortune dans le pétrole et les mines, vient dedonner son accord pour faire des révélations à pro-pos de malversations impliquant des législateurssuite à la nouvelle loi autorisant l'ouverture de casi-nos au Brésil. Cette allégation pourrait avoir unimpact négatif sur cette loi puisque les législateurspourraient décider de ne plus la soutenir.

l'institut des jeux et des casinos (ipJyC) de laprovince de Mendoza a décidé de ne pas renouvelerles licences de deux casinos car ils ne correspon-dent plus à la politique du gouvernement. Les deuxcasinos des villes de Tunuyán et de Tupungato ontfermé leurs portes en mai.

sheldon adelson, président de las VegasSands, ainsi qu'un groupe d'hommes d'affaires etd'hommes politiques locaux, ont rencontré MarceloCrivella, maire de Rio de Janeiro, pour discuter d'unnouveau programme gouvernemental visant àencourager la croissance économique.

la tentative du gouvernement du nuevoLeon de recueillir plus d'un milliard de pesos grâceaux taxes sur les casinos est en train d'échouer. Aucours du premier trimestre de cette année, l'état estparvenu à collecter 2,6 millions de pesos de taxessur les jeux d'argent, ce qui ne représente que 2,13% des estimations prévues pour 2017.

marco sánchez Vaca, le directeur national del'autorité des taxes et du contrôle social des jeuxd'argent de Bolivie (AJ), a déclaré que son organisa-tion travaille actuellement sur des législationsvisant à règlementer les jeux en ligne.

l'opérateur chilien enjoy vient de souscriredes obligations publiques aux États-unis pourfinancer l'achat des 55 % restants du ConradPunta del Este Resort. Le montant de la dettes'élève à 188 millions de dollars uS plus les intérêts.

le 10 mai, le gouvernement français a publiéun décret signé de la main du Ministre de l'Intérieurpour établir les conditions de fonctionnement rela-tives aux clubs de jeux à Paris ainsi que lesdispositions concernant les casinos. Ce décret viseà annihiler le régime légal qui encadre actuellementles clubs de jeux à Paris sur une période de 3 ans àpartir du 1er janvier 2018, tout en autorisant l'ou-verture de clubs proposant un certain type de jeux.

l'admiral arena prater a ouvert ses portes le1er mai dans la capitale autrichienne après 6 moisde travaux pour devenir le plus grand bar sportifd'Europe.

environ 3500 personnes ont participé à soninauguration, parmi lesquelles la légende vivante dela course automobile et ambassadeur de la marqueNovomatic, Niki Lauda, et le PDG de Novomatic AG,Harald Neumann.

Une série de graves délits concernant la gestion de trois casinos publics du Playa de LasAméricas, du Casino Santa Cruz de Tenerife et duCasino Taoro a été signalée par le conseiller du partiPodemos, Julio Concepción.

Operating income of $477m at theMGM's domestic resorts,represented a 31 per cent increaseover the prior year quarter

uS CASINO OPERATIONS

mGm reports strong start to 2017MGM Resorts has reported strong start to 2017 with net revenues increasing by 29per cent over the prior year quarter at the company’s domestic resorts to $2.1bn.

Operating income was $477m at the company’s domestic resorts

north ameriCa

Interblock has announced adeal with Galaxy Gaming, thatallows Interblock to offerGalaxy’s industry-leadingtable game content.

Interblock’s first release willbe applying Galaxy’s 21+3Blackjack side bet onInterblock’s Diamond VideoBlackjack platform. In additionto the new side bet content, thegame will feature all-newInterblock graphics, includinga 3-D Virtual Dealer.

John Connelly, CEO ofInterblock, said: "We're excitedto partner with Galaxy Gamingin offering some of theindustry’s most recognizedside bets. Our strategicpartnership will allow us tomake even greaterimprovements to our games'handle and hold, to keepplayers more engaged and

playing longer." The 21+3 sidebet is currently offered on livetable games, and is historicallypopular amongst Blackjackplayers. Interblock’s new gamecontent, gives players theopportunity to wager on up tothree side bets at a time.

The Blackjack side bet will notonly be offered on Interblock’sDiamond Video Blackjackgame, but will be found on allother Interblock multi-game/multi-play devices aswell. Interblock will offer thisside bet in Q2 with plans toannounce additional tablegame content in subsequentquarters.

Robert Saucier, CEO of GalaxyGaming, stated: “We chose topartner with Interblockbecause they represent theindustry leader in electronictable games. We wanted ourgames to be played on thehottest platform in the gamingbusiness and clearly,Interblock is second-to-none.21+3 is just the first of ourentire library of games thatwill be offered on EtG’s.

Interblock partnerswith Galaxy Gaming tolicense game content

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Canada

In May the Casino de Montréalawarded one of the biggestprizes in its history thanks to thenew Powerbucks slot machine -Loto-Québec with one playerwinning $ 1.7m from a $15 bet. Itmarked the first win in thehistory of the Powerbucks slot inQuebec. Starting at $1,000,000,the Powerbucks jackpot waslaunched on Espacejeux.comand at casinos and gamingsalons in Quebec in January2017. With bets of only 50 cents,Powerbucks is innovative in thatit links online gambling withland-based slots, and connectsvenues in British Columbia andManitoba. Due to the highnumber of players, both onlineand in the casinos of the threeprovinces, the jackpot amountrises quickly. Kevin Taylor,President of Operations at theSociété des Casinos of Quebec,said: "The Powerbucks, whichhas been in operation since 2016in British Columbia, is a greatsuccess and is very popular withwestern Canadian customers.We were happy to finally offer itto Quebec customers.”

"MGM Resorts had a strong start to the year, asevidenced by our first quarter diluted earningsper share which tripled last year's results,double digit same-store Adjusted PropertyEBItDA growth at our domestic resorts, recordresults at CityCenter and solid performance atMGM China. MGM National Harbor and Borgata,our newest additions on the East Coast, areleading their respective markets, and wecontinue to work toward expanding ourfootprint in Macau with the opening of MGMCotai later this year," said Jim Murren, Chairman& CEO of MGM Resorts. "Every year, we takesteps to further this Company as an innovativemarket leader positioned for operationalstrength, financial flexibility, and prudentgrowth. We remain focused on building uponthis effort as we continue to execute on ourstrategies to profitably grow our Company andreturn value to our shareholders."

Casino revenue for the first quarter of 2017increased 50 per cent compared to the prior year

quarter, due primarily to the acquisition ofBorgata Hotel Casino and Spa (Borgata), theMGM National Harbor opening on December 8,2016, and an increase in both table games andslots revenue. Casino revenue increased four percent on a same-store basis compared to theprior year quarter. table games revenuesincreased seven per cent on a same-store basisand slots revenue increased two per cent.

Mr. Murren added: "The company's highoperating efficiencies, a robust event calendar,and modestly favourable table games holdhelped drive a very strong first quarter in LasVegas contributing to 33 per cent AdjustedProperty EBItDA margins at our Strip resorts.As we look to the second quarter, our underlyingbusiness remains strong, although we face achallenging comparison due to the Easterholiday shifting back into April.. Based on thesefactors, we anticipate gaming revenues to belower and our non-gaming revenues to be upyear over year.

The first phase will involvemodest renovations by the end ofthe year, but the second phaseincludes a new casino, 2,000-seatvenue and four new restaurants

cAnADA CASINO OPERATIONS

hard rock wins ottawa Tender

The Rideau Carleton Raceway is to undergo amultimillion-dollar expansion that will bring ahotel, a music venue and hundreds of new jobsto the struggling Ottawa horse racing andgambling facility in the third quarter of 2017.

Following a competitive procurement process,Hard Rock Casino Ottawa, has been selected byOntario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG)to be the service provider for the Ottawa AreaGaming Bundle 1, transitioning the existingstructure and operations into Hard Rock CasinoOttawa. The Hard Rock Casino Ottawapartnership consists of HR LP Investor Inc.(owned by Hard Rock International) and RCRInvestor Inc. (owned by Rideau CarletonRaceway Holdings Limited). Pending requiredapprovals, Hard Rock International and RCRplan to potentially invest more than $320mduring a multi-phase construction process toultimately create an integrated entertainmentdestination incorporating nightlife, world-classgaming and cuisine with the Hard Rock brand.

"We're thrilled to have been chosen by OLG tocreate Hard Rock Casino Ottawa," said Jim Allen,chairman of Hard Rock International. "This is a

crucial first step towards a larger strategic visionof our world-class brand's expansion efforts inOntario and throughout Canada. We arehonored to partner with RCR, a reputable andlongstanding member of the Ottawa community,and look forward to working with both the RCRand OLG team members."

together, Hard Rock International and RCR willtransform the existing property with a completeremodel, rebrand and significant expansion,leading to an economic development boost. Themulti-phase project is expected to potentiallycreate 1,900 construction-related jobs and2,000 direct and indirect ongoing jobs, plus add13,000sq.m of gaming space with additionalslots and table games.

"We are delighted to bring the iconic Hard RockInternational casino operator to Ottawa," saidAndrew Wright, director of Rideau CarletonRaceway. "Rideau Carleton Raceway haspartnered with Hard Rock to build a majortourist destination that will offer multi-levelentertainment, horse racing, a broader marketand substantial economic benefits for all of ouremployees, patrons, and Ottawa community."

Kansas

Interblock has announced thecompletion of its first electronictable game (ETG) placement inthe state of Kansas, with theaddition of Automated DiamondCraps and Roulette to the floor atPrairie Band Casino & Resort.

Ryan Rose, Senior Slot Managerat Prairie Band Casino & Resort,commented: “The Interblockplayer stations on the DiamondRoulette and Craps are sleek andattractive and have created anew and unique environment inthat section of our casino floor.

“Guests who have never playedat the live tables are trying themin order to learn how to play andseasoned guests are playingthem as well,” added Mr. Rose.

“On the weekends when the livegames are full and theInterblock games are hoppingthere are even people standingaround them enjoying the areaand socialising.”

Hard Rock Casino Ottawa will take over day-to-day operations at the Rideau Carleton Raceway towards the end of 2017 in a US$320m investment

Crane Payment Innovations (CPI), a Crane Co. Company, announces a newbusiness platform has been added to Crane’s Payment and MerchandisingTechnologies portfolio: Crane Connectivity Solutions (CCS).

CCS is a joint venture between CPI and Crane Merchandising Systems. Bysynthesising the cashless heritages of its sister businesses, CCS is able toleverage Crane’s full suite of software, wireless hardware and applicationsinto a single entity focused on accelerating growth in the rapidly evolvingconnectivity landscape.

“CCS was created with the philosophy that technology should simplifybusiness,” said Eric Kaled, senior vice president and general manager ofCrane Connectivity Solutions. “Our portfolio of hardware, software andconnectivity services will give operators unprecedented visibility to theirbusiness processes, enabling them to make quick, informed decisionswhile improving their efficiency and profitability.”

“This is a natural progression for us in Gaming, where enhancing ourEASITRAX solution has helped operators unlock smarter and moreprofitable process efficiencies over the years,” said Eric Fisher, CPIpresident of Gaming. Historically, EASITRAX has been used to link the slotfloor and the soft count room in casinos around the world, and newfunctionality has recently opened the door for massive rollouts in VLToperations throughout Europe. “Now, by working together with CCS,”Fisher continued, “we are in a great position to find new ways to bringmore value to our customers – whether that’s evolving EASITRAX towardreal-time data delivery or expanding the applicability of our cashlessportfolio to the Gaming industry.”

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Crane launches new technology company


le parlement de l'île vient d'approuver lapremière étape de nouvelles lois dans le but d'youvrir de nouvelles salles. L'amendement provi-soire sur les casinos va être révisé après avoir étéentériné par la Chambre des Clefs.

espagne - l'opérateur de casinos américainCordish Companies vient de présenter de nou-veaux plans de construction d'un complexe casinoà la périphérie de Madrid dans le but innovantd'amener la plage à la capitale espagnole. Le com-plexe de 2,2 milliards d'euros situé à Torres deAlameda disposerait d'un lac artificiel de 7hectares avec une plage en son centre.

la société d'investissement privé WaterlandPrivate Equity va reprendre en septembrel'exploitation de la licence de casino du Middelk-erke, situé sur la côte belge, via sa filiale belgeNapoleon Games. Elle a déclaré vouloir fermer lecasino existant sur le front de mer pour développerun complexe casino futuriste à colonnades haut de20 mètres et en forme de vague de verre dans lecentre de la place Epernay.

interblock vient d'annoncer qu'ils ont conclu un accord avec Galaxy Gaming afin de fournir àGalaxy leur contenu de tables de jeux leader sur lemarché.

le Casino de montréal vient de remettre l'undes plus importants prix de l'histoire remportégrâce à la nouvelle machine à sous Powerbucks -Loto-Québec à un joueur unique qui a remporté1,7 millions de dollars uS après une mise de 15dollars.

suite à des travaux d'agrandissement deplusieurs millions de dollars visant à donner unnouvel élan à l'hippodrome et aux salles de jeux enpéril d'Ottawa, l'hippodrome Rideau Carleton dis-posera d'un hôtel et d'une salle de concert, ce quientraînera la création de centaines d'emplois aucours du troisième trimestre 2017.

Crane payment innovations (Cpi), une entreprise de Crane Co. Company, vient d'annon-cer qu'une nouvelle plateforme vient de rejoindre leportefeuille de solutions de paiement et de tech-nologies marketing de Crane : le CraneConnectivity Solutions (CCS).

le new Zealand racing Board vient d'approuver le choix d'OpenBet (OB, une entreprisedu groupe NYX Gaming) et de Paddy Power Betfair(PPBF) pour la gestion des technologies et desdonnées techniques de sa branche Fixed OddsBetting (FOB).

le gouvernement de macao vient de renforcerses contrôles de sécurité pour les retraits d'argentet a annoncé que les détenteurs de cartes union-Pay devront dorénavant présenter une pièced'identité et se soumettre à une reconnaissancefaciale pour retirer de l'argent liquide.

Crown asia investments vient de conclure unaccord avec Melco Resorts & Entertainment pourle rachat de ses intérêts que Melco Resorts déte-nait toujours.

north ameriCa

US – Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) wasrecently authorised by the Michigan Gaming ControlBoard (MGCB) as a designated test laboratory forthe State of Michigan, effective July 1, 2017.

The MGCB is prepared to receive the test results onelectronic gaming devices or associated equipmentthat GLI submits on behalf of manufacturers andsuppliers. Test results for the following will beaccepted by the State of Michigan: Games andgame variation; Gaming devices and gaming devicemodifications; Gaming associated equipment andgaming associated equipment modifications;Cashless wagering systems and cashless wageringsystem modifications; Inter-casino linked systemsand inter-casino linked system modifications;Mobile gaming systems and mobile gaming systemmodifications and Interactive gaming systems andinteractive gaming system modifications

GLI’s Vice President of Government Relations andGeneral Counsel Kevin P. Mullally said, “We aregrateful for the opportunity to work in a moreintegrated way with the Michigan Gaming ControlBoard. This initiative allows us to combine GLI’sglobal resources with the excellent work of theMGCB staff to assist them in their efforts ofensuring the integrity of gaming.”

north ameriCa

US – Foxwoods Resort Casino, with partnersGreentube Pro, has seen notable growth since theApril 2016 launch of its revamped social gamingplatform. Both parties have since announcedimpressive revenue numbers for the past six-month period as well as a dramatic increase in thenumber of active daily and monthly users.

FoxwoodsONLINE reported a 300 per cent increasein FoxwoodsONLINE’s user database, a 45 per centincrease in gross revenue, a 20 per cent rise in Yearover Year daily active users and 51 per cent rise inYear over Year monthly active users.

“We looked to Greentube to develop a formidablesocial platform that engages players and extendsthe same incredible gaming experience that ourguests have grown to love at our property,” saidSeth Young, Director of Online Gaming for FoxwoodsResort Casino. “We look forward to anotherexcellent year with our partners at Greentube."

FoxwoodsONLINE is powered by Greentube Pro,Greentube’s private-label social casino marketingplatform created by Kenny Huang and his team atBlueBat Games – a Greentube subsidiary. Theplatform allows for in-game marketing capabilitiesvia multiple channels and tracks with the evolutionof modern life including shopping, socialising andmore. The platform is designed to engage playersacross all devices.

The long gestating Baha Mar resortopened to words of great positivityfrom The Bahamas Prime MinisterPerry Christie

bAHAMAS CASINO OPERATIONS

prime minister heralds Baha mar opening

“For many Bahamians, this is more than adream come true. It is the unfolding of a boldvision which I led my Government inundertaking with private sector partners adecade ago,” said Bahamas Prime MinisterPerry Christie at the opening of the $4.2bnintegrated resort.

The casino resort was originally supposed toopen in December 2014 but ran into difficulties.It applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2015following construction delays. Almost two yearslater, Baha Mar Resort was bought by HongKong-based Chow tai Fook Enterprises Limited(CtFE) for a reported US$3.5bn.

The beachfront destination includes three globalbrand operators – Grand Hyatt, SLS, andRosewood – with over 2,300 rooms. Additionalamenities include 40 restaurants and lounges,the largest casino in the Caribbean with over100,000 sq. ft. of gaming space, 200,000 sq. ft.convention center, 18-hole Championship JackNicklaus Golf Course and Golf Club, first ESPAflagship spa in the Caribbean, and over 30

luxury retail outlets. Baha Mar Casino launchesas the largest casino in the Caribbean, boasting100,000sq.ft of gaming space, more than 1,000slot machines, 126 table games, race and sportsbetting, mobile gaming, high roller gamingsalons and restaurants and bars throughout thecasino floor. The casino’s island-inspired designis complemented by natural daylight andbreathtaking pool and ocean views.

Prime Minister Christie added: “Amidst thecomplex and arduous negotiations, myGovernment and I remained focused onachieving three main objectives: Firstly,ensuring immediate remobilisation andresumption of construction, based oncommitted funding sufficient to completeconstruction and to open all parts of the Project;secondly, the opening of the casino, CasinoHotel, Convention Centre, Convention Hotel andGolf Course prior to the end of the 2016-2017winter season; and thirdly, settlement and/orpayment of all valid claims of contractors andsubcontractors, suppliers and employees andother Baha Mar and CCA creditors.”

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The Intralot Group hasappointed John Donahue asCEO of its US venture. Mr.Donahue has 30 years lotteryand gaming experience in theglobal market. His strengthscombine strategic vision withproduct development,technology delivery, as well asoperational and salesexecution. Before coming toIntralot he worked for 10 yearsas MD of the InternationalSystems Division at ScientificGames and previously as Int.Sales Director and NorthernEurope Sales and OperationsVice President for IGt. IntralotGroup CEO AntoniosKerastaris said: “I am thrilledto welcome John as CEO ofIntralot Inc. His proven recordand the breadth of his strategicthinking will be an amazingaddition and asset forIntralot's presence andbusiness growth in NorthAmerica which currentlypresents enormousopportunities.”

Baha Mar, the $4.2bn integrated resort development located along the pristinebeaches of New Providence in the Bahamas, has finally opened its doors

New Jersey has enjoyed awindfall of new tax revenue,Atlantic City has beenrevitalised, and the regulatorysystem has been proven asuccess since the statelegalised and regulated onlinegambling in 2013, according toa new report called RegulatedOnline Gambling: Building AStronger New Jersey.

Carried out byNJOnlineCasinos.com, thereport debunks many of themyths that opponents haveused to argue against regulatedonline gambling — details theoverwhelmingly positive datafrom legalization of onlinegambling in New Jersey.

The benefits include $536.62min total new revenue for casinooperators, $93.91m in direct taxrevenue for the state, more

than 3,300 jobs created orsupported, and successfulimplementation of consumer-protection regulations.

"Sweep aside themisinformation spread byagenda-driven critics and aclear picture emerges:Regulated online gambling inNew Jersey has been adefinitive win for casinos,consumers, and the state," saidChris Grove, a Las Vegas-basedgambling industry expert whoauthored the report.

"Any state looking to NewJersey can draw three clearlessons," Grove added. "First,regulation works. Second, thereis a massive consumer demandfor online products. Finally,online gambling supports thehealth and long-term viabilityof land-based casinos."

Legalised online gambling hasbeen a boon for Atlantic City.In 2016, the iconic destinationposted its first year-over-yearincrease in gambling revenuein 10 years.

Report on New Jerseysweeps aside onlinemyths

new Jersey



OpenBet will provide NZRB withaccess to a first-class FOB engine,used by major wageringorganisations across the world

new zeAlAnD FIXED ODDS BETTING

new Zealand secures FoBT Deal

The New Zealand Racing Board has approvedthe selection of OpenBet (OB, a NYX GamingGroup company) and Paddy Power Betfair(PPBF) to deliver the technology solution andsupporting data for its Fixed Odds Betting (FOB)business.

The investment will enhance NZRB’s currentfixed odds betting business, to meet ever-increasing customer demand and enable NZRBto better compete with international wageringorganisations.

OpenBet will provide NZRB with access to afirst-class FOB engine, used by many of themajor wagering organisations across the world,and partner NZRB with an organisation at theforefront of international wagering growth andinnovation,” says NZRB Chair, Glenda Hughes."Both partner organisations have strengths indigital, sport and in-play wagering, which arethree of the biggest growth opportunities forNZRB.”

“The new FOB offering will complement ouralready competitive tote, putting NZRB in amuch stronger position to manage turnoveracross both products, taking into accountcustomer and channel preferences,” saysHughes.

The new FOB platform is one of a number of keystrategic initiatives - the other initiativesinclude customer and channel improvements,racefields legislation, and a programme tooptimise the racing calendar - that will deliver asignificant lift in annualised Net Profit per yearto racing once fully implemented.

In April, NZRB signalled its confidence in theprogress of these initiatives by announcing itscommitment to deliver some of the futurefunding increase from these initiatives ahead offull implementation. It will do this by providingan additional $24 million over the next twoyears to enhance participation and investmentin racing. This will be specifically targeted atlifting stakes across the three racing codes.

The Board also introduced the $4.77m ofIndustry Enhancement Funds over two and ahalf years to support stakes, infrastructure andyouth development.

“This will see distributions to the industryincreased to a minimum of $148.2 million in2017/18 and 2018/19 from the current baseline,in anticipation of the future financial benefits ofNew Zealand Racing Board’s key strategic workcurrently underway,” commented ChiefExecutive Officer, John Allen.

China

Wynn Palace, the latest resortWynn Resorts has opened inMacau, has boosted first quarterrevenues for the Vegas-basedoperator. The company openedWynn Palace on August 22,2016, with the first quarter of2017 representing the second fullquarter of operations. Netrevenues and Adjusted PropertyEBITDA from Wynn Palace were$475.8m and $111.9m,respectively, for the first quarterof 2017. This contributed to theoperator posting a 47.9 per centincrease in its net revenue acrossthe board. Net revenues came inat $1.48bn for the first quarter of2017, an increase of 47.9 percent. The increase was the resultof $475.8m from Wynn Palaceand an increase of $23.4m fromLas Vegas operations, partiallyoffset by a decrease of $21.2mfrom Wynn Macau.”

The New Zealand Racing Board has approved the selection of OpenBet (an NYXcompany) and Paddy Power Betfair to deliver the technology solution and

supporting data for its Fixed Odds Betting business

CHINA –MGM China saw its revenues increase byseven per cent for the three months ended March31, 2017, with total revenue of HK$3.9bn.

Adjusted EBITDA was up by 23 per cent from a yearago to HK$1.2bn. Property EBITDA margin for thequarter grew 412 basis points year on year to 31.4per cent. Mass business accounted for over 80 percent of the profit for the group during the quarter.

For the quarter, the Group recorded main floor tablegames win of HK$2.2bn, an increase of 17 per centfrom a year ago. This compares to an estimatedgrowth of 12 per cent year over year for Macaumass table GGR. VIP table win at MGM China wasdown seven per cent year from a year ago.

Before Chinese New Year this year, MGM opened anew gaming area on the main floor as part of anoverall remodeling project of MGM Macau. The newgaming area not only offers premium mass playersadditional gaming tables, but also provides betterconnectivity and visibility on the gaming floor.

PHILIPPINES – JCM Global has appointed JadeEntertainment and Gaming Technologies as aninternational distributor/authorized service center.

Jade will provide local support and service for JCMproducts throughout the Philippines, meaning JCMcustomers can now contact Jade for service andrepair locally. Jade will also provide onsite service asrequired and implement a preventativemaintenance program cycle with customers.

Jade will support JCM’s iVIZION and uBA billvalidators, its line of FutureLogic printers, and JCM’sICB Intelligent Cash Box system. Additionally, Jadewill represent and assist JCM in bidding on newcasino contracts in the region and be a distributor ofJCM products as required.

JCM General Manager of Asia-Pacific Ian Paynesaid: “JCM Global is known universally for world-class service that seamlessly accompanies ourindustry-leading products. We are very pleased toannounce this new service and support agreementwith Jade Entertainment and Gaming TechnologiesInc., and to bring our customers throughout thePhilippines even easier access to our top-linesupport.”

Jade Entertainment and Gaming Technologies Inc.CEO Joe Pisano said “We are very pleased toassociate ourselves with JCM Global, JCM Globalprovides an extensive line of award winningproducts and we look forward to providing the JCMcurrent and future Customers with local supportservices.”

asia & oCeania

The Macau government istaking security checks formoney withdrawals up anotch, announcing thatUnionPay AtM cardholderswill now need to present IDcards and take part in facialrecognition to withdrawmoney.

The move has caused someconcern that the casino sectorwill be affected. UnionPay isChina's main paymentnetwork.

JPMorgan said: "We do notexpect the actual impact on[gaming] demand to be verymeaningful, as there still are

many other ‘channels’ – atleast for now – that can helpplayers/junkets to get cash inMacau, via pawnshops forexample. That said, we can’trule out any potential impacton 'player psychology', as someplayers/junkets may feelreluctant to use AtM cardsgiven increased identitychecks, so any progress in thisarea warrants close monitoringin our view."

Nomura said: "History tells usthat, while there could be anear-term blip in middle-market mass gaming revenues,Chinese gamblers are veryresourceful in trying to movemoney out of the mainland.”

Daiwa added: “This latestdevelopment does dampen theprospects of achieving theStreet’s much-higher growthtrajectory in 2017.”

Macau stepping up ATMsecurity with facialrecognition

China

Crown Resorts has nowcompletely exited the Macaucasino sector, selling off itsremaining shares in Melco CrownEntertainment

cHinA CASINO OPERATIONS

Crown resorts exits macau market Crown Asia Investments has completed itsagreement with Melco Resorts & Entertainmentfor the repurchase of its remaining interest inMelco Resorts. Under the RepurchaseAgreement, CAI has sold 165.3m Melco Resortsordinary shares which represents 11.2 per cent ofMelco Resorts ordinary shares for a price ofUS$7.04 per Melco Resorts ordinary share.

Crown Resorts no longer holds an interest inMelco Resorts and consequently, the company isno longer be entitled to a seat on the MelcoResorts Board, with Robert Rankin havingresigned as a non-executive director of MelcoResorts.” Melco has since rebranded thecompany Melco Resorts and Entertainment.

Melco’s Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho said:“It is with great pride that I look back over thepast decade and recognise all that we haveachieved in partnership with Crown Resorts atMelco. This transaction brings to conclusion theworld’s most successful global gamingpartnership, highlighting our ability to work

with partners in both good times and morechallenging operating environments. I wouldlike to personally offer my sincere thanks to Mr.James Packer and Crown Resorts for being agreat friend and partner for the past decade.

“Looking forward, I am extremely excited aboutthe company’s future. Our World-class anddynamic management team and innovative andmarket-leading integrated resorts place us in anexceptional position to continue our evolutioninto the leading premium-focused, integratedresort developer and operator in the World.

“Despite our positive history with Crown, Imade the strategic decision to terminate thejoint venture arrangement and allow Melco topursue Japan alone. This highlights ourconfidence in, and commitment to, identifyingand evaluating new markets which will drivelong term shareholder value while contributingto the development of tourism and deliveringother economic benefits for our host citieswhere we operate.”

Japan

Las Vegas Sands CEO SheldonAdelson believes the operatoris in the strongest position towin one of the licenses tooperate an Integrated Resortcasino in Japan. Mr. Adelsonsaid: "We have been informedby people in the know in Japanthat Las Vegas Sands is by far,not just marginally, ahead ofthe other competition to get theintegrated resort approval.”

He sees the company’s successin the Singapore casino marketwith Marina Bay Sands as beingintegral to this belief. Heexplained: “We’re the largestgaming and integrated resortcompany in the world, by far.Our market cap equals orexceeds all the other Las Vegascompanies combined. We arethe MICE operators, and all ofour properties are MICE-based.When we built The VenetianMacao, we put in an800,000sq.ft of exhibitionspace, and, save for the CantonFair facility, we're the biggestfacility. We were the biggestfacility in China, the country of1.3bn people. So where wouldemerging markets look to? Ofcourse, they'll look to us first.”

asia & oCeania

Philippines

PAGCoR incomes rise 27 per cent in 2017

PAGCOR, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, has seen its netincome increase by 26.9 per cent increase for the first quarter of 2017,reaching P1.3bn (US$26.3m).

GGR saw a similar increase, reaching P14bn and a year-on-yearimprovement of 26.7 per cent. PAGCOR Chairperson Andrea Domingo saidthe increase was due to ‘newly implemented in-house efficiencymeasures. “We introduced more effective revenue monitoring systems,”she said. 2We also made several reassignments of general managers andbranch managers. Of course, it is worth telling that there are moreparticipatory management practices, constant communication betweencorporate offices and branches. We are now earning more money from ourown casinos than we did before.”

PAGCOR operates 46 sites throughout the country. Its estate includes 565gaming tables and 10,271 EGMs at Casino Filipino venues. It is also aregulator for a further 10 private-sector casinos that operated anaggregate of 1,280 gaming tables and 7,205 EGMs.

It will look to sell off its casinos and will invite bids from the private sectorby the end of 2017. The country’s Finance Secretary confirmed he is notaware yet of any expressions of interest.

CHINA – Gaming revenue at Macau operator SJMHoldings fell by 5.3 per cent in the first quarter of2017 to HK$10,389m. Profit, however, increasedby 3.3 per cent over Q1 2016 to HK$580m. Theincrease was mainly due to increase in massmarket gaming revenue. The Group’s gamingrevenue accounted for 16.9 per cent of Macau’scasino gaming revenue during Q1 2017, ascompared with 20.2 per cent in Q1 2016.

The Group maintained a strong and liquid financialposition, with HK$12,662m of cash, bank balancesand pledged bank deposits and HK$503m of debtas at 31 March 2017. The Grand Lisboa Palace, theGroup’s integrated resort on Cotai continued tomake progress on construction in Q1 2017.

During the first quarter, the Group’s VIP gamingrevenue was HK$4,936m, a decrease of 12 percent from HK$5,607m in Q1 2016. Mass marketgaming revenue was HK$5,196m, an increase of1.9 per cent from HK$5,099m and slot machine(and Tombola) revenue was HK$257 million, adecrease of 3.7 per cent from HK$267m. During Q12017, the Group operated an average of 315 VIPgaming tables, 1,375 mass market gaming tablesand 2,549 slot machines.

Dr. Ambrose So, CEO of SJM, said: “SJM’s firstquarter results saw a resumption of growth in massmarket gaming revenue, quarter-to-quarter andyear-on-year, which resulted in an increase inAdjusted EBITDA and an improvement in AdjustedEBITDA Margin for the period (exclusive of 4Q 2016one-off items). Our Grand Lisboa Palace project onCotai continues to make great progress andremains on budget.”


CAMBoDIA – Virtue Resources and VR CapitalHolding Sdn Bhd, a Vietnamese investment firm,plans to build a massive $200 million mixed-usedevelopment that includes a hotel, casino andwater park in the dusty Cambodian border town ofBavet through its fully-owned Malaysian subsidiary.

The first phase of the project, dubbed Empire WorldCity, will be constructed on approximately 50hectares of land and is headed by Vietnam’s VirtueResources which operates through its subsidiaryVR Capital Holding Sdn Bhd, a company withmining interests in Malaysia and a hoteldevelopment on the Vietnamese island of PhuQuoc. The company is known to have signed twoagreements in April, one worth $200m with theglobal architectural firm 3Ti Progetti Asia Ltd, andthe other worth $50m to purchase the land fromCambodian landowners Mao Vanny and ChounBony. The project is set to be fully completed in 10years and would also act as an online casino hub forthe region

Nine straight months of revenuegrowth would suggest the worst isbehind them for the casinooperators of Macau

cHinA CASINO OPERATIONS

nine months of Growth in macau

Gross Gaming Revenue in Macau has increasedby 16.3 per cent year-on-year in April, reachingMOP$20.16bn up from MOP$17.3bn in April lastyear. The 2017 total has so far increased by 13.8per cent whilst April marked the third straightmonth that the market has outpacedpredictions.

Union Gaming’s Grant Govertsen said: “With thebeginning of May representing a Chinese publicholiday (Labour Day), we expect strong GGRgrowth to be maintained. We are currentlyforecasting 15 per cent growth in May, followedby 17 per cent growth in June. Heading into 3Qwe expect the GGR growth rate to moderate intothe mid-teens, and then into the low doubledigits in 4Q. Heading into the summer monthswe are also looking for a somewhat sharpershift in GGR geographical mix. With the benefitof new supply Cotai now constitutes a majorityof Macau-wide GGR.”

Wynn Resorts recently posted a Q1 revenueincrease of 47.9 per cent with CEO Steve Wynnkeen to highlight the role of the rebounding VIPsector. He said: “The suppression of the VIP

market was something that was the resultorganically of a process that the administrationof President Xi Jinping thought was appropriatefor the country, the elimination of corruption.And it had secondary effects on high-endproducts like shopping, and automobiles, andgaming was part of that. But having made acorrective move in China there comes a pointwhen the corrective move finishes. Andalthough corruption is still a major item, theimpact has softened, because so much of thework that had to be done, was done.

Ciaran Carruthers, CEO of Wynn Macau, added:“We are very cautiously optimistic in terms ofhow the business in the VIP side is goingmoving forward. We've obviously seen somegood growth over the last quarter. The initial,early signs are out that that's going to besustainable in the short period. For how longthat can be sustained really is too early to tell.I'd like to see another quarter or two of somegood solid growth. The upside of course is thatwith properties like ours we obviously benefitthe most in the marketplace being thatpreeminent product for service and luxury.”

Results continue to improve for casino operations in Macau, despite the increasedcompetition from new resort openings, with analysts optimistic for the future

SAIPAN – Imperial Pacific International will beallowed an extra ten months to build its permanentcasino, the Imperial Pacific Resort in Saipan.

The Commonwealth of the Northern MarianaIslands (CNMI) Lottery Commission approved theamendment to its Casino License Agreementmoving the deadline to August 2018.

It also approved an extension for the company’stemporary casino, Best Sunshine Live, which hasbeen given the same extended deadline as the builddeadline.

The Head of the Commission Mark O Rabaulimansaid: “We’ve moved forward with the extensionbased on a the public comments, made, those whoare in support, and the concerns raised in themeeting. There are a lot of livelihood that’s tied intoit. We’ve come this far on the progress ImperialPacific had made, just to immediately yank itwithout further thoughts put forth, to me seemsirresponsible.”

Imperial Pacific blamed ‘severe damage toconstruction equipment from Typhoon Soudelorthat took several months to repair; adverse weatherconditions making tower cranes inoperable,unstable soil conditions causing damage to pilingsthat were driven into the ground; a lack of readilyavailable skilled laborers; an overabundance ofwater at the construction site delaying the pouringof the concrete foundation; lack of necessaryconstruction materials.’

asia & oCeania

PAGCOR, the PhilippinesAmusement and GamingCorporation, has granted agaming licence to UdennaCorp. who will now build aUS$300m casino resort on thePhilippines island of Cebu.

Philippine-based UdennaCorp, said construction wouldstart in the next three monthson a 12 hectare beachfrontproperty located around 6kmfrom the main internationalairport. The casino, retailcomplex and hotels will openin 2019. By 2022, villas, privateresidences, a convention centreand a skydiving centre locatedon a purpose built pier.

Dennis Uy, President and CEOof Udenna said: “Lapu-LapuLeisure Mactan only marks thebeginning of our vision of a

world-class leisure, residentialand commercial destination inCentral Visayas. We see thisintegrated development takinga major role in bringing thePhilippines on a par with theregion’s premier destinationsfor leisure, gaming andmeetings as well as forcommercial and residentialinvestments.”

Mr. Uy contributed P30m(US$600,783) to PhilippinePresident Rodrigo Duterteelection campaign, promptingspeculation that the licence islinked to the contributions.

PAGCOR Chief AndreaDomingo has denied this,saying the businessman passedall the processes required. FirstMetro Investment Corp.Assistant Vice-PresidentCristina S. Ulang said: “Theventure is ‘the latest andstrongest endorsement of thegaming industry by the Duterteadministration. The Udennainvestment puts Cebu on theAsian gaming map.”

Philippine focus turnsto Cebu with $300mcasino approval

Philippines

vanuatu

Zagame Corporation is hopingto sell its Grand Hotel & Casinoresort in Vanuatu for US$25m. The eight-story, 74 roomwaterfront hotel overlooks PortVila Harbour and Iririki Island. Itincludes a restaurant, four bars,conference rooms, and a poolwhilst the casino boasts 136 slotmachines, 15 gaming tables, anda VIP gaming room.

Rob Cross of CBRE Hotels incharge of the sale said: “We’reexpecting considerable interest,predominantly from Australianand New Zealand investors. Thecampaign provides anopportunity to acquire the besthotel and casino in Vanuatu,which is currently owneroperated but is being offeredwith vacant possession. Whilethe hotel and casino has enjoyedtrading growth in recent years,the introduction of aprofessional managementcompany with a strong brandreputation could lead to furthertrading upside.”


AUSTRALIA – NextGen Gaming, the Sydney-based game development subsidiary of NYXGaming Group, has launched ARC, a newproprietary technology which enhances speed tomarket for third-party content delivery.

NextGen’s proprietary Game Development Module(GDM) provides end-to-game development anddeployment capabilities, allowing third-partycontent developers to focus on as little or as muchof the game development process as they choose.With the advent of ARC, external developers cannow interface intimately with GDM to deploy theirown servers and preferred client game engineframework, without the need for expensive andtime consuming external middleware. Thus,completed games can be delivered to operators viaNYX Gaming Group’s Open Gaming System (OGS)and other platforms in the quickest time possible.

ARC offers the flexibility to deliver games viavarying API’s and programming languages, whilstbringing bespoke server and client technologytogether, allowing for more freedom than traditionalgame deployment methods.


InsightHiPPoDroMe lonDonECA Dealer Championship 2017

Hippodrome hosts the ‘bestever’ ECA dealer championship

Organised by the European CasinoAssociation (ECA) in conjunctionwith uK’s National Casino Forum,the 2017 championships took placefrom 8th – 10th May in the heart ofLondon’s capital, a first in thecompetition’s 11-year history.Hosted within the historic formerHippodrome theatre which datesback to 1900, The HippodromeCasino provided a compellingbackdrop for the prestigiouscompetition, as Europe’s dealer elitebattled it out to be recognised as thebest in the business.

Simon Thomas, CEO of TheHippodrome Casino, commented:“Our goal was to make this year’sevent bigger and better thananything that has come before.We’ve had six months plotting andplanning, and brought forwardmodifications to the Hippodrome,where we combined two gamingrooms into one, gaining listedbuilding consent to remove a wall tocreate an amazing space. Weinitially thought about running theevent in our theatre, but realisedthat to offer a world-classexperience, we needed the theatrefor entertainment and dining, and sobrought forward the changes to thebuilding to create a large, private,gaming area on the third floor, whichhas worked very well.

"Our aim was to show that the uKcasino industry is not just as goodas everyone else, but better,"continued Mr. Thomas. "We havebeen delighted with the feedbackand reaction we have had, knowingthat the contestants and theirsupporters have had a great time inLondon. We're proud to have hostedthe EDC and to have welcomedsome of the most talented dealersin the world to the Hippodrome.”

european Dealer Championships– 2017 winning contestants

l EDC 2017 winner: Antra Gaike –Latvia – Olympic Voodoo Casino

l 1st Runner up: Gilbert Ho KangJou – Holland – Holland Casino

l 2nd Runner up: David Luijten –The Netherlands – HollandCasino

l Maths Master: Jamie Cummins –uK – The Ritz Club

l Chipping Champion: SigneGintere – Latvia – OlympicVoodoo Casino

Antra Gaike from Olympic Voodoo Casino, Latvia has been crowned Europe’s leading dealer,following a closely fought contest at this year’s European Dealer Championship (EDC)

which took place at The Hippodrome Casino, Leicester Square.

“For the ECA, the European Dealer Championship is always a fantastic forum todemonstrate the great skill and talent of the thousands of employees in the casinoindustry across Europe. The EDC competitors once again showed great finesse,delivering a fascinating competition.”Per Jaldung, European Casino Association Chair

InsightHiPPoDroMe lonDon

ECA Dealer Championship 2017

“Giving the dealers the opportunity toshine and show their skills at a

networking event that emphasisescollaboration between different countries

is amazing. There’s a lot of kudos andprestige to winning this championship,

but it’s also fun. This is a competitiveindustry, but it’s also predominantly fun.

Our goal is to make the EDC the WorldDealer Championship in the near future.”

Tracy Damestani, Chief Executive,National Casino Forum.


Joanna Matusiak-Torbinska, Casinos Poland

David Luijten, Holland Casino

"It's been a fantastic event and a wonderful celebration of the skill anddedication of those working in our profession. It has been a pleasure towelcome the industry to the uK and host an event that has not onlybonded the industry together as a whole, but brought together all thedepartments within the Hippodrome to deliver the 'best ever' EuropeanDealer Championship!"Murat Salih, Floor Manager, The Hippodrome Casino

Jamie Cummins, The Ritz Club,

Mayfair


frustrated by our inability to devote enough time to casino management system innovations at thelatest ICE Totally Gaming show in London, G3 asked five of the world’s leading independent systems

experts for their top technology picks. Each has been asked to describe in detail one piece ofoutstanding systems technology to highlight in a feature that includes DRGT, Win Systems,

TCSJohnHuxley, Certus Technologies and Comtrade Gaming.

the top 5 hottest tech solutionsCasino Management Systems


cMS Top 5 Hottest Tech

Eric Benchimol is a co-founder of the company.As Chief Executive Officer he is responsible forstrategy and policy, operations and dailymanagement of the company.

Benchimol has considerable corporatemanagement and financial experience gained inthe global gaming market and informationtechnology sectors. He is a member of the

board of directors of the Company.

He graduated in Economics and BusinessAdministration, holds a Masters Degree inEconomic and International Finance, and apost-graduate title in International Trade – allfrom the University of Barcelona, Spain. He hasmore than 20 years of experience in the Lotteryand Gaming sector.

Intellia is an innovative business intelligencesolution integrating hardware and proprietarysoftware. Developed for key casinomanagement, it enables them to make real-timedecisions on casino floor issues, and simplifies adynamic environment into easily interpretabledata and visuals.

The Intellia system operates on tablets andhandheld devices, which are fed with vastamounts of live data from various informationgathering devices on the casino floor, including3D infrared scanners, positional beacons, andintegrated gaming machines.

The data gathered by these creates an immersivevirtual environment, helping casinomanagement to ensure a smooth running of thecasino floor. A graphical floor representation,bespoke to each casino, shows the location ofindividuals and their playing data, as well asmachine performance. Supplemented by heatmaps showing general footfall and live locationof floor runners, management are able to haveall necessary information required in an easy-to-use handheld device.

The key lies in the integrated dispatchingmodule that allows the operator to takeimmediate action. All of the data combinedenables the management to make moreefficient, faster marketing decisions to improve

the user experience for specific high-valueplayers, boosting retention rates and drivingrevenues in the process. This is supplemented bythe ability to micro-manage individual runnersdependent on their floor position, so machineincidents are dealt with more quickly, greatlydecreasing downtime.

With so much key information fed into theIntellia app, its front-end has been developedwith design as a priority. The app hosts anintuitive dashboard, showcasing all incominginformation from the gaming floor into easy-to-interpret widgets, ensuring the decision-makingprocess is as clear as possible.

No other product on the market has similarfunctionality and depth of information in oneplace, and it is this combination of big data andergonomic-build which benefits the casino.

It’s ability to highlight valuable customers fasterand with less resource leads to more accurate,specific bonuses. In turn, this will create morecontent, loyal customers, improving the returnon marketing investment.

Ultimately, Intellia streamlines the individualmanagement of customers and incidents,enabling casino personnel to utilise theirexperience where it is needed more - thegeneral running of the casino.

Intellia

“No other product on the market hassimilar functionality and depth ofinformation in one place, and it is thiscombination of big data andergonomic-build which benefits the casino”

Win Systems is a leading technologysupplier providing management solutions,electronic roulette an slot machines to thecasino and lottery industries.

Offering best-in-class managementsystems, gaming machines and an easilyintegrated end-to-end service, WinSystems is the go-to supplier for allgaming requirements.

Win Systems has grown to operate inmore than 60 countries across the world,with a multi-channel offering acrosshundreds of estates of different sizes andwithin various regulatory jurisdictions.

Win Systems is the trendsetter for thegaming technology sector and ourproducts will shape the future of thecasino environment.

Win systems

Insight

eric benchimol, Chief Executive officer, Win Systems


InsightcMS Top 5 Hottest Tech

Franz Lechner, Senior R&D Director, with hisextensive industry experience, is well known inthe gaming market as a technology leader.

He studied Electrical Engineering and Telematicsat the Technical University in Graz.

Franz' first steps in the job market were as ahardware and software developer for motioncontrol applications, quickly moving to head ofdevelopment in the conveying industry company.

Back in 1996 Franz started working in thegaming industry, always involved in thedevelopment of advanced products for themarket, these have included managementsystems, a roulette reader and several card-based cashless systems, just a few of the manywhere Franz has left his mark.

DR Gaming Technology (DRGTTM) is anindependent, global supplier of integrated casinomanagement solutions for the gaming industry.Founded in 2007, DRGT acquired Austrian basedSystems In Progress (SIP) in 2012.Headquartered in Aalst Belgium with offices inSouth Africa, Malta, Peru, Austria and Colombia.Our innovative, forward thinking, flexible systemproducts, allow our server-less technology togreatly simplify implementation and gives ourcustomers total management control over theirentire casino operation.

Along with management systems, DRGT has acomprehensive range of flexible jackpotproducts, proving to be a huge successful acrossthe world, offering a huge-range of customizablefeatures. Our tailored jackpots can be configuredas standalone mysteries to multi-level symboldriven wide area progressives (WAP) andeverything in between.

Recently added to out product line, a range oftable side games, to increase the excitement ontable game classics. These fast hitting sidegames add to the thrill of multi level progressiveand mysteries jackpots, linked throughout acasino or across multiple properties.

Franz lechner, Senior R&D Director, DRGT

One of DRGts aims has always been to empower ourcustomers with the best tools to be able to reach outand communicate with players in the best waypossible whether that be in the operation at the slots,through social media or signage.

At G2E Asia this year DRGt launched the latestevolution of player tracking interface, drScreenUltra,it is a stunning 1280 x 320 resolution 8.8-inch(23.8cm) multi-touch display.

The product team, did a lot of research to come upwith the new custom screen size, to find a solutionthat fits all historic and current slots and come upwith the biggest player tracking display in gamingtoday.

The large, crisper display gives operators betterconnectivity with their customers with a moreappealing portal to interact with players, whilst givingplayers a richer experience at the slots. The deviceallows the usual player tracking features such as, realtime tracking points and tier level updatenotifications, live bonus and promotional messagingdirect to the players at the slot. Its also allows playersto watch and listen to the big match, favourite tVserial or music video whilst playing the machine.

The new device opens up a whole new world ofopportunities to excite and delight players in thecasino with a fantastic array of new interactivefeatures, including a suite bonus games.

The unit incorporates hi-definition dual speakers forcrisp clear stereo sound from the player tracking unit

and a dedicated headphone socket for the player to beable to immerse them selves in the gamingexperience, whilst enjoying their favourite mediacontent undisturbed.

All of these enhancements add a further level ofengagement whilst the player is on the machine,increasing the time on device and enjoyment in thevenue.

But this device is not just an improved screen; theevolution really starts under the skin.

drScreenUltra, incorporates a built-in RFID readerbehind the screen. This same technology allowsplayers to simply tap their card on the designated areaof the display to start their gaming session, as easilyas they would make a contactless transactionpayment with a debit card or mobile phone.

This technology is backwards compatible with DRGt’sexisting cashless and player tracking RFID cards foran easy upgrade. More importantly, it is forwardcompatible with smart phones and other RFIDdevices, giving operator the ability to think beyondtodays card based accounts. By opening up directaccess to the player through casino smartphonesapplication, it opens the door to huge possibilities foroperators, from linking player accounts to theirfavourite social media platforms seamlessly, givingoperators the power to communicate with the playerswith updates and offers directly to the player’s, mediaof choice, or even becoming the bridge between andoperators land based and online casinos with onedevice to link them together.

drScreenUltra

drgt

“The new deviceopens up a wholenew world ofopportunities toexcite and delightplayers in thecasino with afantastic array ofnew interactivefeatures, includinga suite bonusgames.”



Kurt Quartier, born in Ostend, Belgium,developed a passion for the gaming businessin 1990 when joining Sun City, in South Africa.

Having held several management positionswith Sun International, he moved to Greece in1995 to join Casino Magic, a US basedoperator, to open the first privately ownedcasino resort in Greece. Here he becameOperations Manager, responsible for both theHotel and Casino side of the business.

In 1997, he embarked on a 14-year career with

IGT, which saw him become VP – InternationalCasino Markets, responsible for the overallbusiness in Europe, Africa, Latin America andAsia. After a few years consulting to PremierOperators and Suppliers, Kurt joined CertusTechnologies in 2016 as Chief CommercialOfficer to prepare the launch of The ConnectedCasino™.

The new venture sees him working togetherwith Certus Technologies Co-Founder and CTOJean-Louis Fiorucci, a longtime friend andfellow gaming industry veteran.

Kurt Quartier, Chief Commercial officer, Certus Technologies

Certus technologies has developed TheConnected Casino, a disruptive approachcompared to traditional Casino CRMs built onupdated technologies.

Our architecture is fully cloud-based. You avoidheavy infrastructure costs and of localinfrastructure and our solution providesaffordable scalability depending on theevolution of your needs. Installation is fast andmaintenance is easier. We not only do awaywith expensive server infrastructure but alsoradically reduce the cost of in-machinehardware.

We believe the model of building proprietarysystems hardware to make money out ofhardware sales is outdated. We instead focus ona more customer-friendly Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) pricing model. Price is no longer abarrier to changing your old legacy casinosystem, and we can connect your floor whetherit consists of high-earning casino games, VLt’sor even AWP’s at an acceptable cost.

The Connected Casino features a fully updatedCasino CRM delivering full operational andregulatory process management, importantly itincludes unique Anti-Money Laundering andResponsible Gaming features. The system ismulti-site with cross-site functionality acrossall services including tito. All processes run in asingle application with user defined access. Thisensures easy updates and ensures the entiresystem is on the same version. Want to use anAndroid tablet to manage your floor? Oursoftware allows it!

Our Big Data approach offers outstanding Real-time Analytics from gaming and non-gaminginputs. You get a better understanding of your

floor and analyze how your business isimpacted by external influences like weather,currency fluctuations etc…

Our patented Marketing Automation Engineallows you to deliver promotions based on real-time events with flexible prize delivery optionsand an a fully integrated progressive engine. Youdefine the parameters of your promotion, andthe system delivers it automatically based onwhat is currently happening on your floor! Ourreal-time capability allows you to stay on top ofyour budget and get an updated campaign’s costat any time!

Communication with players is improved viaour fully integrated mobile app, which not onlyreplaces the loyalty card but incorporates a fullprofit center with wallet and passbookfunctionality. Our polymorphic marketingapproach allows you to connect to the player atany time and any place. Whether a player wantto take part in a draw whilst he’s at home, needsdriving directions to the casino, book a parkingspot or hotel room, or access points, promotionsor even cash, the app will take care of all thoseneeds.

Being on the cloud allows the app to be fullyintegrated to social media and feature fullintegration with social gaming, finally enablingreal convergence with on-line gaming.

Finally, The Connected Casino offers fullintegration to our suite of Retail, Parking andMobility (eg taxi) services so that a casino canconnect with their customers in ways neverbefore imagined.

The Connected Casino, updating your customerexperience now!

Certus technologies sarl

The Connected Casino

“Being on the cloudallows the app to be

fully integrated tosocial media and

feature full integrationwith social gaming,

finally enabling realconvergence with

online gaming.”

Certus Technologies SARL was foundedby Jean-Louis Fiorucci and the Tranchantfamily. Jean-Louis had previously beenthe founder of Micro Clever Consulting asystems company based in Nice, that wasacquired by Bally Technologies in 2003and is still marketed by them today.

The company was created following astrategic partnership with French GamingOperators, Groupe Tranchant who hadidentified the need to establish a newstandard of interacting with, andmarketing to, their customers.

The company focused on deploying newtechnologies used in the digital world andenhancing them with our decades ofgaming experience.

The partnership with Groupe Tranchantafforded Certus Technologies the luxury tofully develop and deploy The ConnectedCasino before going to market in February2017.



Aleš Gornjec founded the Comtrade Group'sgaming division and serves as ComtradeGaming's General Manager. Comtrade Gaming is an independent softwaresupplier to the gaming industry that deliversopen gaming platforms, casino managementsystems and professional services to both onlineand land-based sectors.

Comtrade Gaming is a high-end softwareand technology supplier to the gamingindustry delivering open platforms, sytemsand services for land-based and onlinesectors.

Comtrade Gaming's strengths are the

development of technology solutionsbased on industry standards andlegislative requirements. The company'sproduct portfolio includes igamingplatforms, server-based gaming systemsand mobile gaming products that cater toregulators, opreators and vendors.

Aleš Gornjec, General Manager, Comtrade Gaming

One of the most prominent characteristics of themodern casino are simplified processes for operatorsand gaming experiences that immerse players ingameplay. A single solution is used to the advantageof both players and casino management, utilisingadvanced features to drive land-based businessforward. time consuming floor management is nowrestructred with a streamlined and intellientmanagement system that modifies gaming content,centralised control of the venue and valuable in-depth reports to help optimise internal processes.Compared to traditional gaming operations,technology-supported gaming offers greater potentialto offer tailored experiences based on advancedvenue analytics.

sCore - Gaming Management System is ComtradeGaming's solution to optimising and enhancing land-based gaming operations. The system additionincludes monitoring software to provide centralcontrol and gaming operation management.Comprehensive and modular, the system controls andadministers EGM/VLt machine functions, monitorsgaming activity and streamlines control processesregardless of location and system intricacy. Thesystem supports any communication protocol (G2S,QCOM, SAS, etc..) depending on desired productfunctionalities and meter configurations. It's multi-protocol environment support offers unrivaledflexibility, future-proof and resilience-tailored tohandle complex multi-vendor gaming operations.

Extensive business summaries and adjustable reportsare used by high-level management to review andassess business activity including: identifyingstrengths, areas in need of improvement andproviding guidelines to meet milestones along thebusiness road map. Proactive responses to accurateand relevant information is what differentiatesleading operators from lesser-known competitors.When evaluating content reports, game statistics canbe customised based on dozens of variables, rangingfrom game metrics to suppliers, product type, gametitles and channels.

Reporting modules unite technology andmanagement strategy and enable operators tooptimise data-supported business operations. Quality

management information is the non-negotiablevenue addition that managers demand to makeimpactful business decisions.

One system addition simultaneously hits threebusiness points to enhance an operator's competitiveadvantage: business intelligence, secure gamingoperation and remote management.

BUSIneSS ColleCTIonl Real-time monitoring and data collection provides

key information about the gaming operation andsupports multiple forms of automatic alerts withrelated details available through online access toad-hoc reports, automatically generated reports,real-time data, dashboard applications andaccounting figures

l Dynamic reporting mechanism that enables drill-down analysis with business intelligenceapplications including terminal performance andoperation-centric systems

l Ad-hoc reports are customised and adjusted basedon multiple-variables to understand the playerjourney, optimise system deficiencies and verifythat certain strategies fit within the venue'sbusiness model.

SeCUre GaMInG operaTIonl Extensive verification modules ensure software

compliance and includes configuration andsoftware verification data and managingvertification vectors

l Applications embedded into the central systemenable comprehensive evaluation, inspection andvalidation of collected data

reMoTe ManaGeMenTl Software downloads distribute software packages

and hardware system components to EGMs andconsist of repository imports, verifications andterminal-related functionality installations

l Include system engineering with remotediagnostics and maintenance to reduce downtimeand create effecient cost reduction strategies

sCore: Gaming Management System

“one systemadditionsimultaneouslyhits three businesspoints to enhancean operator'scompetitiveadvantage:businessintelligence,secure gamingoperation andremotemanagement.”

Comtrade


Nick French is Development Director forTCSJohnHuxley since he joined the company in2012. He heads up the Development Divisionbased in York, where he has been focused ondeveloping the server based solution – GamingFloor Live – which with TCSJohnHuxley’scommitment to R&D, is leading the way in thissector. With over 25 years’ experience insoftware and hardware development, Nick hasspent the last 17 years devoted to Server BasedGaming. This included developing threegenerations of server based platforms forcompanies such as Gala, Genting and Sun Int.

nick French, Development Director, TCSJohnHuxley

tCSJohnHuxley’s heritage is firmly fixed in livetable gaming, developing some of the industry’sbenchmark products including the ChipperChamp 2, Mk 7 and Saturn Roulette Wheels ande-FX winning number displays, in addition tomanufacturing beautiful handcrafted gamingtables and accessories.

For the last few years however, the company hasinvested heavily not only in developing productsit has been known for, but increasingly in serverbased technology. A new division was set up inYork to focus on providing a technologyplatform that offers real-time resilient eventcollection and redistribution. A series ofmodules providing optimisation, bonusing,media and electronic gaming solutions has beendeveloped for the platform.

The introduction of Gaming Floor Live (GFL) hasrevolutionised table gaming by offering a trulyserver based gaming platform that waspreviously only open to operators through theirslot systems. With GFL there is only one serverthat provides the central administration of thesystem. Through a range of highly flexible andconfigurable modules, the server not onlydelivers all the game content (for terminals) andbonusing (for progressives), for example, butalso handles financial transactions andreporting. (For electronic gaming, GFL iscompatible with SAS and other third partyloyalty systems). The most obvious advantage tothe operator is security with a single database,as the logic is locked away and there is noopportunity for outside manipulation orinterference.

Another major advantage is that investment ininfrastructure is hugely reduced as is the cost ofownership. With the need for only one server,operators can now try out and add new moduleswithout having to invest in additionalinfrastructure, the only extra costs are in thehardware gaming devices. This providesoperators with a future proof system as there isno need to reinvest in infrastructure if they wishto upgrade, Gaming Floor Live allows them tojust add and compliment what the already have.

This results in technicians needing very littletraining to become familiar with new modules,as the base platform and infrastructure remainsthe same with training being limited andfocused to only the new features being added.

tCSJohnHuxley has always worked closely withoperators developing custom products andservices, but with Gaming Floor Live’s centralserver system this is quicker and easier thanever before. Since its introduction, operatorssuch as tsogo Sun in South Africa havebenefited from being able to offer progressivebonusing options and games designed to theirown requirements, seeing the largest everjackpot won in their casinos, as well as over1000 tables at The Venetian in Macau, runningthe Optimisation module to optimise dealerprocedures and game play.

The latest product to be added to the GFLplatform is Qorex, Electronic Gaming Solutions.Powered by the GFL Gaming module, the Qorexrange of products provide unlimited electronicgaming solutions consisting of terminal, fixedand portable touch screen devices. Launched inlate 2016, Qorex terminals have already beeninstalled at The Hippodrome and GrosvenorCasinos in the UK, with further installations inthe coming months.

Qorex provides all the usual benefits ofelectronic gaming, but connected to GFL it candeliver far greater advantages. Operators canremotely see what is going on in all theterminals, since the game is being played on thecentral server and not on the terminal, whilstadding games and other content is easy as thereis a central repository.

The GFL platform continues to provide apowerful tool for operators with the possibilitiesof reporting, only restricted to what thecustomer wants it to do. The Gaming Floor Liveplatform has endless capabilities that aredriving tCSJohnHuxley’s development ofproducts and services. These are exciting timesand the future of live gaming is being deliveredright now!

Gaming Floor live

“Tsogo Sun in South Africa have benefited frombeing able to offer progressive bonusing options andgames designed to their own requirements, seeingthe largest ever jackpot won in their casinos”

TCSJOHNHUXLEY is the world’s leadingmanufacturer and supplier of end-to-endlive gaming solutions and services. Withan emphasis on leading edge technology,the product portfolio underpins thecompany’s commitment to businesspartnerships, innovation and growth.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY is positioned for growthhaving listened to our customers andinvested in infrastructure, products andpeople. We continue to create teams thatare driving research and development andfocusing the product direction goingforward.

With strategically based offices all overthe world to provide personal service,after-sales service and technical supportTCSJOHNHUXLEY are actively committedto delivering customer focused innovativesolutions.

tCsJohnhuxley

Insight

What is your assessment of the 2015-2016financial year?

2016 was a year of transition in more ways thanone. We have embarked on a major strategicrefocusing as we have sold nine casinos and wehave chosen to invest in digital communicationand new mobile media.

We have also noticed still significant differencesin attendance between casinos, some of whichhave been impacted by the effects of theterrorist attacks, such as Cannes or Nice andconsequently Lille and Deauville. In thiscontext, the year was marked by a stabilizationof GGR.

What are your projects on the games side forthis year?

In 2017, Barrière intends to continue itsmarketing and renovation efforts to improve itsmarket share where possible. This will require astrong investment by the Group in 2017 in termsof the games we offer to continue testing andinstalling new games and diversifying our offerof electronic games.

We will also continue the deployment of ournew loyalty program Carré VIP with eight new

casinos equipped this year, meaning a total of 19of our 28 casinos in France are now using it. Wewill also be looking to accelerate our digitaltransformation. Our ambition is to attract themillenials with our offers. Electronic games, e-sport and on-line gaming in general representpaths for the future.

We are continuing our renovation program atour casinos in Deauville, Royan and La Rochelle,and we will create smoking terraces in toulouse,Cassis and Lille. Finally, Barrière will inauguratetwo new casinos abroad by the end of the firsthalf of 2017.

how do you see non-gaming activitiesdeveloping for casinos?

As early as 2007, with the opening of the CasinoBarrière toulouse, we inaugurated what we callthe ‘new generation of /casinos,’ a multi-leisurecomplex, festive and cultural, which is centeredaround several places.

Peripheral activities have always been a strongfocus of our strategy. Barrière intends to bringmore to the casino by developing new conceptsor initiating new collaborations. With nearly3,000 performances and animations per year,Barrière Casinos have long been fully committedto the field of entertainment and artisticcreation and are totally involved in the culturallife of the cities where they are located.

The artistic center is a major center ofcompetence for Barriere. Our forte includesmusicals, concerts, one man shows, plays andeven ballet performances. We are very muchcommitted to entertainment and the greatestartists now choose our venues on their tours ofFrance. We are fortunate to have an expertpartner in this sector with Fimalac, which has a

large catalogue of artists, and Webedia, aspecialist in online media for leisure andentertainment.

What measures should the new governmenttake concerning the gaming sector?

We call on the future government to look at thecreation of a single gaming regulatory authority.The gaming world is changing with gaming clubsin Paris, online games, the development ofelectronic table games and the stabilising of slotGRR. This unique authority would allow for aconstructive and fair dialogue on the future ofour businesses between the different players ingambling, with casinos in France being a majorplayer, representing approximately 14,500 directjobs and 45,500 induced jobs.


InsightFrAnceCasino Operations

An inside perspective on theFrench casino gaming sector

Dominique DesseigneChief Executive officer, Groupe Barrière

InsightFrAnce

Casino Operations


What is your assessment of the2015-2016 financial year?

The year provided confirmation thatthe Partouche group has made asatisfactory recovery in its activity.We are in five semesters of businessgrowth. This definitely reassures usthat after six years of continuousdecline, we believe we have reachedthe bottom and that we are again in asomewhat more satisfactory period ofpositive development.

The progress we made last year willallows us to build for the the futureand develop certain projects. Thewhole sector is doing better. This isdue to different factors. In particular,the fact that, over the past four years,various segments in our games offerhave expanded, notably with theintroduction of electronic forms oftraditional games. There is a rathernoticeable acceleration at this level.

We have great choices when it comesto electronic equipment in thesupplier market which are attractingnew customers who are movingtowards this new gaming segment.This diversification of supply does notcannibalise our traditional gamessince these have also continued to

progress. Revenues from slotmachines are also growing. We reallyhave three segments of gamesofferings: machines, traditional non-electronic games and traditionalelectronic games which areprogressing and which naturallyaccompany this recovery.

so you're going to keep going,renewing your gaming floor?

We're not going to stop. For manyyears we have had a policy ofrenewing our machines, which weconsider satisfactory. We willcontinue to integrate new types ofelectronic forms of traditional games.It is clear that the majority of successhas come from roulette.

The introduction of tangiamo tableshaven’t affected the progress of thefirst electronic roulette terminals weintroduced from Alfastreet either.And we continue to work on thedesign of our gaming rooms, theirformat, the environment in which thegames are deployed.

What should the next governmentdo to help boost the gaming sector?

They should have the courage to opentheir eyes to the flagrant scandal thathas long been the way in which weallow la Française des Jeux to operateabsolutely anything to the detrimentof other national gaming operators.

It is absolutely outrageous to see howgames that encroach on the nature ofthe games we offer in casinos can beoffered as they want, when theywant, without any condiseration foranything.

Fabrice Paire President,Groupe Partouche


The GGR for our overall group, includingtranchant Hôtels, our French casinos and ourcasinos in Switzerland 2016 increased by 2.76

per cent, reaching €239,428,000. The netturnover after taxation was relative stability atall of our 17 casinos and two hotels. Howeverwe remain very cautious in the face of politicaluncertainties that may impact our business, inparticular an increase in CSG taxation oncasino GGR and player profit.

Our activity is the only one that forcescommercial companies to settle the CSG andthe CRDS. It is also necessary to take intoaccount the cost of the workforce assigned tothe complex anti-money laundering struggleimposed on casinos, whereas nothing like thisimpacts the PMU and la Française des Jeuxdespite them offering their customers casinogames.

Our Group will open a three-star hotel inPouges-les-Eaux in 2017. We will also build alarge casino in Pau towards the end of thefinancial year 2017. We are developingpartnerships in order to have suitable premisesin Paris for the possible exploitation of a‘gaming club’ when we know exactly whatgames will be authorized, the level of taxationand other elements of the operational cost thatwill determine our possible investments in thisnew area.

We are continuing to modernise our casinoswith the new Certus on Line system as well asthe structural modifications allowing thecreation of smoking terraces. Obviously we willtake part in the tenders relating of new casinos.

Georges Tranchant President,Groupe Tranchant


InsightFrAnceCasino Operations

What are your projects on the games part forthis year?

The Cogit Group intends to pursue its ambitiousinvestment policy in its casinos by maintainingan optimal quality of service. Frequentation ofour establishments depends on the satisfactionperceived by our clientele. It is also in this waythat we will be able to attract more and moreplayers.

After the €5m makeover at the Casino deSchoelcher in Martinique, we are launching asimilar program on the Gosier casino inGuadeloupe. In addition, we have just injected€700,000 into the renovation of the casino inSaint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie in Vendée andanother €700,000 into the establishment oftrois Ilets in Martinique.

We will also be investing €4m into a casino inCherbourg in Manche.

how do you see peripheral activities developingfor your casinos?

Peripheral activities have always been a priorityfor the Cogit Group and they will remain so. Notonly are these activities, which include cateringand entertainment, a legal obligation, but theyare also essential if we want to increaseattendance in our casinos. The investments weare making are largely devoted to theseperipheral activities. This is particularly the casein Gosier where we have created, among otherthings, a theater. We will apply the same

strategy to the trois Îlets with the developmentof a new animation area.

in your opinion, what could the newgovernment do to help the gaming sector?

The new government should take manymeasures to ensure the future of the gamessector, which is a major source of direct andindirect employment. Among the most urgentmeasures, I will cite the reduction of all theunnecessary constraints weighing on ouractivity. I would advocate the creation of asingle gaming regulation commission. With sucha mechanism, the State could thus realise thatsome sectors enjoy preferential treatment.

Henri ernoult CharimanGroupe Cogit


The eight casinos of the Emeraude groupgenerated a GGR of €65,187,073 showing anincrease of 0.53 per cent. We have consolidatedour position and will continue to increase ourefforts in the search for excellence in terms ofthe services offered to our customers. Webelieve that creativity in gaming, as well asdeveloping our catering, hospitality, spa,entertainment and entertainment offerings areall key in the stratgey of our leisure group.

The Emeraude Group will continue to invest inthe look of our establishments, in modernisingour gaming floor and the offer of games whileremaining on the lookout for new products. Wewill expand the offer of electronic games. Werecently launched electronic Black Jack with avirtual croupier, and will begin to test electronicbingo in the coming weeks. We initiated this testbecause we believe that bingo, a new product,fits perfectly into our strategy of diversifying ouroffer. In addition, the group is developing new

ways of retaining its players in order to betterpersonalise the relationship with them. We wantto offer our customers a very modern range ofgames with regard to slot machines and othertypes of games.

do you think peripheral activities are becomingmore important for casinos?

The activities of our ‘non-gaming’ profit centershave always been important to Emeraudebecause they allow us to offer diversifiedproposals for our customers. They meet theexpectations of local authorities and theypromote the reputation of our casinos, whichmakes them strategic assets. In addition,Emeraude has expanded its offer in the leisuresector with the development of cruises on theSeine in Paris since the Compagnie de la Seinewas bought out. We manages two barges,

Capitaine Fracasse and Paris en Scene, that sailand a fixed barge for the organisation of privateevents.

What could the new government do to help thegaming sector?

For more than 10 years, we have been calling forthe creation of a single authority for all gamblingoperators in France: casinos, online games, FDJ,PMU. This is for obvious reasons includingharmonization of regulations, coherence andalso protection of players. The same frameworkfor all operartors would allow us to propose anddevelop new games and new technologiesunder similar conditions. This reform that wehave been asking for for years would take intoaccount the evolution of an excessively volatilemarket and would improve our ability to addressour customers wishes.

Marie-Pierrelandowski President,Groupe Emeraude


InsightuSNIGA 2017

With 375 companies exhibiting on some 75,000net square feet of floor space at the San DiegoConvention Center and a massive 7,000 plusvisitor pre-registration, the National IndianGaming Association (NIGA) annual tradeshowand convention could be counted as a greatsuccess. Organised on behalf of NIGA by UrbanExhibitions the show was, as ever, a trade eventlike no other. While there are numerous otherIndian Gaming shows throughout each year(Oklahoma and Arizona being just twoexamples) only NIGA itself manages to combinea business-to-business event and conferencewith what is part pageantry, part culturalcelebration, part heritage and with an overridingfocus on education.

What about the classic rock element? That wasprovided by Gene Simmons, co-founder andbass player of the legendary band KISS (thecapital spelling is obligatory!) who attended theNIGA ribbon cutting ceremony to promote theRock and Brews nationwide chain ofrestaurants.

At the heart of this, an undoubted success, isNIGA Chairman Ernest J. Stevens, Jr. who, as themost effective and eloquent advocate of thewealth and job creation provided by the

phenomenon that is Indian Gaming, overseesthe NIGA show with a combination of humilityand an iron fist.

During this year’s NIGA event Chairman Stevenswas, unsurprisingly, once again re-elected for afurther two year term and used his acceptancespeech to confirm that NIGA will move in 2018from California to the spiritual home of allgaming, Las Vegas. The show will take placefrom April 17th -20th in the North Halls of theLas Vegas Convention Centre: a venue unusedby gaming industry events since G2E moved intothe Sands Convention Center in 2011.

Dominating the show’s main aisle the ‘big gun’brands of the gaming industry, IGt, the multi-brand Scientific Games, Ainsworth Gametechnology, Konami Gaming, Aristocrat andNovomatic Americas, all reported high foottraffic volumes and keen interest in theirproduct displays.

IGt showcased some of its new premium gametitles, including the Sphinx 4D in the CrystalCurve true 4D cabinet; a game that thecompany describes as a multi-sensory gamingsensation and which allows players to touchand manipulate 3D objects that emerge from thescreen. Harking back to yesteryear was theDouble Diamond housed in the Mega tower,IGt’s new, large format, mechanical reel cabinet.In common with many other exhibitors IGt alsopresented a wide range of Class II titles on arange of hardware solution options.

Ainsworth Game technology launched a raft ofnew game titles at NIGA, many of them being

Setting new records and creating a celebratory climate of Indian Gamingculture with just a touch of classic rock, NIGA returned to San Diego andwas a massive hit: sending a clear message best described in the sloganthat, as a parody of the recent US Presidential election campaign,rebounded on stickers, on T-shirts and in speeches throughout the show:‘Let’s make America Indian Again’

National Indian Gaming showproves major hit in San Diego

Dominating the show’s mainaisle the ‘big gun’ brands of thegaming industry, IGT, themulti-brand Scientific Games,Ainsworth Game Technology,Konami Gaming, Aristocrat andNovomatic Americas, allreported high foot trafficvolumes and keen interest intheir product displays.

InsightuS

NIGA 2017

the product of a new, US based, game developmentteam created as a result of a corporate initiative takenby AGt’s CEO, Danny Gladsdtone: Rumble Thunderand toro treasure, shown in the A640 cabinet, beingthe show standouts.

Konami Gaming, latest game developments for itsConcerto Collection of video slots includedCastlevania themed slots; the all-new progressivegame series Cai Lai Si Ji and Smash Smash Festival;custom single screen releases Dragons Fury andPharaoh’s Fury.

The stepper lives on! What used to be derided as ‘oldfashioned’ gaming have undergone a revival in recenttimes and Aristocrat made the new Relm™ steppercabinet (the result of a co-operation betweenAristocrat and its sister company, VGt) the start oftheir NIGA presence. With 24 new game titles in thefirst year and a commitment to produce 24 new titleseach year for the next five years the Relm cabinetushers in a new – and enhanced – era of steppergame play.

Novomatic Americas described early 2017 as beingthe ‘breakout year’ for both its products and the

company’s growing reputation. The Reel tournamentversion World Championship of Slots continues toevolve with new content and it is hoped that this boldconcept will soon make its breakthrough as a realityplay-based television production.

Multimedia Games built, over several years, a healthyreputation as leaders of the slot tournament genrewith its travelling tourn Event roadshow; a traditionthat has been continued and strengthened followingMMG’s merger with Everi. At NIGA Everi helped topromote and raise funds for the Spirit of Sovereigntyby holding the tribal Leaders Charity Slottournament.

This initiative, endorsed by NIGA Chairman Stevensas a means of helping to provide tribal collegescholarships to those who need them most, featured afast-paced tournament competition where t he topthree finishers were able to donate $8,000, $3,000and $2,000 respectively to their choice of tribalcollege or reservation-based program serving Nativeyouth. “It was a terrific event,” said Spirit ofSovereignty coordinator David Garelick. “The 13players were so enthusiastic and the crowd thatgathered to watch was impressive.”

That perhaps best summed up NIGA 2017. A greatshow, a celebration of tribal culture and a strongemphasis on tribal education that highlighted thecommitment given by NIGA to creating not just jobsand wealth through Indian gaming, but opportunitiesalso.


Novomatic Americasdescribed early 2017 as

being the ‘breakout year’ forboth its products and the

company’s growingreputation. The Reel

Tournament version WorldChampionship of Slots

continues to evolve with newcontent and it is hoped that

this bold concept will soonmake its breakthrough as a

reality play-based televisionproduction.

Radostina Ganeva of EGT and Sean Smith of Reel Games

Merkur Gaming Americas NIGA team

Jeff Connor of Eclipse Gaming

David Garelick and MC Mike Conway announcing theresults of the Spirit of Sovereignty NIGA Slot Tournament

NIGA Chairman Ernie Stevens


InsightbrAzil Market update

What’s happening? Are Brazil’sgaming laws still on the cards?

With a flurry of news stories breaking all through 2016 regarding the possibleopening up of the gaming market in Brazil events seemed to fizzle out when inDecember the Senate returned the new law which would regulate gambling for yetfurther debate. Senators rejected the new version of the law PLS 186/2016 voting 44votes in favour and 19 against which meant that it had to be returned for furtheranalysis to the House Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ)

Further analysis was “absolutely indispensable”according to Senator Aloysio Nunes Ferreira who saidthat the CCJ’s opinions would have to be heardregarding any legal aspects of the text as the currenttext of the bill could well come under question as itcould be regarded as unconstitutional. MeanwhileSenator Magno Malta said that the new gamingproject would help “launder money from corruptionand trafficking” and would turn Brazil into a “paradiseof corruption.” As a result the proposal waswithdrawn from the agenda.

Since then there has been little word on how or if thegovernment will finally give the go ahead to casinosand other types of gaming in the territory and therehas been little progress of a separate bill which had

also seemed to be making rapid headway in the lowerhouse. So where does the government currently standregarding gaming legislation and what is the outlookfor the bill short term?

to summarise there are currently two bills beingconsidered in the Brazilian Congress: one in theChamber of Deputies and the other in the Senate.

In the Chamber of Deputies the gaming law wouldallow for casinos within wider leisure complexes. InAugust 2016, a special commission approved thelatest draft put forward by Deputy Guilherme Mussi.States with more than 25 million inhabitants wouldbe permitted to have a maximum of three casinos.States with populations between 15 million and 25

Crucially, the draft of thenew law contains anumber of measuresdesigned to combat themost contentious issuesof the bill, namely moneylaundering andcorruption.

Aloysio nunes Ferreira,Brazilian Senator

“The CCJ’s opinions would have to beheard regarding any legal aspects ofthe text as the current text of the billcould well come under question as itcould be regarded asunconstitutional.”

Magno Malta,Brazilian Senator

“The new gaming project would helplaunder money from corruption andtrafficking and would turn Brazil intoa “paradise of corruption.”

Guilherme MussiBrazilian Deputy

States with more than 25 millioninhabitants would be permitted tohave a maximum of three casinos.

million may have two, and those with less than15 million inhabitants may have one casino.Licences would be granted for 30 years. The billwould allow for bingo and electronic bingowhich would come under the supervision of themunicipal governments with the number ofbingo machines on site depending on the size ofthe population. Meanwhile the popular “Jogo doBicho” or “Animal Game would be legalised andbe put under the control of the state.

Crucially, the draft of the new law contains anumber of measures designed to combat one ofthe most contentious issues of the bill as it wasdiscussed in the committee stage namely moneylaundering and corruption.

In the Senate the bill is an updated and modifiedversion of legislation originally drafted bySenator Ciro Nogueira in 2014 but with anumber of significant changes. The text of thebill would allow for 35 casinos, with at least oneper state while some states would be permittedto have as many as three, depending on thepopulation and the economic outlook in eachstate. The resorts would only be permitted to use

10 per cent of the available space for gamingwhile the remaining space would be used forrestaurants, shops, theatres, exhibition space, aswell as others facilities. Bingos would be bepermitted per 150,000 inhabitants whilemunicipalities with less than 150 thousandpeople would only be allowed to have one bingohall. Meanwhile, the animal game would also bepermitted and would be regulated by theexecutive branch of the government of eachBrazilian municipality.

So where does the government now stand on theissue of gaming and is there a danger thatgaming law could simply languish in committeestage and eventually be left off the agendaaltogether?

Firstly it would appear that while there have notbeen many major developments sinceDecember in the Congress gaming legislation isstill very much a possibility and momentum isgathering for some form of liberalisation.However, it may come in a form that it is verydifferent to how it was originally envisaged inboth houses. This is because additional impetus

is now coming from a number of other sourcesincluding the Ministry of tourism and possiblybehind the scenes from the executive branch.

While he has not spoken out publically on theissue it is believed that President temer isideologically opposed to gaming. Howeveraccording to some reports ministers in hiscabinet have gradually brought the Presidentaround to the idea of liberalising the marketalbeit to a limited degree. According to localdaily Globo, his economic team has prepared aprovisional measure which would allow forsports betting in case Congress delays approvingpro gaming measures. Furthermore, according tosome reports money generated by a privatisedsports industry has all ready been worked outinto this year’s budget.

Indeed beside the two gaming acts up for debatein Congress there have been a number ofdevelopments regarding sports betting. In Aprilit was announced that the government isplanning on privatising instants, sports bettinglotteries and online sports betting in order todouble the revenue it collects in gaming taxrevenue. This would raise tax revenue fromR$6bn to R$12bn over the next few years.According to local sources Congress would soonbegin debating a bill which would allow forsports betting lotteries, as well as online bettingwhich would be known collectively as"Sportingbet."

The news follows the announcement inSeptember last year that Lotex - the instantlottery ticket arm of Brazil’s largest state ownedbank and lottery operator CAIXA - would beauctioned off as part of a 25 point plan designedto kick-start the economy.

According to reports now surfacing in localmedia the licensing process for Lotex couldbegin in August and the auction could go aheadin November. However the tender could goahead a month before so that the new privatisedversion of Lotex could well be in operation bythe first half of 2018. Meanwhile CAIXA willcontinue to run and operate traditional lotteriessuch as its most popular lottery the Mega-Senawhich is drawn twice weekly and CAIXA will bea minority partner in both Lotex andSportingbet.

Meanwhile moves are afoot for a very differentgaming bill which is being pushed forward bytourism Minister Marx Beltrão. In April thegovernment announced ‘Brazil + tourism’program, a number of measures designed tostrengthen the tourism sector. According to theMinister, the country expects the number offoreign tourists visiting Brazil to increasesharply from the 6.5 million registered in 2016 to12 million in 2022, and revenues from tourismare expected to increase from US$6bn a year toUS$19bn. Among the measures are issuance ofelectronic visas, the opening up the civilaviation sector to foreign companies, andcasinos in integrated resorts.





According to the minster the government wouldonly permit gaming in a handful of largeintegrated large scale resorts along the lines ofSingapore. Money generated by the industrywould be destined for education, health andsocial welfare programmes. According to Beltrãohe is already negotiating the issue with theexecutive branch and already has a forecast forthe announcement of the measures for somepoint in the first half of this year. Indeedaccording to Uruguay's tourism Minister LiliamKechichian, who met with Beltrão earlier thisyear, Beltrão told her that Brazil would pass agaming law at some point.

According to Beltrão’s project six licences couldbe granted immediately in the states of Rio andSão Paulo, and another four in the south,midwest, north and northeast regions. twentylicences could be granted permission to operatein all.

In addition the tourism industry remains fullybehind new plans to allow for large scalecasinos. In April the Joint Parliamentary Front inDefence of tourism (FRENtUR) stated thatgambling legalisation was one of the prioritiesfor 2017. Made up of 250 deputies and senators,FRENtUR aims to improve legislation in thetourism industry in order to generate incomeand jobs.

The process of passing gaming law could also bespeeded up via developments outside of thetourism industry and the national governmententirely. According to the Brazilian LegalGaming Institute (Instituto de Jogo Legal – IJL)events in the state of Rio Grande do Sul could

put pressure on the government to address theissue as a matter of more urgency. In January anumber of bingo halls in Porto Alegre, thecapital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande doSul, reopened after local magistrates ruled intheir favour. Magistrates for The CriminalsAppeals Panel ruled that gaming does notconstitute a criminal offense because the 1941law, which outlawed gambling as part of Brazil’sCriminal Contravention Act, violates principleslaid out in the 1988 Constitution. The Brazilianconstitution was rewritten in 1988 after civilianrule returned to Brazil after more than twodecades of military government.

In addition local bingo hall owners are hopingthat the provisional measures passed in 2004which banned bingo halls have expired.Operators believe that combined the situationcould amount to a legal limbo in which theymay operate and a small number of bingo hallshave reopened for business. This legal disputehighlights perfectly the need for Brazil toaddress the issue and update its gaming lawsand could well put pressure on the governmentto make changes to Brazil’s antiquated gaminglaws.

Meanwhile industry lobby groups are workingbehind the scenes in order to help bring actsnow under consideration in Congress to fruition.In March members of the board of the GamingInstitute (IJL) met with members of both theChamber of Deputies and the Senate for numberof hearings. In the Senate, the Gaming Instituteis hoping that key members on the CCJcommittee are pro gaming legalisation so thatthe bill has the best chances of passing through

the committee stage. In the Chamber ofDeputies members of the IJL met withlawmakers who are sympathetic to thelegalisation of gaming, in order to mobilize theBoard of Directors for consideration and to voteon the merits of the bill. Members also met withDeputy Magda Mofatto a long time supporter ofthe gaming bill. The lawmaker later defendedthe new bill on television and said that that theliberation of gambling in Brazil would only bringbenefits to the economy.

However despite a number of positivedevelopments, for years gaming in Brazil hasbeen a highly charged political issue. Theliberalisation of gaming still faces considerableopposition from Federal Police and the PublicProsecutor’s office who believe that it wouldencourage money laundering and tax evasion inBrazil as the sheer size of the industry wouldoverwhelm the capacity of supervisory bodies.Meanwhile opposition to the new act amongstchurch groups and politicians is gaining inmomentum as they prepare to oppose it. Indeedin November more than a third of the membersof Brazil's lower house signed a petition to blocklegislation which would liberalise gaming.

However, while it seemed as if Brazil could wellhave given the green light to gaming before theend of 2016, and change has been slower thanoriginally envisaged Brazil still needs to pullitself out of its deepest-ever recession. With twobills still in Congress and impetus now growingfrom both the executive branch as well as theMinistry of tourism major changes to Brazil’sgaming continue to look likely in the nearfuture.


InsightAGeM Impact Study

AGEM announces results of itslatest Economic Impact Study

The Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) has announcedthe results of its comprehensive Economic Impact Study of Gaming in themanufacturer/technology sector. Led by large slot companies, the report reveals$47.5bn total impact, $17.9bn direct impact, 55,000 direct employees andaverage direct annual wage of $89,400

The global gaming supplier industry generated a totaleconomic impact of $47.5 billion, supported morethan 212,000 employees, including 55,000 directemployees, and paid a total of $14.2 billion in wagesand salaries during 2016, according to acomprehensive report released by the Association ofGaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM).

The report titled ‘Industry Impact Analysis: GlobalGaming Supplier 2017’ was the result of anindependent study commissioned by AGEM andconducted by the respected Las Vegas-based researchfirm Applied Analysis. The report (which can bedownloaded from the AGEM website -www.agem.org) is the most comprehensive review todate of the global gaming supplier industry thatanalyses the size and scope of this technology-drivensector, specifically identifying AGEM members’ globalreach spanning every regulated gaming market.

With 151 member companies based in 23 countries,AGEM is anchored by the world’s largest slot machinecompanies and AGEM Gold Members AGS, AinsworthGame technology, Aristocrat technologies, Everi, IGt,Konami Gaming, Merkur Gaming, NOVOMAtIC,Scientific Games and Sega Sammy Creation. TheAGEM membership also includes companies active inlotteries, systems, table games, online/interactive,mobile apps, game development, machinecomponents and support products and services forthe gaming industry.

HIGHlIGHTS oF THe reporTl Including direct ($17.9bn), indirect ($14.9bn) and

induced ($14.7bn) impacts, the global gamingsupplier segment generated a total of $47.5bn ofeconomic output (revenue) in 2016.

l Including direct ($4.9bn), indirect ($4.7bn) andinduced ($4.6bn) impacts, the global gamingsupplier segment supports a total of approximately$14.2bn in annual wages and salaries to 55,145

direct, 68,128 indirect and 88,833 inducedemployees for a total, with the multiplier effect, of212,106 employees.

l The average direct wage per employee in theindustry reached approximately $89,400 in 2016,reflecting a significant premium to the current U.S.average annual wage of $49,630, as listed by theBureau of Labor Statistics.

l The industry has an especially strong impact inNevada and overall employs a broad range ofworkers, including high-end technicalprofessionals and engineers responsible forhundreds of millions of dollars in research anddevelopment expenditures annually.

“A lot has changed in our sector during the pastseveral years, but what hasn’t changed is theimpressive output of the global gaming suppliers andtechnology providers,” said Marcus Prater, ExecutiveDirector of AGEM. “While there have been a variety ofconsolidation events at the very top in the past fewyears, the rise of the next level of manufacturersalong with a general expansion of new products andtechnology created by supplier innovations haveresulted in impressive growth and a strong overallimpact.”

aMonG THe aGeM VoTInG MeMBer CoMpanIeS SUrVeyedl None of the respondents expect to decrease their

staffing levels during the next 12 months, withalmost three-fifths (57 per cent) expecting toincrease staffing.

l More than two-thirds (68 per cent) expect theeconomic conditions to improve during the next 12months.

l Respondents also answered positively aboutemployee-sponsored health care and retirementprograms, purchasing from local vendors andincreasing employee numbers and salaries.

Marcus Prater,Executive Director, AGEM

“A lot has changed in oursector during the past severalyears, but what hasn’tchanged is the impressiveoutput of the global gamingsuppliers and technologyproviders. While there havebeen a variety of consolidationevents at the very top in thepast few years, the rise of thenext level of manufacturersalong with a generalexpansion of new productsand technology created bysupplier innovations haveresulted in impressive growthand a strong overall impact.”

None of the respondentsexpect to decrease theirstaffing levels during thenext 12 months, with almostthree-fifths (57 per cent)expecting to increasestaffing.

More than two-thirds (68 percent) expect the economicconditions to improve duringthe next 12 months.

Respondents also answeredpositively about employee-sponsored health care andretirement programs,purchasing from localvendors and increasingemployee numbers andsalaries.

InsightMAlTA Tumas Group

Tumas Group supports CPI's'no fluff, just stuff' solution

The Tumas Group in Malta has pledged its long-term allegiance to theCraneCrane Payment Innovations' (CPI) SC Advance note acceptor by signing aPreferred Supplier Agreement. Under this agreement, SC Advance will bespecified on all new and replacement slot machines.

The tumas Group manages Oracle Casino andPortomaso Casino and, like most operators, theyunderstand the importance of choosing the right noteacceptor. As the port of entry to gaming machines, anote acceptor has the power to make or break theplayer experience and, accordingly, the bottom line.Stellar performance is essential, which is why thetumas Group has selected SC Advance.

“With SC Advance, we are accepting bills faster, withthe peace of mind that only fraudulent notes are beingrejected,” said Patrick Demanuele, COO of the tumasGroup.

The tumas Group initially turned to CPI to resolve amajor issue they experienced with a competitor’s noteacceptor. “We had laid new carpet, and the fluff itshed caused failures in the note acceptors we’d beenusing at the time. We were actually advised by one ofour slot machine providers to try CPI, and I cannotunderstate what an excellent recommendation thatwas. We saw an immediate difference. SC Advancesolved our problem completely,” said Demanuele.

When asked about other benefits to using CPI noteacceptors, management at the tumas Group praisedSC Advance for having fewer moving parts (includingno challenging belts), lower maintenancerequirements and easy serviceability.

SC Advance is fortified with all the right technology toensure the industry’s highest first-time acceptance

rate for all notes, including those that are no longercrisp and new. Whereas other note acceptors maystruggle to validate and accept notes that havebecome worn and torn over time, SC Advance excels –and that means more money makes it to the cashbox.

“We have never had any issues with the SC Advance,”Demanuele continued. “On the rare occasion we havecontacted the CPI team, their response wasimmediate and professional. Signing the PreferredPartnership Agreement is a big win for both ourcompanies, and we are thankful for the way SCAdvance has improved our operations.”

In addition to specifying SC Advance on all slotmachines, the tumas Group plans to use SC Advanceat its live table games in the future. Demanuele said,“We want all the tables in both our casinos equippedwith SC Advance so we can improve our service andsecurity. We’ll be able to streamline game results andfocus more on interacting with our players, all whileensuring that each note played has been checked by areliable note acceptor.”

Anette Jauch, CPI sales director – EMEA Gaming, said,“Our thanks go to the tumas Group for theircontinued support, and we look forward to deliveringeven more value to them through our long-termagreement. We take our commitment to operatorprofitability very seriously at CPI, and we prideourselves for having earned our leadership position inthe industry.”

“We had laid new carpet, andthe fluff it shed causedfailures in the note acceptorswe’d been using at the time.We were actually advised byone of our slot machineproviders to try CPI, and Icannot understate what anexcellent recommendationthat was. We saw animmediate difference. SCAdvance solved our problemcompletely.”Patrick Demanuele, COO, Tumas Group

Anette Jauch, Sales director – EMEA Gaming,CPI

“Our thanks go to the TumasGroup for their continuedsupport, and we look forwardto delivering even more valueto them through our long-term agreement. We take ourcommitment to operatorprofitability very seriously atCPI, and we pride ourselvesfor having earned ourleadership position in theindustry.”

Patrick Demanuele, COO of the Tumas Group.



InsighteMbeDDeD SoluTionSQuixant

Providers of the ‘beating heart’of modern gaming machines

Embedded solutions specialists, Quixant, discuss the latest highly optimisedtechnology driving the casino electronic gaming machine sector and reveal thesubtle enhancements that the company is providing to the industry that spanselectronic and mechanical innovations. Quixant’s Jon Jayal explains thephilosophy and strategy behind the company’s latest solutions

Selecting the best-fitting control board solution foryour gaming application, from both physical andtechnological aspects, is a critical decision – inessence, it is the central engine of the machine. Theembedded technology landscape is evolvingconstantly and dramatically, with Quixant’s gamingplatform portfolio at the very forefront, offering amultitude of advantages to those requiring anembedded system to drive their latest gamedevelopments.

Quixant’s proposition combines advanced AMD-power PC technology which offered unrivalledgraphics and processor performance with features

integrated into Quixant’s Gaming Ecosystem® thattransforms the product into an optimised computercapable of dealing with the many challengespresented by driving machines in the global gamingindustry.

The Quixant ethos is to provide solutions that arehighly optimised for gaming in every way, while stillproviding the customer with a product that is bothsimple to implement, and promotes cost-saving in theshort and long term. This is made feasible by the yearsof experience gained by being a true “end-to-end”manufacturer, with design, manufacturing, softwareand support resources being closely interlinked;

Jon Jayal,Chief operating officer, Quixant

Jon Jayal was one of the keymembers of the design teamwhich developed Quixant’sfirst product, the QX-10. Jonleft Quixant in 2006 tobroaden his experience in thefinancial sector, both as aninvestment consultant atMercer Limited and asaccount manager atBlackRock, Inc. He re-joinedQuixant in July 2012 asGeneral Manager of Quixantplc and latterly ChiefOperating Officer and is basedat the Company’s uKheadquarters in Cambridge.The Director’s believe thatJon’s deep knowledge of thetechnology that is thefoundation of Quixant’sbusiness together with hiswider financial andmanagerial experience meanshe is well positioned as part ofthe management team.

Another facet of thereliability that is so integral toQuixant’s products is power“over-rating”, that is thespecification of componentscapable of operating in muchharsher physical conditionsthan the standard, thusoffering suitability in anyglobal market.

InsighteMbeDDeD SoluTionS

Quixant

customisation then becomes a realistic possibility,with clients regularly inputting their hopes, concernsand objectives into the product design. This approachinevitably provides a solution of optimum benefit tothe end user.

Alongside the obvious electronic considerations thatare focussed on during product development,mechanical engineering can provide some rather lessobvious benefits; for example, the Quixant QXi range– encompassing the entry-level QXi-307 up to thethree-screen, 4K-ready QXi-6000 – all offer anentirely fan-less footprint. This, combined with theintegrated heatsink designs, results in products thatprovide extremely high reliability and low operationalcosts.

Clearly, there are other common PC footprints in usein the market, and for higher-end machines theclassic tray-and-backplane architecture remains thepreferred method. Even here, Quixant provides bothobvious and subtle benefits to manufacturers and

their service technicians; the QMax range provides afine example. Despite this new, cutting-edge productsupporting up to nine independent screens and havingreplaceable, top-end discrete graphics card options, itcan run using a single nominal 12V cabinet-poweredinput – with no extra AtX required – and features aninnovative, removable isolated fan module.

Another facet of the reliability that is so integral toQuixant’s products is power “over-rating”, that is thespecification of components capable of operating inmuch harsher physical conditions than the standard,thus offering suitability in any global market.

Being providers of the “beating heart” of any gamingmachine requires Quixant to have a detailedknowledge of those devices that it does not govern buthas the responsibility to control, be it a bill acceptor, aticket printer, a back room auditing software platform,or anything else widely in use. A myriad of supportdrivers and libraries for communications protocolsand expansions such as cctalk, PCI Express and SAS,developed over many years, have seen Quixantbecome not only an expert in PC-based hardware butalso in peripheral integration. Having recentlyintroduced a wide range of Quixant standard gamingmonitors and button decks, this has widened theinsight further.

Full compatibility with Windows 7 and 10, as well asrecent versions of Linux, provides versatility ofoperating system choice depending on programmers’preferences.

With this technological bedrock now in place, a majorfuture objective is to continue to offer users thefurther opportunity to stretch their capabilities andaspirations. Quixant’s Gaming Ecosystem®encompasses numerous aspects of the hardware,software and support of its gaming platforms.Hardware-based video decoding, which significantlyreduces CPU loading from complex graphical content,and thus allows for entirely unconfined game design,is one example, as is full SAS 6.02 library support.

Logistically, Quixant customers also benefit. Longterm supply is a crucial factor in the gaming industry.Due to the extremely delicate nature of approval andcertification of machines and game content alike, it isimperative that hardware supply is both predictableand stable. This is a fundamental understanding ofQuixant, whose platforms are designed to have aminimum 5-year lifetime from release and maintaincritical components during this period.

Conversely, should upgrade to the latest platform bedesirable, backwards-compatible APIs ensure thatthis process is simplified as greatly as possible.Minimum Order Quantity is not enforced on standardproduct lines, and a minimum stock holding policymeans that lead times are short.

Quixant not only offer reliable embedded systems forthe gaming industry that are uncomplicated yethighly specialised; it also provides its customers withthe opportunity to truly take part in the conception oftheir own product - whilst using its own experience tounderstand the dynamics, and challenges, of thecomplex field in which it operates.

Quixant was established withthe sole purpose of designingand manufacturing advancedPC-based gaming platforms.Based in the uK and listed onthe London Stock Exchange,Quixant currently hasoperations in Australia,Germany, Italy, Japan, uSAand Taiwan and supplies togaming machinemanufacturers in every regionglobally.

Quixant was established by acore team of individuals withmany years’ experience in thedesign, manufacture andsales of specialised gamingplatforms to the global slotmachine and gaming industry.Our systems are widely usedby blue chip slotmanufacturers all around theworld.

Long term supply is a crucialfactor in the gamingindustry. Due to the

extremely delicate nature ofapproval and certification of

machines and game contentalike, it is imperative thathardware supply is both

predictable and stable. Thisis a fundamental

understanding of Quixant,whose platforms are

designed to have aminimum 5-year lifetime

from release and maintaincritical components during

this period.



InsightAMDComputing in Gaming

Advanced computing enhancesthe casino gaming experience

In an exclusive article for G3, AMD’s Colin Cureton discusses the immersivetechnologies; virtual reality, augemented reality and machine learning, whichenable more compelling player engagement while also requiring considerablecomputation and graphics perfromance from the latest gaming processors

Regardless of what you call this era of computing –instinctive, perceptual, intelligent, immersive – weare now at an inflection point where machines are inthe early stages of being able to give humans theexperience of realities beyond the one they’re in.

Casino operators are likely to be on the forefront ofthese macro trends. They are increasingly looking toprovide customers with gaming options in realmsbeyond those of video games, but with a bettingelement – think first-person shooter and skill-basedgames.

Several emerging technologies could play a significantrole. Machine learning (ML), virtual reality (VR) andaugmented reality (AR) applications have all

progressed substantially in the past few years andhave enormous potential to increase both revenueand players’ experience.

The ideas underpinning these technologies have beenaround for decades, but have been held back by thelimitations of the computer processors that woulddrive them — the central processing unit (CPU) andgraphic processing unit (GPU). Only recently havethese limitations been breached. Advances inpowering these new realities are being driven bycompanies such as AMD, developing the newestgenerations of server, PC and graphics processors.

The expanded realities in the latest casino games relyon large-scale data sets. Machine learning compiles

The ideas underpinningthese technologies havebeen around for decades,but have been held back bythe limitations of thecomputer processors thatwould drive them — thecentral processing unit(CPu) and graphicprocessing unit (GPu). Onlyrecently have theselimitations been breached.Advances in powering thesenew realities are beingdriven by companies suchas AMD, developing thenewest generations ofserver, PC and graphicsprocessors.

colin cureton,Director Product Management,AMD Enterprise Solutions

While ML aims to learn from,mimic and supplementhuman behavior, virtual realityprovides users with an entirelydifference experience of theworld: VR can so fullyimmerse viewers in acomputer-generatedenvironment that they believethey are actually inside it. VRapplications typically requirespecialized head-mounteddisplay devices, available fromHTC, Oculus, Sony and others.The potential for VR in gamingis enormous, which has ledAMD to currently collaboratewith several companies thatare focused on video gamedevelopment for casino use.These games have thepotential for use in casinolounge environments,providing a more intimatealternative to the slot-machine floor.

InsightAMD

Computing in Gaming

the information from the data sets to the point that itcan predict customer behavior and providepersonalized recommendations as a result. The powerof the GPUs – each consisting of dozens of parallelprocessors – allows ML to model neural networks,essentially emulating human brain function.

ML applications can be “trained” through exposure tothese large data sets to recognize patterns andsubsequently predict outcomes. ML is the elementthat enables many day-to-day applications such as AIassistants such as Microsoft’s Cortana or Amazon’sEcho.

In casinos, this intelligent technology is already atwork in “Player Cards.” By tracking where and whencustomers play in addition to other behavior at thecasino, such as purchasing beverages and restaurantpreferences, operators can predict future visits andoffer incentives aligned with the personal interests ofevery player. In the future, gaming machines couldemploy machine vision to recognize players so theymay not even need their cards. And further down the

line, using facial recognition and ML, an AI machinecould determine the player’s mood and then offer themost appealing game options.

ML already uses natural language processing, speechrecognition, face recognition and reinforcementlearning to automate homes and other environmentsin more human ways. With your smartphone today,you can tell your home automation system to turn offthe lights in your home office or raise the temperatureon your thermostat. Pretty soon, your smartphonewill recognize the command as coming from yourvoice, understanding the context that it is your officeand not your spouse’s that you are referring to. At theairport, facial recognition systems will expeditesecurity and boarding process to allow passengers toget to their gates faster and travel more securely.

While ML aims to learn from, mimic and supplementhuman behavior, virtual reality provides users with anentirely difference experience of the world: VR can sofully immerse viewers in a computer-generatedenvironment that they believe they are actually insideit. VR applications typically require specialized head-mounted display devices, available from HtC, Oculus,Sony and others. The potential for VR in gaming isenormous, which has led AMD to currentlycollaborate with several companies that are focusedon video game development for casino use. Thesegames have the potential for use in casino loungeenvironments, providing a more intimate alternativeto the slot-machine floor.

Augmented reality continues to evolve, with a numberof applications already productized in variousindustries. For example, smart AR glasses are beingused in manufacturing, warehousing and field serviceenvironments to overlay computer-generated video,graphic or text information onto physical objects. Anoft-cited use for these glasses is the step-by-stepinstructions that are shown in the field of viewhovering over a machine part, visually guiding theworker through a repair job. In the casino world,International Game technology (IGt) has a newcasino gaming cabinet, the Crystal Curve Ultra, withthe ability to infuse a player’s hands with heat when aflame appears on a 3D screen.

The recent increase in these next-generationtechnologies – ML, VR and AR – is attributed tosignificant advancements in computing power. Forexample, in the past processors were not powerfulenough to avoid perceptible time lag (also known aslatency), the period between the physical movementof a user’s head and the moment when the visualdisplay is updated to reflect that movement in a VRapplication. If the latency is too long, a viewer canexperience nausea. Delays of less than 20milliseconds (ms) are generally imperceptible, though10 ms is closer to ideal. Such short time lags requireextremely fast computer processors, and it is onlyrecently that CPUs and GPUs have achieved theperformance to quickly refresh the view in responseto users’ movement.

VR is a perfect technology for gaming, though it isequally suited to other forms of visual entertainmentand other fields. Already, several VR movie theatershave opened. It’s also an excellent tool for education.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.(AMD) is an Americanmultinational semiconductorcompany based in Sunnyvale,California, united States, thatdevelops computerprocessors and relatedtechnologies for business andconsumer markets. AMD'smain products includemicroprocessors,motherboard chipsets,embedded processors andgraphics processors forservers, workstations andpersonal computers, andembedded systemsapplications.

The challenge for casinogaming is clear. These

immersive technologiescommand customers’

attention, as ML leads tomore accurate

recommended games forplayers, or VR and AR enable

more compellingengagement. Thesetechnologies require

considerable computationand graphics performance,

and it’s only through thelatest processors that these

new capabilities can beachieved.



InsightAMDComputing in Gaming

For example, home goods retailer Lowes is using VRto help its customers learn the skills required to tacklechallenging home improvement projects. Thecompany has created a “Holoroom” experience inseveral stores, inviting users to put on a VR headsetand experience what it feels like first-hand tocomplete a do-it-yourself project. With a controller ineach hand, customers can simulate tiling a shower.They’re given step-by-step instructions, from mixingthe mortar to laying the pattern. Even haptic feedback– touch sensation – is used, transmitted to thecontrollers, to emulate what a person would feelwhen using a drill. The VR simulation creates a life-like experience without users risking a real-worldloss of time and materials by making mistakes ontheir first try.

A variant of VR is 360-degree video. Some call thislightweight VR, because it still immerses viewers in anovel experience though without the full interactivityof computer-generated VR. Unlike full VR, 360-degree video is made up of real scenes shot withmultiple cameras. The results are then stitchedtogether to produce a 360-degree image. Using aspecial viewer and application, users can look aroundat the displayed content, but they cannot fullynavigate beyond the direction they’re looking in.

Nevertheless, 360-degree video can create animmersive and engaging visual experience. Forexample, Kings College Hospital in London is usingthis technology to help people overcome fears ofbeing inside an MRI machine. When inside themachine, patients must lie perfectly still for a longtime, even as loud noises from the magnets are nearlyconstant. Doctors at the hospital have developed anapp based on 360-degree video. Using it in advance

helps to both explain and demystify the MRIexperience, lowering patient anxiety.

Many news outlets are now making use of 360-degree video to help bring stories to life. TheAssociated Press is already a leader in this space,along with the BBC, CNN and The New York times.Once again, the latest processor technology hashelped deliver this innovation. A video shot with 24high-definition digital cameras, for example,produces huge amounts of data: At 60 frames persecond, these cameras generate nearly 450 gigabytesof data every minute. Stitching these images togethercan take days, but with the most recent advances, thistimespan can be reduced to minutes and, in somecases, the integration can be done essentially live.Imagine experiencing breaking news events as if youwere there on the scene.

The challenge for casino gaming is clear. Theseimmersive technologies command customers’attention, as ML leads to more accurate recommendedgames for players, or VR and AR enable morecompelling engagement. These technologies requireconsiderable computation and graphics performance,and it’s only through the latest processors that thesenew capabilities can be achieved.

Like every other industry, especially those alreadydominated by visual experiences, casino gaming willneed to keep up to remain relevant. Recent reportsshow that millennials aren’t gambling as much asprior generations have, at least not in casinos, but thisnew generation may respond to a different kind ofgaming experience. Augmented and virtual realitywill undoubtedly play a part in its futuredevelopment.

A variant of VR is 360-degree video. Some call thislightweight VR, because itstill immerses viewers in anovel experience thoughwithout the full interactivityof computer-generated VR.unlike full VR, 360-degreevideo is made up of realscenes shot with multiplecameras. The results arethen stitched together toproduce a 360-degreeimage. using a specialviewer and application, userscan look around at thedisplayed content, but theycannot fully navigate beyondthe direction they’re lookingin.


InsighteMbeDDeD SoluTionSPower and performance

Embedded gaming solutions:the power behind the throne

Speaking to AMD about its latest chip designs raised even more questions aboutthe future direction of embedded solutions for the gaming industry. We askedthe leading exponents for their views on power, performance and pricing

how do you build embedded solutions that can caternot just for the demands of today’s gamedevelopment needs, but can scale to supportMachine learning, virtual reality and augmentedrealty in the future?

Jon Jayal, Quixant: With each product launch, we seekto select the latest technology available at the time andbring it to market quickly enabling customers to accessnext generation technology early. The high cost ofseeking regulatory approvals means thatmanufacturers want to maximise the useful lifespan ofthe hardware they select and want the technology tohave the capability to support whatever new featuresfuture games might offer. We also provide considerablesupport through our Gaming Ecosystem to help

customers improve the efficiency with which thehardware is utilised.

Clyde Chen, axiomtek: In order to create embeddedsolutions that can cater for various applications needs,it is essential to work with chip manufacturers in orderto gain reference advice for the different designs.

mark Perkins, heber: Embedded solutions are designedto have a long product life and are expected to beavailable for over five years, which is significantlylonger than tradition PC life cycles. Clients looking tofuture proof their developments can look to the highend embedded products such as the AMD EmbeddedR-Series SOC, which Heber support with the PlutoA400. Virtual reality and Augmented reality require

Jon Jayal,Chief operating officer, Quixant

Jon Jayal was one of the keymembers of the design teamwhich developed Quixant’s firstproduct, the QX-10. Jon leftQuixant in 2006 to broaden hisexperience in the financial sector,both as an investment consultantat Mercer Limited and as accountmanager at BlackRock, Inc.

Jon re-joined Quixant in July 2012as General Manager of Quixant plcand latterly Chief Operating Officerand is based at the Company’s uKheadquarters in Cambridge. TheDirector’s believe that Jon’s deepknowledge of the technology thatis the foundation of Quixant’sbusiness together with his widerfinancial and managerialexperience means he is wellpositioned as part of themanagement team.

craig Stapleton,Product Director, Advantech-Innocore

Craig Stapleton is the ProductDirector for Gaming Products atAdvantech Corp.Based in Irvine, California, Craighas worked in embeddedcomputing for 25 yearsand focused on the gamingindustry for almost 20 of thoseyears.

A founding partner of InnocoreGaming Ltd which was acquiredby Advantech Corp in 2010,Craig leads the development teamto produce the most advancedcomputing platforms tailoredto the needs of the regulatedgaming industry.


Power and performance

increased GPU (graphics processing unit)requirements. to support these future developments,Heber has included a PCIe express graphics expansionslot in their Pluto A400. This enables clients to expandthe graphics performance of the product whenrequired.

Craig stapleton, advantech-innocore: As the largestembedded PC manufacturer in the world Advantechhas many R and D projects on going to leverage thelatest technologies and package them for ourcustomers in the varied embedded market sectors thatwe service. Gaming is certainly a sector that demandshigh performance from the hardware in the visual andaudio areas. The best strategy to meet these demands isto be sure to choose hardware that uses the latestchipsets, CPUs and GPUs and can therefore supportthe enabling software and new API technologies thatare coming out for virtual reality, machine vision etc.At Advantech we are fortunate to have earliest accessto new hardware and our gaming products canleverage reference designs from other divisions toaccelerate their availability on our platforms forregulated gaming applications.

Another strategy that the gaming OEM should look toadopt is that of using open architecture designs. Selecthardware that allow for easy update especially of theCPU and GPU hardware components.

That way he is not locked into last year’s technologywhen new advances come along. With Advantechproducts customers can usually easily update the CPUto the latest and greatest (perhaps Intel releases arefresh version of their Core –I CPU range whichenables a new API for virtual releaty rendering, or thenew AMD or Nvidia graphics hardware is needed tosupport a new technological advance in machinevision). Our products mostly support full spec. PCI-Ex16 Gen 3 expansion via convention industry standardgraphics card slot whereby the latest graphicshardware can be fitted to our gaming platformswithout losing the security and IO features needed fora casino machine while still supporting the latest GPUhardware.

are today’s gaming machines pushing theboundaries of what the technology can offer?

Craig stapleton, advantech-innocore: Regularly, wehave customers come to us with requirements such as“I want the same hardware as an XBOX or Playstation4”. Fortunately we can offer gaming platforms withthis kind of performance with the latest CPUs fromAMD and Intel combined with open architecturegraphics solutions. In most cases we can fulfil theperformance requirements with embedded hardware.

Sometimes the customer will have to make somecompromises such as accepting that the GPU graphicshardware may not have the kind of lifecycle thathe/she would desire. Or indeed the cost point. So ingeneral I don’t think gaming machines are pushing theboundaries in a significant way but other compromisescome into play for the ODM trying to leverage the latesttechnologies in a production gaming product.

Jon Jayal, Quixant: Studios are always pushing theenvelope of the available graphics and processor

performance to create more captivating, vibrant games.Recent developments, such as the move to 4K displaysand content, has placed additional demands on thegaming platforms driving the games. That said, there isa relentless march in the advancement of thetechnology available. Quixant enables customers toadopt the latest technology early with astraightforward upgrade path and quick time to marketwhilst using that technology efficiently. This meansthat there remains plenty of performance available topower the latest games.

Clyde Chen, axiomtek: today’s gaming machines areactually utilising the near-full potential of what thecurrent technology can offer. Most technologies arecapable of reaching 4K resolutions, but the marketadaptation is growing slowly. We believe that once true4K game content, along with 4K displays, is readilyavailable to general audience, we will see another bigpush in terms of technology needs.

mark Perkins, heber: Quite simply no, pushing theboundaries of technology tends to also significantlyincrease machine cost. Gaming machine developerstend to adopt technologies when they are becomingmature and more cost-effective.

how do you strike the right balance betweenspeed/performance and cost?

Clyde Chen, axiomtek: Depending on gamingmanufacturers target market, it can create marketsegmentation by using highly scalable processors.Processor manufacturers are creating various pincompatible options across their processor family linewith various cost options adding flexibility to theoverall hardware design.

Jon Jayal, Quixant: Quixant constantly assesses thetechnology available in the market from acost/performance/availability perspective and cherrypicks the products it integrates into its gamingplatforms to suit different markets and machine types.AMD offers an incredible level of graphicsperformance, which is typically one of the greatestbottlenecks faced by developers. The other aspectwhich is crucial to consider is the power consumptionwhich high performance computers require and howyou address cooling the components reliably.

Craig stapleton, advantech-innocore: As we alluded tothe cost of the “bleeding edge” hardware can be anissue as well as the lifecycle of the hardware. Much ofthe very highest performance hardware our customersmay want to use is high price targeted at the“prosumer” and “enthusiast” market where typicallongevity for a particular model may be six monthsbefore the next model is introduced. So the gamingODM definitely has to strike a balance between cuttingedge performance hardware and a platform that willbe around for a reasonable period of time and at a costthat is within budget.

mark Perkins, heber: Different machine types anddifferent geographical markets have varyingcost/performance requirements. For this reason Heberoffers a range of Pluto controllers that cover aprice/performance curve from the Pluto t100 throughto the Pluto A300 and A400.


clyde chen,Product Sales Manager, Axiomtek Gaming

Clyde Chen is the Product SalesManager of Axiomtek Gaming andhas over five years experience inthe gaming market supplyingindustrial computer componentsfor Logic Board, Logic Box, andvarious components tocomplement EGM and ETG needscovering markets from NorthAmerica, Latin America, Europe,and Asia.

Products and services provided byAxiomtek are off-the-shelfproducts and customisedproducts to meet and improve thecustomer’s solution.

Mark Perkins, Heber Gaming Product Manager,Heber Limited

Mark has been taking productsfrom concept to production atHeber for over two decades.

Mark is a multi-skilled engineerwith strong commercialawareness and has worked inmany application areas includinggaming, vending and white goods.

Mark likes to get involved incustomers projects and enjoysbeing able to look at end productsfor sale and say, “We did theelectronics for that”.


InsighteMbeDDeD SoluTionSPower and performance

is there a trade-off with improved performance interms of increased power, heat and noise?

mark Perkins, heber: For clients looking at ultimateperformance it is difficult to get away without the needof fans to manage the heat dissipation. From a designpoint of view we look for long life fans. In addition,fans are now monitored allowing software to detect afan failure so a service call can be made. Noise is notalways a problem but the use of a larger fan that runsat a slower speed can significantly help reduce noiselevels.

Craig stapleton, advantech-innocore: Yes the latestCPU and GPU technology pushes the limits of coolingand size constraints in some slot machines and othergaming applications. GPUs that use close to 200W ofpower are sometimes used for proof of concept butthen have to be rationalised against the cooling, powersupply and mechanical constraints. Cooling and noisecan be problematic but most slot machines ODM candesign for adequate cooling and the slot machineenvironment does not require machines to be silent(quite the opposite, the machines themselves usuallyhave quite loud sound effects going on.

Jon Jayal, Quixant: Absolutely, more performancealmost always leads to increased power consumptionand heat generation. Quixant spends considerable

R&D effort to reduce this trade-off through innovativethermal solutions and purpose-built enclosure design.Quixant’s platforms are designed to offer higherreliability through the reduction in the use of fans forlow to mid-range products and through innovativeintegrated cooling solutions using high reliability fansfor high-end products.

Clyde Chen, axiomtek: Yes, usually when gamesrequire higher performance, more processing power interms of frequency speed and core counts havecorrelational influences on the thermal design power(tDP) where hardware manufacturers are challengedon the cooling system inside its gaming platforms.Manufacturers need to choose adequate cooling fanstaking into consideration the Air Flow and noise levelscreated. Other components like heatpipes and otherfanless designs could be used to reduce noise, butwould also increase costs significantly.

What should game developers be focusing theirattention on in terms of adding to the performanceof their games and delivering next-gen experiencesfor players?

Jon Jayal, Quixant: Developers need to beunconstrained by the computer hardware platform sothey can deliver their content ideas as they envisagethem. This means using the hardware resources

“The high cost of seekingregulatory approvals meansthat manufacturers want tomaximise the useful lifespanof the hardware they selectand want the technology tohave the capability tosupport whatever newfeatures future games mightoffer. We also provideconsiderable supportthrough our GamingEcosystem to helpcustomers improve theefficiency with which thehardware is utilised.”Jon Jayal, Quixant

The cost of the “bleedingedge” hardware can be anissue as well as thelifecycle of the hardware.Much of the very highestperformance hardware ourcustomers may want touse is high price targetedat the “prosumer” and“enthusiast” market wheretypical longevity for aparticular model may besix months before the nextmodel is introduced. So thegaming ODM definitely hasto strike a balance betweencutting edge performancehardware and a platformthat will be around for areasonable period of timeand at a cost that is withinbudget.Craig Stapleton,Advantech-Innocore


Power and performance

efficiently and having access to purpose builttechnology which reduces their R&D spend oncomputer development and frees them up to focus onthe game - which ultimately is what drives the playerexperience.

Clyde Chen, axiomtek: For game developers, it isalways important to know the operating system thatthe game would be operating, and then the choice ofgame engines (either standard or open-sourcecustomisable) would be similarly critical. Moreover,the availability of different hardware to create next-gen experiences like 3D, VR, curved displays, etc. arealso crucial to be considered for game developers inorder to deliver next-gen experiences to the players.

Craig stapleton, advantech-innocore: As mentioned itis mainly the GPU hardware and CPU technologiesthat enable the newest user experiences whethervirtual reality or 3D graphics for arcade/console styleskill based games. Underlying rendering engines suchas Unity are enabling cross platform development andDirect X 12.

What are the key differences in the latest chipsetsfrom intel and aMd - kaby lake and ryzen, andwhat impact are they going to have on the market?

Jon Jayal, Quixant: AMD’s Ryzen products represent a

leap forward in AMD’s processor proposition in almostevery aspect including performance, powerconsumption, feature set and graphics/videoacceleration capabilities. They will enable gamers tobenefit from AMD’s strong graphics capabilitiesintegrated into a chip which also offers best of classCPU performance. Intel’s Kaby Lake architecture is anevolution of Skylake and improves power utilisationand subtle increases in performance andenhancements of the video decode engine on theintegrated graphics unit to support 4K videoencoding/decoding.

Craig stapleton, advantech-innocore: AMD’s newRyZen architecture (and the embedded versions to bereleased in 2018) offer great promise to enable a largeruse of integrated graphics for 4k gaming applications.AMDs new CPU architecture closes the gap somewhatwith Intel on CPU performance. traditionally IntelCPUs have been stronger on arithmetical operationsespecially in multithreaded applications.

The new AMD Ryzen closes the gap while stillmaintaining AMD’s superiority in the integratedgraphics provided within the CPU/APU. But it shouldbe stressed that only a certain percentage of casinogaming applications can use the integrated graphicsand an increasing proportion require dedicated GPUhardware. But for those applications for whichdedicate graphics hardware is not needed AMD Ryzenwill offer a great price performance package.

It is also worth noting that AMD Ryzen, as well as IntelKaby Lake and future platforms only supportWindows 10 and later operating systems. Meaning theODM’s developers have access to enablingtechnologies of Windows 10 such as Direct X12 but alsoforcing them to port their existing libraries andplatforms to the new operating systems whether theywant to or not. (Intel’s recent Skylake platform isgetting a lot of interest because it is the last embeddedlifecycle platform with support for Windows 7).

Clyde Chen, axiomtek: The latest offering from bothIntel (Kaby Lake) and AMD (Ryzen) are based on the14nm process architecture where both have differentappeals for the market. Intel usually offers the widestrange of scalable processors that meets most clients’needs, whereas AMD’s latest Ryzen provides moregraphical power when compared to similarperformance Intel-based processors. Anotherdifference as a differentiator for market acceptance ison the software support, which could have a biginfluence on maximising all the power available fromthe hardware and also the level of customisationpossible to ease the game development process.

mark Perkins, heber: AMD Ryzen is a relatively newconsumer based product, but it will be a while beforewe see long-life embedded products for the gamingmarket. Intel is slightly ahead of the game and hasembedded long-life parts available today.

Intel has traditionally had better CPU performanceover AMD, however, with Ryzen this will besignificantly reduced. These new CPUs offer asignificant performance upgrade over previous devicesso games designers will be able to produce even moregraphically rich game content.

“AMD Ryzen is a relativelynew consumer basedproduct, but it will be a whilebefore we see long-lifeembedded products for thegaming market. Intel isslightly ahead of the gameand has embedded long-lifeparts available today. Intelhas traditionally had betterCPu performance over AMD,however, with Ryzen this willbe significantly reduced.These new CPus offer asignificant performanceupgrade over previousdevices so games designerswill be able to produce evenmore graphically rich gamecontent.”Mark Perkins, Heber


“For game developers, it isalways important to knowthe operating system thatthe game would beoperating in and then thechoice of game engines(either standard or open-source customisable)would be similarly critical.Moreover, the availability ofdifferent hardware tocreate next-genexperiences like 3D, VR,curved displays, etc. arealso crucial to beconsidered for gamedevelopers in order todeliver next-genexperiences to the players.”Clyde Chen, Axiomtek

aGeM Index

The AGEM Index reached anotherrecord high in April, continuing themomentum from previous months.The composite index stood at 371.50points at the close of April 2017, whichrepresents an increase of 10.22 points,or 2.8 per cent, when compared toMarch. The Index reported a year-over-year increase for the 19thconsecutive month, rising 144.99points, or 64.0 per cent, compared toApril 2016. During the latest period,nine of the 13 gaming manufacturersreported month-to-month increasesin stock price, with two up by morethan 10 per cent. Three manufacturersreported decreases in stock priceduring the month and one posted aflat performance.


MeMBerSHIp newS

AGeM Key board of Directors Actionsl A new AGEM Officer was voted in at the recent May meeting. IGt

put forward Scott Gunn as Officer candidate who was dulyapproved as AGEM’s VP of Government Relations.

l The Nevada Gaming Control Board finalised its proposed Reg 5 and5a language covering account wagering, among other topics. AGEMcounsel Dan Reaser attended the May meeting of the GCB wherethey were seeking approval for these new regulations. Separately,GCB technology Division Chief, Jim Barbee presented an update toselected AGEM members on the GCB’s new pre-approvalinspection proposal, along with an update on its previouslyintroduced New Innovation Beta program.

l The recent flurry of activity in Florida proposing for gamingregulations to be passed, subsequently saw House and Senateleaders fail to reach resolution, leaving any formal gamingexpansion plans dead for the year.

l AGEM’s membership of the Pennsylvania Video GamingAssociation (PaVGA) was recently approved. A lengthy legislativehearing was held in Harrisburg on May 1 that included opposition tothe idea of video gaming terminals from most of the state’s casinos.With a large number of gaming bills pending in Pennsylvania it isunlikely any decisions will be made until at least June.

l AGEM’s commissioned Economic Impact Study, carried out by LasVegas firm Applied Analysis will be published in May. The Studyhighlights the collective strength of the supplier sector that had adirect output (revenue) of $17.9 billion in 2106 and directly employsmore than 55,000 people making an average annual wage of$89,400.

l The recent 19th AGEM-AGA Golf Classic presented by JCM Global,was yet again a successful fundraiser for the National Center forResponsible Gaming (NCRG), seeing 144 players take part. Over thepast 18 years, the event has managed to raise an astonishing $2.7mfor this very worthwhile cause.

l AGEM welcomed two new members in May – William Hill US,based in Las Vegas was voted in as a Silver member and electronictable games manufacturer Spintec, based in Slovenia was voted inas a Bronze member. In addition, existing member Quixant waselevated to Silver Level due to an increase in gross annual revenue.

MeMBer proFIle

Company / Catapult Global web address / catapultglobal.com

agem membership level / Associate description / Founded in 2004, Catapult Global has been a valuable

supplier of plastics, metals, harnessing, assemblies, and othermanufactured goods to the gaming industry. With manufacturing facilitieslocated throughout China, Catapult works closely with OEM’s to meet their

contract manufacturing needs. From complete cabinets to simple parts,Catapult’s goal is to exceed its customer’s expectations in terms of Delivery,Quality, and Price. From its corporate headquarters in Henderson, NV, the

teams in the US work seamlessly with the Asian teams to achieve this goal. Catapult owes much of its success to its engineering teams. Quality, design,and production engineers all work with the customer base to insure partsare made correctly, from first article through production. The engineering

team determines the best fit for the customers project, and then works witha chosen supplier from it’s vast network of manufacturing facilities. This is

what allows Catapult to offer such a wide array of manufacturingcapabilities to its customer base.

new products for 2017 / Catapult prides itself on its flexibility in meetingcustomer demands. Whether VMI, Kanban, drop shipments, etc., Catapult’s

customer service teams create inventory programs that insure parts arewhere they need to be, anywhere in the world. This includes the company’sEuropean customer base. Working with several companies in Europe, bothin gaming and other industries, Catapult has weekly shipments headed to

the continent. It is an ongoing initiative of the company to expand itspresence in Europe. Currently they are looking for a centrally-located

facility to further enhance the services it provides into Europe all ready.newsworthy events to share / Most recently, Catapult has opened a new59,000 square foot facility in Henderson, NV. The new facility not only

works as a warehouse/distribution center, but also an assembly location.This compliments the 25,000 square foot location in Chicago, IL. Catapult

is able to service the entire United States from these facilities.

AGEM is an international trade association representing manufacturers of electronic gaming devices, systems, lotteries and componentsfor the gaming industry. The Association works to further the interests of gaming equipment manufacturers throughout the world.Through political action, tradeshow partnerships, information dissemination and good corporate citizenship, the members of AGEM worktogether to create benefits for every company within the organization. Together, AGEM and its member organisations have assistedregulatory commissions and participated in the legislative process to solve problems and create a positive business environment.

AGEMMeMberSHiP newS

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The Bulgarian gaming market is ascontradictory, surprising and stereotypical asthe country itself. Flying Bulgarian Air intoSofia, the inflight magazine drew attention tothe fact that women occupy 44 per cent of allmanagerial positions in Bulgaria. It’s asurprising and progressive statistic, though thefact those women are paid almost half as muchas their male counterparts for performing thesame roles, shows that blind statistics rarelypaint the full picture.

A whistle-stop tour of the gaming halls in Sofiashowed that preconceived notions of theBulgarian gaming market fail to appreciate thechanges that have taken place in the country.Visiting locations in the capital reveals a market

that is brimming with investment in the latestgaming equipment as players respond to newlyopened, up-market locations that are staffedand serviced to international levels.

The fact that the Bulgarian gaming market is inrude health is, frankly, shocking. At a time inwhich gaming bans are proliferating throughoutthe political system in Central Europe, with theCzech Republic and Slovakia most recentlyinflicting major land-based changes, includingtaxation hikes, Bulgaria has taken a differentpath. Not that the industry didn’t come close tothe brink. The current Gambling Act wasadopted in March 2012 and entered into force onJuly 1 the same year. The main focus of the lawwas to add controls and measures to the

burgeoning online gaming and betting sector inthe country, however, the impact on the land-based sector was also marked.

While the government initially wrestled withthe industry, threatening sweeping bans andstiff taxation penalties, the resultant Gaming Actwas much softer in application, having also beensignificantly modified by the BulgarianGovernment following criticism of the draft lawby the European Commission. Discussing thechanges with casino operators in Sofia (‘casino’here referring to both live table casinos andelectronic gaming halls), all were satisfied withthe current regime under which they operate.And since the gaming industry returned more tothe Bulgarian exchequer in 2016 than the

ReportsbulGAriA - SoFiA GAMinG MArKeT

Accepting an invitation to revisit the gaming halls of Sofia in the wakeof the latest Gaming Act, we discover a market unrecognisable fromthe past and with an unquenchable appetite for the latest technology

A gaming tour of Sofia - from the inside out


country’s banking sector, the benefits of fair,robust and measured legislation is payingdividends at both ends of the spectrum.

an aCT oF deFIanCeWhen the Gaming Act came into force inBulgaria, gaming halls in cities had to operate aminimum of 50 machines per location, whichsaw the closure of hundreds of smaller halls anda massive consolidation of the business (50 slotsper location in cities with over 500,000inhabitant, 30 slots for cities with 50,000-500,000 inhabitants and 15 units for towns andvillages with less than 50,000 people). Eachlocation had to dedicate 2sq.m. for the siting ofeach machine, with floor space becoming adetermining factor in whether a location wasable to continue operation. New halls sprang upin much larger locations, away from schools,hospitals and government facilities as dictatedin the law, with the exception of those conjoinedwith five-star hotels.

The result of this rout of small operations is thatthe market has significantly matured, with

gaming halls not only scaling in size, butinstalling the very latest gaming equipment andsystems. Players are now some of the mostdemanding in the European marketplace andoperators have had to keep pace with this shiftin sophistication and desire to play the verylatest innovations.

The gaming halls in Bulgaria have mostobviously benefitted from the development ofmodern gaming machines, with ‘traditional’devices being removed from locations across thecountry, refurbished and re-sited in newmarkets such as Africa. The scale of this refreshof machines in the gaming halls we visited inSofia was astonishing. ‘Big monitor’ machinesdominate the market with each casino operatorsinging the praises of the new devices andalready planning additional installations.

The majority of machines across the locationscame from EGt and Casino technology, withAPEX, Aristocrat, Novomatic, Scientific Games,Merkur Gaming and IGt etc. all represented,though with a smaller number of units. What

was interesting is that operators lauded theirmachines mix as a reason for their location’ssuccess. Operators that have tried to develop a‘one manufacturer’ only policy have struggled orfailed – especially in Sofia. Customers inBulgaria demand variety and while Casinotechnology and EGt dominate the floors, banksof slots from international gamingmanufacturers also featured in every gaminghall we visited. One of the big surprises was thatmulti-player roulettes have been falling inpopularity in the gaming halls in Bulgariaaccording to operators, a statistic borne outanecdotally during our visit, with machinessitting idle while players chased bonuses andjackpots constantly updated on big screenmonitors.

The catalyst for the development of theBulgarian market was the Gaming Act, which isdescribed by operators as contemporary, wellbalanced and flexible – with the industry andgovernment working together to build a strongbusiness community and protect the player.Built into the Bulgaria Gaming Act is a provision,a special tax, paid by operators to fund researchand prevention of problem gambling. It’s a fixedamount paid annually, with land-based slotoperators paying 5,000BGN per location, with50,000BGN for online operators.

In addition to the millions collected from thistax, the government also instigated a tender in2016 for software suppliers to createprogrammes designed to monitor and preventgambling addiction within their CMS systems.The Bulgarian trade Association, BtAGI, alsoprovides a number of initiatives to combatproblem gambling, including workshops held indifferent towns and cities throughout the year.

CHanGe aT a CoMpany leVelThe Bulgarian market as a whole hasn’t so muchgrown, as it has been completely refreshed.Legislation has weeded out the weak and theillegitimate, promoting a sector that now thriveson new technology. “If you look at othermarkets around the world, you’ll see machinesalmost a decade old still occupying space on thecasino floors,” Casino technology Founder,President and CEO, Milo Borissov. “While themarket in Bulgaria supports around 25,000machines, the majority of this number is threeto five years old, with the replacement cyclenow much shorter than five years.”

The dominant forces in the Bulgarian slots sectorare EGt and Casino technology, though in thelast two years international manufacturers havegained a footprint in the market. Casinomanagement systems are used throughout thecountry, both in the live table and electroniccasino halls, with IGt and Casino technologysystems commonplace. The gaming show, BEGE,has also come of age. Launched 10 years ago, theBulgarian Entertainment Gaming Expo wasinitially (and we’re being kind) an amateuraffair. However, in the last three years the showhas matured and now reflects the marketplacein terms of professionalism, commercial activityand investment.

The BEGE gaming show and conference has alsoplayed a major part in the renaissance of theBulgarian gaming market. The ability of theindustry to meet with regulators and legislators

in a neutral space, to discuss in a public forumthe needs of all the interested parties and reachconsensus has been massively influential in thestabilisation of the market.

“The Balkan markets are more attractive interms of expansion and development, withgreater competition in every sector of thegaming industry,” says Casino technology VicePresident, Rossi McKee. “The region is becomingmuch more interesting for the internationalgaming companies who are opening regionaloffices to service this market. Bulgaria itself isbecoming a gaming hub, with fair, robust andstable legislation, excellent infrastructure andhigh speed internet at affordable prices; we areseeing It centres opening across the countrywith online gaming companies establishingbranch offices in Sofia to add support andmarketing services.”

All this attention means that competition in theregion is rampant. New products in online,sports-betting, slots and table games, aredriving the market forward and creating anincreasingly sophisticated player-base, which inturn is driving replacement cycles. “If you’re amanufacturer serving the 25,000 install base ofgaming machines, you must be a ‘global’supplier of games and machines,” underlines

Mr. Borissov. “The market demands the verybest products available anywhere, withrefurbished machines heading to secondarymarkets as part of the accelerating replacementcycle. This means that the market is veryadvanced, with rental and lease theoverwhelming majority of machine deals due tothe speed of the changeover process.”

Size of screen is something that really matters tolocal players. In the last three to four years themarketplace has seen screen sizes shift from astandard 20-22ins, to 24ins. and now 27ins. isalready a minimum size for a gaming monitor. “Ithink the only constraints in terms of physicalsize will be determined by the space allocatedby the casino,” says Mr. Borissov.“Manufacturers will continue to add larger andlarger screens, but the operators will put a capon the eventual size due to the limits of floorspace and dimensions floor to ceiling. Themarket is also quite price sensitive, so we’re notlooking to build the space shuttle, as no one willpay for it.”

Since a conversation about gaming is notcomplete these days without mentioning‘millennials,’ it appears that Bulgaria, despite itsappetite for contemporary machines, is notimmune to the diminishing number of slot hall

players as a younger generation seeks its gamingpleasures online. “Online is more appealing tothis younger generation of players,” agrees Mr.Borissov. “They experience the world throughtheir mobile devices – ‘on-the-go’ – not in land-based locations. In the near future, Casinotechnology will be producing more and morecontent for these players. Every generationwants to find a different experience from theprevious generation and we are going to targetcontent in this direction.”

CaSIno TeCHnoloGy Head oFFICeSEvery slot we saw in the gaming halls of Sofiawas a multi-games machine featuring a hugemonitor, with games launched the moment aplayer’s finger touched the screen. “Players wantthe very latest gaming experience, andtouchscreens and large 4K monitors deliver thekind of play they want,” says Casinotechnology’s Executive Director, Ivan tsankarsy.“And just as they’re expecting a new mobilephone every one to two years, they don’t justwant new games, but to experience those gameson new delivery platforms.”

“Eastern European and South American marketsare driven by multi-games,” adds Mr. Borissov.“I believe this is related to the culture just asmuch as it is about space-saving in locations. As


ReportsbulGAriA -SoFiA GAMinG MArKeT

The Balkan markets are more attractive in terms ofexpansion and development, with greater

competition in every sector of the gaming industry.The region is becoming much more interesting for

the international gaming companies who areopening regional offices to service this market

a manufacturer, we are constantly pushingagainst the limitations of the hardware to imbueeach game within the multi-games machinewith animations, sound and features to appealto every type of player. Multi-games are themost versatile gaming machines, but the gamesmust still clearly target their player base.”

In the gaming halls of Bulgaria, players are notlooking for time on device, according to Mr.Borissov. Locations do not provide ‘resort-style’facilities enjoyed by the weekend visitor, butrather with gaming halls on many street corners,the locals markets is dominated by playerslooking to spend half an hour playing a slotbefore heading home. “It isn’t part of Europeanculture to spend our weekend in casinos playingslots,” says Mr. Borissov. “The speed of the gameis, therefore, very important because players arenot looking to devote lots of time to machineplay. They want to win or lose and leave. So youhave to develop games for this type of player,while at the same time developing single gamesfor time on device players in markets such asAsia and the US, with lots of visual effects andentertainment features.”

Machines are assembled in the Casinotechnology offices in Sofia, not manufactured,with none of the metal-working or wire loomsonce such a familiar part of every factory tour.Casino technology assembles and delivers itsmachines from its Sofia-based offices, sub-contracting most of the manufacturing process.‘Multi-faceted software designer’ is a morefitting label for a company that creates contentacross a whole series of machines, interactivedevices and systems, and is less and less a‘manufacturer’ in the old-school sense of theword.

Visting the Casino technology head office inSofia, what’s immediately obvious, talking to

Mr. tsankarsy, is how dominant monitors havebecome in the modern gaming machine. 42ins.screens have become commonplace with HDand 4K touchscreens incorporated in hugepanels mounted both vertically, horizontallyand in curved ratios. The Bulgarian casinomarket is awash with this style of machine.Looking at the generation of gaming machinesfrom just two years ago is like going back toprehistoric times. It feels as if the scale andperformance of the latest gaming monitors haveunshackled today’s slots from the very conceptof a machine.

Open a last generation slot machine and you’reconfronted with a telephone exchange-stylewiring system that feds all manner of bulbs,note and coin readers and acceptors, spinningreels, PC boards etc. today, with discreteminimal cabling, LED lighting, flat screen panelsand powerful miniature gaming boards, it’spossible to climb inside one of the newgeneration of ‘machines’ and have enough spaceto close the door. And with players in Bulgariashifting to a single wallet, transferring theirmoney using their player card for online andland-based play, the slots are pared down tosculptured designs that emphasises form overtraditional function. The tANGRA tower with its43.ins vertical shows just how just how muchreal-estate can now be incorporated into asingle enormous screen, whereas the EZModulo, with its configurable arrangement ofmonitors mounted in different axes and sizes tosuit all environments and wallets, is testamentto the flexibility of the new design architecture.

Of course, one of the problems of this scaling ofscreens and modular design is that games mustbe re-developed for each individual platform.There’s no longer a one-size fits all. Thosestandard CRt designs have been consigned tohistory, which means that a single game has tobe developed in multiple configurations to meetthe scale of a 43ins. monitor or the neatproportions of a 22ins. screen. And that’s justthe land-based side of things. The speed ofcabinet replacement, as Mr. tsankarsyconfirmed, is ever increasing its pace. In thepast, a slots manufacturer would invariablyoffer an upright and a slant-top version of thesame cabinet – and that was it! today, where aslot manufacturer used to bring a replacementcabinet to market every four-five years, thatcycle is now two-three years, and the portfolioof cabinets is greater than ever; offering three,four or even five different cabinet designs, eachable to be modified for different applications.

“The performance of the game is nowintrinsically tied to the cabinet,” agrees Casinotechnology Founder and CEO, Milo Borissov.“The player is looking for the complete package.They appreciate the quality of the sound, pictureand overall experience. A decade ago the cabinetwas not such an important element, but we’renow releasing a new cabinet every two years,with the shift away from metal box cabinets tocabinets that resemble enormous mobilephones.”

a dIFFerenT dIreCTIonThe new law in Bulgaria changed the course ofthe gaming sector. Though it could have veryeasily gone in a very different direction,according to Ms. McKee. “You have the examplesof this happening in Slovakia and the Czech




Republic, but the new law here, both offline andonline, has stablised the market,” says Ms.McKee. “Even the raised taxation levels havebeen a good compromise between thegovernment and the industry. It’s created anenvironment that’s not only good for domesticbusinesses, but also foreign investment too. Thesmall operators closed their doors, which hasbeen helpful in making the market moreprofessional and mature, plus it has created newopportunities, especially as the law has built aframework that allows new technologies toflourish.”

“Our company has always had its strength increating unique products in many differentchannels. We differentiate in boutique, butquality products,” emphasises Ms. McKee. “It’sthe secret to the success of Casino technology in50+ countries around the world. We focus uponutilizing new technology and opportunities foromni-channel content and delivery. Ourexpertise is in creating unique games content,whether that’s wrapped up in an engineeringsolution such as cabinets, or the potential thatonline and mobile gaming offers.”

Having toured Sofia’s gaming halls and casinos,it is clear the Milo Borissov’s interests in bothoperations and manufacturing are mutuallybeneficial, supporting each other with not justperfectly attuned games and cabinets, but alsosystem and online content that completes anomni-channel, single wallet view of the playerand the market. So why hasn’t the businessdiversified outside of the Bulgarian market andexported this operations and contentcombination to international markets, as we’veseen with other highly successful Europeancompanies?

“I agree the operations and the manufacturingbusinesses present beneficial opportunities,”says Mr. Borissov. “However, we’ve always keptthe operations business completely separatefrom our manufacturing side, as we believe it isvery important to keep them independent ofeach other. It is important that they each havetheir own objectives and targets, in which theoperations are free to place equipment in theirlocations that optimize profits, as opposed tosimply supporting the manufacturing business.It is also important, when we work withindependent operators that we are independentourselves in regards to volume and marketshare.We do not seek to ‘buy’ market share throughoperations. It has worked in certain markets, butin others, such as in the Czech Republic,Hungary and here in Bulgaria, it has failed. Andif you only operate with your own product, youcan misinterpret the local culture, the mindsetof the player, to the degree that you offer aproduct that players are indifferent towards.”

“The gaming business is driven by content,”continues Mr. Borissov. “In land-based, thebusiness is a combination of content mixed withthe right hardware, whereas in online, you’re notlimited by the physical environment. In thefuture I believe the land-based offering willbecome increasingly boutique, while online willbecome the mass-market product. The same ishappening in retail. You visit a retail location fora unique experience to buy a hand-madeproduct, for example, but the rest of the time wepurchase what we need on Amazon.”

SporTS-BeTTInG and onlIneWhile Casino technology has traditionally beena slots manufacturer, in the last 12 months thecompany has migrated its entire games portfolio

to HtML5 technology. It’s been a mammothundertaking, but in comparison to land-based,where the company needs to individuallyremodel each game for every type of monitorconfiguration, Casino technology has simplifiedits interactive offering to a single HtML versionof its games that work across desktop andmobile channels, whatever the device.

“Looking ahead two to three years, I think ourfocus will have shifted to online,” says Mr.Borissov. “However, at the moment, while thereare so many unregulated markets, onlinecontinues to be an interesting part of Casinotechnology’s focus. We currently have 100online games in the portfolio, integrating withseveral platforms, having signed agreementswith Playtech and NYX to build our onlinepresence. I think in two to three years thecompany will be split 50/50 between land-based and online, whereas today we’re probably80/20.”

It’s a split that’s likely to change the make-up of

Bottom right: IvanTsankarsky, Executvie

Director, CasinoTechnology. Bottom:

Stefan Enchev, BusinessDevelopment Central

and Western Europe andRoman Dimitrov, Sports

Betting Project Manager,Casino Technology.Below: The RoyalePalms VIP Room.


Casino technology itself, with Mr. Borissovlooking to divide the company into twodivisions with the creation of a separate Casinotechnology Interactive. “In terms of online, weare entering this sector very much as anewcomer, as compared to the land-basedsector. However, we understand the need tocatch-up both in terms of placement andlicensing,” states Vice President of Casinotechnology, Rossi McKee. “Our focus is onlegalised gaming markets and the conceptsaligned to omni-channel solutions andenvironments. We will adapt our products to fitthe requirements of regulated markets, whetherthat’s online only, land-based specific, or acombination of both.”

Speaking to Roman Dimitrov, Casinotechnology’s Sports-Betting/Project Manager,he demonstrated the company’s online casinoand sports-betting offerings under the‘eCasino.BG.’ banner. Just as the gaming halls inSofia are packed with every kind of game fromalmost every manufacturer, Casino

technology’s online casino offers its owngames, plus those of its domestic rival, EGt, andalso features the games library from NYX, andincludes payment methods offered from Skrillthrough to ePay and ezpay, with cash paymentsthe preferred options for Bulgarian players.

Unique to the eCasino.BG site is the monthlybet bonus, with prizes averaging around €1,500.“Our style of operation is different from themajority of online operations in Bulgaria as weare focused on linking our locations with ouronline offering,” says Mr. Dimitrov. “In any ofour land-based locations you can transfer yourmoney to the cashless system and play onlinewherever you like. Moving your money betweenland-based and online is really easy for ourplayers, with rewards aimed at giving playersthe best experience possible wherever theychoose to play. For many of our land-basedplayers, it is about teaching them how to playonline, whereas we are incentivising onlineplayers to visit our land-based locations, manyof them for the first time.”

Casino technology has developed a mobile Appthat updates and alerts users to the precise levelof the jackpot at each and every slots hall in thenetwork – and not just the mystery jackpotlevel, but the live play in every slots parlour. In acountry with a shrinking population of 7.09million at the last count in 2016 (a decade agothe population of Bulgaria was 7,682,614), thepotential online player base is small byinternational standards, but when combiningthe number of slots (25,000) with the onlineplayer base, the omni-channel player is a veryvaluable commodity.

“What we have seen, being a land-basedoperator, is that our top five land-based gamesare also our top five online games,” says StefanEnchev, Head of Business Development Centraland Western Europe, Casino technology. “It’sthe same in international markets in which ourtop games in Bulgaria are a 99 per cent matchfor the top five games in Georgia and Cyprus –both online and land-based, which is whatmakes omni-channel so appealing.”


Locations both within casino halls and sports-betting locations in Bulgaria feature onlineterminals aimed at promoting play in bothenvironments and to educate players in the useof the single wallet solution. “Sports-betting isbecoming increasingly popular in Bulgaria,”describes Mr. Enchev. “We have more than 80traders and 30 different kinds of sports on offeracross 30,000 live events per month. We areseeing 60-75 per cent of play on mobile devices,having just launched a dedicated mobile websiteand this side of online play in Bulgaria isaccelerating very fast.”

THe onlIne GaMInG MarkeTIn January 2014 Bulgaria adopted a newgambling taxation regime, which, together withthe reasonable and balanced regulationscurrently in place, made the country attractivefor local licensing and gambling operationsbased upon a low corporate tax. One and a halfyears after the Gambling Act was introduced,the tax base for gambling has switched from aturnover base to a Gross Gaming Revenue base.

The taxation of online games in Bulgaria is basedon GGR with a 20 per cent tax rate. For games inwhich fees and commissions are collected (suchas poker), the tax rate will be 20 per cent of thecollected fees. In addition, there is a single feefor issuing and maintenance of a five-yearlicense, €50,000 (BGL100,000). No annual feewill be required during the five years’ validity ofthe license. Offline bingo and keno are taxedequally with other games.

The GGR-based taxation is not a part of thecommon tax system, but rather anadministrative fee regulated entirely in the Act,set apart from tax laws. Nevertheless, anyoperator who decides to have an establishmentin Bulgaria can take advantage of favorable andstable corporate tax at 10 per cent. The lowcorporate tax rate would apply only to operatorswho decide to establish a local company inBulgaria.

From a regulatory perspective, the Bulgariangaming regime is now one of the most balancedin Europe. It does not require a localestablishment and main server in Bulgaria forany foreign operator who decides to obtain alocal Bulgarian license (nevertheless, a localcontrol server in Bulgaria is required). There areno specific requirements for performingpayments through a local bank or to makecertain investments in the country.

The operators are not required to operate a dotbg domain. Foreign operators – registered,investing, and having a main server anywherewithin EU, EEA, and Switzerland – can apply for

a license. Nevertheless, the restrictions the Actimposes on an applicant whose shareholder isan offshore company should be carefullyconsidered as effectively they are preventedfrom obtaining a licence in Bulgaria.

The efforts of the Bulgarian Parliament are ofmajor significance. Instead of concentrating onblocking measures (such as ISP and/or paymentblocking), the government has focused on bestpractices and introduced regulations thatmotivate the online gambling operators toobtain a license and work not only in a balancedregulatory environment, but also under afavorable tax regime. These changes were aimedat balancing and optimising the sector’sregulation model that was introduced in 2012.They give the online operators promisingconditions to work legally in the Bulgarianmarket. At the same time, the new regulationsimpose stricter administrative sanctions onillegal online gambling operations.

operaTIonS In SoFIa – palMS MerkUrA joint partnership between Casino technologyand the Gauselmann Group, the Palms Merkurcasino chain has been a successful collaborationbetween the German gaming giant and theBulgarian powerhouse. A deal was struck in2006 to combine forces in Bulgaria to create achain of slot halls/casinos that would build onthe expertise of both companies, but alsooperate independently in terms of the productsand services offered to local players.

“I would describe the market in Bulgaria as ‘a bitsoft,’” say Anton Mihov, Executive Director,Palms Merkur Bulgaria. “Bulgarian players wantto play for a little more time on device thanother markets in Europe. High volatility gamestend to bounce off this market, which is whymany foreign manufacturers seeking to gain afoothold in this market have failed in the past,both in terms of supplying machines andoperations. Multi-game machines featuring 40


fruit games are commonplace, but machinesthat fail to offer the operator the ability tochange the percentage payout have performedbadly.”

There are 20 live table games locations inBulgaria, with seven located in the capital andthe remainder scattered across the country inseasonal resorts. There are 800 electroniccasinos (slot halls), with 120 in the Sofia alone,most in neighbourhoods with densepopulations. Outside these residential areas,shopping centre locations are also popular, witha broad mix of players. “Not long ago, the casinobusiness had a very bad image in Bulgaria,” sayMr. Mihov. “However, in the last two years, therehas been a shift in the consciousness of thepeople and their view of this industry. TheGaming Act changed things here, with thegovernment viewing the sector as just anotherregular business. We provide fun andentertainment and we pay our taxes.”

In 2016, the gaming industry in Bulgaria wasone of the highest contributors to governmentcoffers, eclipsing the contribution from thecountry’s banking industry. The gaming industryin the country has become a massive part of theinfrastructure in Bulgaria. The picture was very

different five year ago. The Bulgariangovernment was on a collision course with thegaming industry, with taxation threatened thatwould cripple the business and send whatremained underground. Politics was steering atrain of thought that paid little heed to commonsense, but as quickly as the storm erupted, itwas gone. The government brought stability notonly to the gaming market, but legislationchanges have seen foreign investment pour intopower generation, banking and heavy industryacross Bulgaria. The country is witnessing arenaissance across many different industriesand that wealth is finding its way into the casinonetwork.

Casting an eye around the gaming halls in Sofia,Mr. Mihov confirms our observation that 70-80per cent of the machines are offering fruitgames, with few bonus or free games, with aconcentration on the payout percentage returnto the player. The first location we visit is threeyears old, adjacent to a shopping mall in thecentre of Sofia and obviously benefiting fromthe foot-traffic. Players are registered into theRhino CMS loyalty system developed by Casinotechnology, which provides weekly promotionsthat Mr. Mihov explains are extremely popularwith guests, pointing to a large screen monitor

that displays the weekly win percentage for allthe machines in the location. “This is not fromthe bets,” he explains, “but from the win metres.Advertising is unlawful, but we can advertisethe company brand and we promote our payoutsto customers within each location.”

Mr. Mihov is proud of his 3.2 per cent hold, oneof the best in the city, and something his playersare only too aware of, even without the videodisplays. His location is busy on a late Thursdaymorning, with new customers that Mr. Mihovcredits both to the location and to Internetgaming. “I’d say we add 60 new customers toour loyalty programme every month, witharound 10 of those players coming directlybecause they’ve played casino games online,”says Mr. Mihov. “I think at the start, many wereafraid of the consequences of online gaming forthe land-based business, but online hasn’taffected us negatively. In fact, we have benefitedfrom customers playing in both environmentscoming into our location more frequently asthey generate reward points both off- andonline.”

Lottery, sports-betting, gaming halls andcasinos have all benefited from the introductionof online gaming in Bulgaria, with the only


The government brought stability not only to the gaming market, butlegislation changes have seen foreign investment pour into powergeneration, banking and heavy industry across Bulgaria. The country iswitnessing a renaissance across many different industries and thatwealth is finding its way into the casino network



exception - bingo, which has been effectivelykilled by online play. Another game that Mr.Mihov has seen shift into decline is roulette,with multi-players in each of the halls wevisited eerily quiet, despite commanding keypositions on the gaming floors. “Roulette is agame that is slowing dying in Bulgaria,” says Mr.Mihov. “Roulette is not adapting or changing asa game and in a market that is constantlylooking for something new and fresh, it’s losingout to more attractive games. We still offermulti-roulette to players, but each year therevenues are getting less and less. We are seeingfalls of between five to six per cent year onyear.”

Mr. Mihov believes roulette is being judged byplayers against the returns from gamingmachines, which are returning 3.6 per cent asopposed to 2.7 per cent from roulette. It’s asignificant margin and something thatsophisticated local players are recognising andacting upon. The ever-changing slots floor isalso driving players towards slot games, with Mr.Mihov explaining that he changesapproximately 10 per cent of his floor every sixmonths and that few machines now remainsince opening three years ago. Pointing to sevenMegajack machines, the 10 year old cabinethousing a 17 years old game, look out of place

next to the space-age new cabinets populatingthe rest of the floor – while every one of the 71machines on site is a multi-games title.

The casino is bright, colourful and spacious,something Mr. Mihov says is attractive to theyounger players who aren’t looking to frequent‘dark’ locations, a reference not just to thelighting, but an atmosphere as well. Each of thePalms Merkur’s eight locations, four in Sofia andthe rest spread across Bulgaria, offer the sameambience, with the company building newlocations from ‘scratch,’ as Mr. Mihov describes,as opposed to taking over existing locations andtheir inherent ‘issues.’ Every location is open24/7, as the concept of any downtime is deeplyunpopular with the playing public.

Huge tracts of the floor are filled with seatedcustomers at EGt machines, with the EZModulo, ARCH and tOWER from Casinotechnology providing immediate visual impactand variety. “Now they have a great series ofproducts,” says Mr. Mihov of the latest rangefrom Casino technology, “I’m eager to placemore machines as our players have reallyresponded to the latest cabinets and we can’twait to add more EZ Modulo machines to ourfloor.”

Gaming halls are taxed per gaming position, orseat, levied at €250 per month. It’s a fair sumaccording to each of the operators and managerswe spoke to during our visit and one thatappears to have eradicated illegal operations, asthe rewards for illegal operation as opposed topaying legal taxes are no longer worth the risks.

dIFFerenT aSpeCTS oF THe CITytravelling between locations in Sofia, there areswathes of the city lying derelict, like somedystopian movie in which nature is trying toclaim it back. One boarded up location is signed‘Bar Casino Flirt,’ a casino and stripclub, closedfor many years as the concept, we are told,‘didn’t work.’ We pass back into a moderndistrict in which shops, bars and restaurants linethe street on either side of a busy main road.There are three gaming halls within our eye-lineas we step into a Palms Bet Casino, the clientelenow predominantly male, though the mix ofslots machines is markedly similar to the PalmsMerkur location. The major difference, however,is a row of eCasino.bg terminals at the rear ofthe hall.

Players can play online games directly from theterminals in the gaming hall, but the overridinguse of the terminals is to transfer money fromplayer accounts. Should a player choose to

transfer cash from their bank account or debitcard into an online casino wallet, the transfertypically takes up to three days. transferringfunds to the Palms’ player loyalty card system,however, is immediate, with play using the cardtransferable between land-based and onlinegaming, with both environments accruingloyalty reward points for the customer.

It’s a popular system, especially as the loyaltysystem rewards players with Bronze, Silver, Goldand Platinum levels of bonus rewardsdepending on their status. Palms Bet CasinoManager, Nikolay Atanasov, explains that over70 per cent of play within the location is carded.“Players transfer money to their loyalty card toplay here in the casino and when they leave,they transfer the money online so that they canplay at home,” says Mr. Atanasov. Onlineplayers are incentivised with increased bonusrewards for online play, though to spend therewards they need to visit a land-based locationto participate in raffles and promotions forprizes.

Again, EGt and Casino technology machinesdominate the new location, with the Palms BetCasino just over 12 months old. The décor iscolourful, though subdued in comparison to theMerkur Palms Casino and is reflective of the

neighbourhood, which feels less welcoming andwe’re advised against visiting the adjacentgaming halls and are whisked away instead tothe Royale Palms Casino.

A modern build at just two years old, the RoyalePalms Casino resides within the five star HotelAnel on the outskirts of the old city and is thesecond largest casino in Sofia. The casinohouses 110 slots and 19 live gaming tables with alarge poker room and VIP area on the first floor.The casino offers 16 EtGs with the CasinoDirector, Rudi Bakov, explaining that the mostpopular games currently on the floor of theRoyale Palms Casino are Ultimate Poker,Russian Poker and Nova Poker, describing thegames as having a low percentage hold for thehouse, making them the most interesting for theplayers.

“We have been very successful with the latestARCH gaming machines from Casinotechnology,” states Mr. Bakov. “Many of thelatest VIP slots from gaming manufacturershave left our players a little ‘overwhelmed,’ butthe ARCH is a show-piece without theintimidation factor. Sofia is not a tourist market,so our location is much more a ‘neighbourhood’casino, with regular customers who can easilyswitch from one casino to another if our service

falls below their expectations.”

The Royale Palms Casino offers its VIP membersa Privilege Club, including a 24hr VIP servicefor guests requiring reservations,accommodation, special requirements andtickets for shows etc. During our visit the casinowas preparing for a Miss Royale Palms eventthat would feature a 30 metre catwalk throughthe centre of the casino to accommodate thelocal models. The casino originally featured astage for live entertainment and events, butultimately this was removed to add moregaming machines.

The Royale Palms was the first casino inBulgaria to install the new EZ Module slotmachine from Casino technology, which isconfigurable by the casino and adjustable bythe customer for added comfort during play. Thecasino also features the latest products from IGtand Aristocrat, with Mr. Bakov reinforcing thefact that the Bulgarian slots market demandsvariety.

“Megajack is stil popular, with the latest jackpotsystems extending the life of the game asplayers now contribute to the progressivejackpot that covers the whole casino,” describesMr. Bakov. “Average slot game times have fallen




across the floor, with individual spins averaging4.5 seconds, were in the past the games wouldbe six seconds or more. Megajack is sevenseconds per spin (fixed at the time of productionand unalterable) which is why it remainsattractive to time-on-device players.”

Moving to the very rear of the casino, Mr. Bakovdescribes the spot as ‘the worst space in thecasino,’ before adding: “So we decided to dosomething ‘suicidal.’ We put the very latest EGtmachines into the worst place on our floor,” saysMr. Bakov with a grimace that changes to abeaming smile. “But it has worked! The flooraverage has increased as a result, with theMulti-Premier machines, including jackpotsignage, performing above our expectations.”

Involved in the build and construction of thecasino, Mr. Bakov relishes the details of thelocation, giving a guiding tour of the first floor60 seat poker and VIP area with its 24ct goldleaf decorating the ceiling, Swarovski crystallighting and Indian marble paneling cut fromhuge blocks so that the veins and marblingmarry together perfectly across the expanse.“We will be hosting poker festivals in May,” saysMr. Bakov, “with up to 120 players travellingfrom Canada, Lebanon, Jordan etc., competingfor the €50,000 prize fund. They travel from allaround the world to this ‘international standard’casino.”

knowInG yoUr CUSToMerOur final casino, a suburban location on theeastern edge of the city is swallowed by highrises to the rear and sited off the main BoulevardBotevgradsko Shose. Here we meet CasinoManager, Steven Stoyan Kostadinov, who detailsevery element of the Big 5 casino managementsystem being utilized in this Merkur Palms site.Everything hinges around the loyaltyprogramme, which rewards players with bothstatus and bonus points according to their play.Status points build to raise the profile of theplayer, increasing their rewards as they do so.The familiar Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamondstatuses are supplemented by bonus points thatenable the players to enter weekly draws forprizes.

Mr. Kostadinov shows the system running on amonitor behind the front desk, in which he isable to oversee the entire location. Machineicons are placed on a floor plan depicting theactual location of the machines and player withloyalty cards are shown placing bets in real-time, alongside their status and bonus levels.And with so many players achieving the topDiamond status, the casino is moving the goal-posts, with the top tier now extending to‘Privilege,’ with additional shopping and lotterypoints granting players access to promotionaltickets and special draws and events.

We watch as a VIP player is served a drink by

Palms Bet Casino Manager, Nikolay Atanasov,explains that over 70 per cent of play within thelocation is carded. Players transfer money to theirloyalty card to play in the casino and when theyleave, they transfer their money online so that theycan continue to play at home

staff. We entered the hall at the same time andshe has been seated at an ARCH cabinetthroughout our systems overview. Bringing upher details, we can see that she is a regularDiamond status player and in the 20 minuteswe’ve been talking to Mr. Kostadinov, has bet€600 and won €750. Nothing about herappearance or what she is wearing marks herout as especially ‘VIP,’ and yet max bet play andplayer history clearly define her as one of thehall’s top players.

“We use the information from the loyaltyprogramme to better connect with the players,”says Mr. Kostadinov. “We want to know thatthey are satisfied with their experience and welike to discuss with them their play, win or lose– especially lose. We want to make sure that weare acting in a socially responsible manner. It’snot just about our results – it’s about creatinghappy and loyal customers. The casinomanagement system gives me a huge amount ofinformation about a player, which enables us torespond and react to them in the right way. Itsaves a lot of time and it helps us to create abetter experience for the player.”

a VIew oF GaMInG In SoFIaThere are still remnants of the old ‘dark’ gaminghalls, which we were politely steered away from,lest our view of the bright and shining gaminghalls be tainted – or worse. However, the gaming

halls and casinos we did visit exceeded thehighest standards and the VIP salon and serviceat the Royale Palms was a match for any of thelocations we’ve visited around the world.

As we travelled through the centre of Sofia, pastglass domes protecting the fragile ruins of anancient amphitheater, the largest ever builtoutside Rome, dynamited by the communistregime to make way for the austere city hall,Bulgaria has a history of reinventing, rebuildingand redefining itself. Its past still colours thefabric of the city, but the optimism of a youngergeneration of both operators and players tocreate new, contemporary experiences, is whatleaves a lasting impression.

The fact that the government has played such animportant and stabilising role in remodeling theindustry shows that a balance can be struck thatis beneficial to everyone.

Sofia hides its treasures and without a guide, ourexperience in the city would no doubt have beenvery different, but if you know where to look,the shining new palaces built for gaming arefilled with gems and the direction for onlinegaming in Bulgaria is especially bright.

We look forward to seeing more in the futureand for this model to be adopted elsewhere - areyou listening Czech Ministry of Finance?



InteractiveoMni-cHAnnel SoluTionS

take, the Grand National, for instance. It’s easilythe UK’s number one betting event and thebiggest horse race in the world, and it’s watchedby more than 600 million people globally.However, in recent years a growing number ofpeople have taken to social media to share theexperience with friends, family and others, andthis is creating new opportunities forbookmakers to connect with highly engagedaudiences.

Ahead of this year’s Grand National, we thoughtit would be interesting to investigate howbookmakers are making use of this interactivechannel alongside traditional tV advertising,and gain an insight into how else they coulddrive conversation, brand awareness andrevenues, around live sporting events.

Using 4C tV Analytics, which monitors adoccurrences across more than 2,100 tVchannels, we tracked the frequency with whichbookmakers were advertising around the GrandNational. We compared this against the level ofengagement with each brand on social media,looking at public mentions, retweets, commentsand likes from official Facebook pages andtwitter handles.

raCInG aHead oF THe CoMpeTITIonWe found that Paddy Power stole the show,generating an incredible 59,527 engagementsduring the Grand National, from just twoadvertising spots. The Irish betting companyachieved more than double the engagement fromonline punters than closest rivals SkyBet(16,840) and Coral (18,733).

So, what did Paddy Power do right? Crucially,they tapped into their audience’s interests in areally relevant and real-time way. They usedsocial media as a platform to provide, livecommentary in the run-up to and during therace, and supported this with targetedadvertising. For instance, sharing photos offamous faces as they arrived in Aintree, thelatest odds, and live updates as the race gotunder way.

don’T Fall aT THe FIrST FenCeFor bookies looking to jump on a live sportingevent, it’s crucial to know where conversation istaking place. While the bookies’ favourite mightmake a sensible choice for tailoring campaignsto resonate with Grand National watchers,picking the sportsperson, team or in this case,the horse that’s generating the greatest volume

4C Insights’ Andy Nobbs looks at the frequencywith which bookmakers are advertising aroundmajor sport events and compares this data tobrand engagement on social media

Live and clicking:how can bookiesdrive engagementaround live events?

Andy is SVP, Sales, EMEA at 4C Insights leadingthe company’s commercial activities for allservices across the region. This includes 4C’sActivation services for advertisers and TVAnalytics for content owners.

Previously, he led the sales and marketing teamfor Civolution, which was acquired by 4C in2015. Prior to Civolution, Andy was President atTeletrax, the world’s first global broadcastintelligence service, where he oversaw allaspects of the company’s worldwide activitiesincluding strategy management, businessdevelopment, operations, sales and marketing.Andy was formerly Content Director at IPC Mediawhere he successfully accelerated and leveragedthe exploitation and the revenue growth of IPC’sintellectual properties, ranging from television tothe internet and printed media. He haspreviously worked in executive positions for ITVand EMAP.

andy nobbs, svP sales emea,4C insights

As more people watch tV on-demand and live viewingfigures fall, sporting eventscontinue to hold their own,attracting large audiences whowant to follow the action inreal-time.


of conversation, will be far more successful inplacing your brand in the mix.

Before the event, social media analysis that 4Ccarried out, helped to pinpoint which horseswere garnering the most attention from puntersand quite incredibly three of the horsesgenerating the most social noise eventually tookfirst, second and fourth place on the day.

Clearly, there is more to be said for the power ofsocial insights. Yet while bookies might not beprepared to stake their odds on it today, patternsthat emerge through online discussion are animportant gauge to bear in mind, when lookingto connect with highly engaged audiences in arelevant way.

MakInG aSSUMpTIonS IS rISky BUSIneSSFor all brands, successful advertising is aboutbeing in the right place and the right time. Whilethe rise in social media may seem likeconsumers are shifting their habits, consumersstill spend an average of 35 hours per weekwatching live and time shifted television.

However, an ever-growing challenge of

consumer behaviour is the simple home truththat we very rarely sit through a tV programmewithout checking our social media channels,especially during the ad breaks. But this changein behaviour isn’t a reason to cut tV spendaltogether.

As consumers become predictablyunpredictable, marketers simply have had to getsavvier when it comes to placing ads, not cuttheir chances by cutting out mediums. tosucceed, brands need to get know theirconsumers’ online and offline behaviours whenwatching tV and make the connection betweenthese two worlds.

For example, proprietary metrics synthesisedfrom more than 2 billion consumers across the4C Insights Affinity Graph™ show that bettingsites Betway and Bet365 both enjoy a closersocial affinity with the Grand National thanWilliam Hill. In short that means, people wholike and regularly engage with the GrandNational on social media channels are morelikely to place their Grand National bets withBetway than another bookmaker.

So how could Bet365 use this insight? Well, the

smart thing to do would be to look at ways totarget and engage the audience consideringBetway during the run-up to the Grand Nationalto steer them to its own site with contentrelating to the race.

to take it a step further beyond simplyscheduling a tV ad to play during the breakbefore the big race, Bet365 or any bettingcompany could boost brand engagement furtherby syncing social ads to run alongside the tVcampaign. This double-pronged approach isguaranteed to boost engagement and cover twoconsumption behaviours – watching tV or onsocial media – driving punters to its own siteover a competitor’s.

lonG lIVe TVtV as a medium will continue to stay king.However, bookies must wise up to changingconsumer behaviour and adapt campaigns toremain connected with their consumers.

Knowing what kind of tV your consumers liketo engage with on social media allows brands tograb the attention of tV viewers distracted bytheir smartphones who are scrolling thoughsocial feeds. For example, during the race,Bet365 could personalise its social ads with anupdate showing which horse is leading or thebiggest underdog in the odds in the creative.

By adding this extra element of relevance,brands are much more likely to grab theattention of the right audiences at the right time.It’s about looking at the bigger picture andrecognising that marketing strategy and brandengagement is defined by real-time influences.

As more screens are added to our daily lives,brands need to be able to keep pace and shoutthe loudest, without risking consumerrelationships by becoming a pest. That’s why it’simperative they hone their efforts on themoments that will driver buyers through thepurchase funnel quickly and unobtrusively.

relIaBle reSUlTS FroM UnrelIaBle aUdIenCeSBrands cannot rely on just one medium to makea meaningful impact. The outdated view that “somany million” have seen an advert on tV is adangerous way to measure how many peoplehave actually engaged with the brand.

What will maximise your chances is usingtechnology to manage social budgets morewisely so that it can drive engagement withpinpoint accuracy around tV air times.

As consumers increasingly split their timebetween different channels, brands cannot besure their tV ads will catch every eye of theirdesired audience. Instead, it’s a safer bet tomake all mediums work hard to support eachother. tackling this issue first, rather than thecost sheet, is the thinking that will define highreturns from here on out.


InteractivebeTSSon - My1loGin

Betsson Group employees need to accessmultiple high-value accounts as part of theirday-to-day roles. The company was faced withthe situation that employees were using insecurepractices to manage their business-relatedpasswords. Their legacy password manager wasunable to provide user-specific views ofpasswords, leaving the company with thedilemma that everyone had access to either allstored passwords or none.

In addition, some Betsson employees used theirown personal password managers, while othersrelied on notepads and spreadsheets. “In bothcases this was not secure” explains Adrian,“especially when having to share passwords.While individual password managers enabledthe use of strong passwords, it created avulnerability when employees needed to sharepasswords with colleagues.

We had issues with usernames and passwords

being shared via email or chat. They were beingsent through the same medium and that’s notsecure. often end users never delete thepassword from their inbox and the sender neverdeletes the email containing the password fromtheir sent items so the password is available intwo places in plain text”.

“The use of personal password managers alsocreated the risk of people taking their passwordswith them when they left the company.”

THe SolUTIon“My1Login solved the challenges we faced byoffering a platform that is highly available andmakes it easy for the end-user to store, find,share and use login credentials. My1Login’ssecure sharing functionality removed theproblem of employees having to resort to emailor chat to share passwords with theircolleagues.”

As employees now have access to My1Login’sSingle Sign-on solution, it has removed theproblem of employees storing passwordsinsecurely on notepads and spreadsheets,improving corporate security.

Crucially, as employees are no longer using theirown personal password managers, when theyleave the business, their access can be ceasedcentrally using My1Login, removing the risk ofemployees leaving the business with access tocorporate passwords.

“With My1Login one can decide whether to share

Providing products to millions of customersaround the world Betsson Group has over 1,800employees needing access to high-valueaccounts. It is, therefore, critical these areprotected by strong passwords and thatemployees manage passwords securely

Is it secret? Is it safe?

adrian romano,information security manager,Betsson group

“The use of personal passwordmanagers also created the riskof people taking theirpasswords with them whenthey left the company.”

Information Security Manager,Adrian Romano, explains howimplementing My1Login’sSingle Sign-On solutionenabled Betsson to improvebusiness security, eliminaterisk and satisfy stringentcompliance obligations.

Founded in 2007, My1Login is a European leaderin protecting against enterprise cyber securitythreats through its Identity and AccessManagement solutions. The trend towards SaaSis moving enterprise identities outside thetraditional corporate infrastructure, exacerbatingthe challenges of identity sprawl, passwordfatigue, resets and compliance adherence.My1Login’s next generation Identity and AccessManagement solution enables organisations toovercome these challenges by providing a singleuser identity for employees.


the password in a hidden or visible state so theend user never needs to see the password. Thismeans we can safely say that users are notcopying passwords to other sources.”

THe BeneFITS“Based on the feedback I get from end-users,they save around two clicks per site, which is alot when you consider the large number of sitesaccessed and also the ease with which they cannow open them and sign in.”

Security has also increased within Betssonfollowing the rollout of My1Login. “The randompassword generator within My1Login has

encouraged end-users to use more complexpasswords since it is so easy to use. Additionally,the password sharing facility enables passwordsto be shared without letting the end-user seethe password, eliminating more security risks.”

Because passwords can be shared from withinMy1Login, it removes the problem of employeesadopting weak practices, increases businesssecurity and eliminates business risk.“My1Login’s Single Sign-on solution givesmanagement visibility of the logins in use acrossthe company and enables us to make sureemployees can only access the systems they’resupposed to.”

“Crucially, as employees are nolonger using their own personal

password managers, whenthey leave the business, their

access can be ceased centrallyusing My1Login, removing therisk of employees leaving the

business with access tocorporate passwords.”


Jackpot King online Casino Blueprint GamingA lucky Sky Vegas player won amassive £3.1m off just a 20pstake on Blueprint Gaming’sJackpot King progressive jackpotsystem, the biggest ever jackpotscooped on the online casino. The£3,167,063.30 prize was won onthe supplier’s The Pig Wizardgame, which has recently been re-released in HTML5 format andincluded in the Jackpot King suiteof linked progressive games. Thehuge prize was the largest everwon on Sky Vegas, and is thesecond Jackpot King award to havebeen claimed, the first jackpotamounting to £1.6m.

Matt Cole, Managing Director ofBlueprint Gaming, said:“Congratulations to the luckyplayer who scooped the largestjackpot ever off Jackpot King, it’s alife changing amount. We’re thrilledit was won on The Pig Wizard too, apopular game which was given arevamp.”

Casino Technology has launched its latest gamesspecifically attuned to the demands of Asianmarkets. Rossi McKee, Vice President of CasinoTechnology said: “Casino Technology is introducingthe newest Asian market attuned games and ourlatest slot machines. The titles to be presented arefocused on local markets featuring themes andmath models that Asian customers are seeking. Ournew wave line slot machines highlights CasinoTechnology commitment to the customers needs inthe rapidly expanding Asian markets.”

The Asian themed Five Blessings Delux stand-aloneprogressive game stands out with a winning mathsconcept and betting structure as well as impressivegraphics. The concept introduces a wild symbol,different sets of free games and multiplier thatmakes the game exciting, volatile and entertaining.

Five Blessings Delux will be presented in the brandnew ARCH TITAN slot machine cabinet with one42ins. HD horizontally curved monitor for the maingame and second 42ins. HD vertically curved topbox that displays the jackpot accumulations andwinning celebrations. The game will be available withEZ MODuLO slot machine, part of the latest seriesmachines of Casino Technology, with two 27ins. HDmonitors and 24ins. video topper.

The innovative series of linked Asian themedprogressive games of Casino Technology arepresented in a multigame suite 8 Peacocks with five

compelling titles – Magic Pearl, Great Warlord,Peacock and Dragon, Five Blessings and Clover andPeacock, where once within the bonus, a win of oneof the levels from the progressive jackpot isguaranteed.

Another compelling title, dedicated to the Asianmarket, is the Red Bird and Golden Dragon. Thegame features 50 lines with free games and extrawins, triggered by symbols like Yin and Yang andDragon. The games will be highlighted with theCasino Technology renowned slot machines - theexclusive premium ARCH, the T3 and TOWER slanttop.

The ARCH features revolutionary vision through thehorizontally curved 42" main monitor and gamingcustomised display with anti-glare surface. The T3Slant Top stands out with three 24ins. HD monitors,solid constructions and compact footprint that makeit a great asset for every casino floor.

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Cammegh, maker of the world’s finest roulettewheels, is thrilled to announce the GLIcertification of the company’s Mercury 360 RRSroulette wheel. GLI approval of the RRS(Random Rotor Speed) wheel is furtheracknowledgement and acceptance of atechnology exclusively designed by Cammeghto protect operators against advantage play inboth live and online environments.

“We began the approval process shortly afterthe ICE show in London,” explains AndrewCammegh. “The Mercury 360 RRS wheel is theresult of exhaustive in-house development andtesting and is the third iteration of this product.Certification by GLI is the final seal of approvalbefore we fulfill orders for what has become thefastest growing product in the Cammegh range.”

The Mercury 360 RRS wheel is currently livewith international online and land-basedoperators, with this latest incarnation nowadding GLI approval to its patented design that

randomly changes the speed of the rotor, thuschanging one of the variables used by electronicdevices to predict game outcomes.

Cammegh’s Slingshot 2 has been utilising RRSsince launch in 2006, and its addition to themanual Mercury 360 wheel brings the live gamein line with Cammegh’s hugely successfulautomatic wheel. It is also perfectly suited to theonline space, enabling operators to call ‘no morebets’ much later in the spin, significantlyincreasing betting time for players.

Online providers can be assured that their onlineoffer is as similar and authentic to the live gameas possible, whilst the RRS wheel delivers asecure random result that minimises any risksassociated with the scaleability of the onlinegame.

“A very important live gaming product hasbecome much more secure,” underlines Mr.Cammegh. “Test house approval demonstratesthat the Mercury 360 RRS wheel is categoricallysecure, having been designed to increase thesecurity of the game by adding yet anotherrandom variable, totally undermining advantagetechniques. GLI approval of this productrecognises the added security that the Mercury360 RRS wheel brings to online and land-basedenvironments and we’re delighted to be able tomeet operator demand for the exciting thirdgeneration of this product.”

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Content from Realistic Games isnow live on the website and mobileapp of mybet. The deal, via NYXGaming Group’s OGS distributionplatform, gives the Malta andSchleswig Holstein-licenced brandaccess to Realistic’s catalogue ofslots and table games.

Realistic’s blackjack and rouletteare the first games to be madeavailable to players, with aselection of their best performingslots to follow.

Andy Harris, CEO at RealisticGames, said: “We are reallypleased to have gone live withmybet and we’re confident theircustomers will enjoy our content.We have an excellent catalogue ofgames now which has somethingfor every type of player, and we’reparticularly excited about how ourtable games are received.”

Markus Peuler, CEO at mybet, said:“Realistic Games has a greathistory of producing quality games,particularly on mobile devices. It isimportant to deliver new andengaging content to today’splayers, as well as the tried andtested games they have come toexpect, and in Realistic we haveachieved both.”

NSoft has released the latestversion of Lucky Six to NetBet. ThisRomanian sports betting operatoris the first customer integrated incooperation with software provideriSoftBet. It was released throughthe SEVEN platform web channel.

NetBet is licensed in regulatedmarkets across Europe, includingFrance, The uK, Ireland, Italy andRomania where the companyrecently secured a 10-year class 1license.

NSoft is extremely satisfied withthe fact that its market share inRomania is constantly growingwhile the SEVEN platformcontinues being the base forproviding all the integrationnecessary tools and runningsuccessful business on majordelivery channels – retail, mobile,web and terminals.

Scientific Games Corporation hascreated a multi-state linked gamewith the largest prize for a linkedlottery instant game in uS history.The Willy Wonka Golden Ticket islaunching initially in 11 uS states.

The "scratch" game offers playersthe chance to win prizes instantlyplus a bonus second-chanceopportunity to win trips to LasVegas where lucky second-chanceplayers will take part in the WillyWonka Billion Dollar Challengeevent to win cash prizes from$1,000 up to $1bn.

With sales off to a strong start, the

Texas Lottery was first to launchthe Willy Wonka Golden Ticketgame in March, followed by theGeorgia Lottery and KentuckyLottery in April, and the ColoradoLottery and Maine State Lottery inMay. In addition to the 11 lotteriesset to offer the game to theirplayers in 2017-18, a number ofother lotteries are consideringadding the game to their portfolio.

Jim Kennedy, Group ChiefExecutive, Lottery for ScientificGames said, "We are thrilled that

one lucky player is going to get ashot at winning up to a $1bn in theBillion Dollar Challenge. We havebeen exploring the billion dollarprize concept for some time, andwe believe the wonderful world ofWilly Wonka ties in perfectly to thislarge prize opportunity."

"The Willy Wonka Golden Ticketgame has two great elements – aGolden Ticket and the Billion DollarChallenge. Like the iconic film, thegame emphasises life-changingopportunities," Kennedy said. "

Blueprint Gaming, a leading uK based game studio, istaking players on a slapstick crime caper with itslatest HTML5 slot release, Naked Gun.

under license from Paramount Licensing, the 5x3reel, 20-line game uses iconic themes, charactersand visuals from the classic movie franchise and seesplayers follow the comical antics of the fumblingDetective Frank Drebin.

The game is filled with action packed bonus featuresincluding four free spin games, Home Run Free Spins,Stake Out Free Spins, On The Edge Free Spins andCrime Scene Free Spins. Each free spin bonus gameoffers a variation on the roaming wild theme and inaddition, On The Edge Free Spins sees the number ofactive win-lines expand from 20 to 40. The game hasbeen developed in HTML5 and offers mind-blowinggraphics, immersive sound and engaging gameplay.

Matt Cole, CEO at Blueprint Gaming, said: “Naked Gunis a classic movie and we are thrilled to bring the

franchise into interactive slots via our latest gamerelease. It’s a fun and fast-paced slot that offersplayers plenty of chances to win big with four bonusgames and expanding win lines.

“We have developed several slots using third partybrands, offering players familiarity and operatorsexciting marketing opportunities. Naked Gun is agreat addition to our portfolio and we are excited to beable to offer it to our partners.”

Naked Gun joins the operator-specific ‘Jackpot King’progressive jackpot system from Blueprint. Thisrandomly triggered event offers players the chance towin huge prizes in the Super Reels, or a life-changingProgressive Jackpot via the Wheel King!

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Quality slots and table gamesprovider Habanero is set to bear allwith its latest release, Panda Panda.Set against the backdrop of awaterfall and beautiful cherry trees,the game sees the baby bearsperform somersaults when they arepaired up together. And whenplayers hit the big win, the cuddlycharacters spring to life by slidingdown bamboo shoots as coinstumble down around them.

The 243 ways slot features aninnovative way of paying left toright or right to left based on theoutcome of the spin, depending onwhich total pay is the most.

Also included for the first time is apreview screen, which provides an

insight into what’s in store for theplayer later in the game. ToniKarapetrov, Head of CorporateCommunications at Habanero, said:“Our latest release featuresstunning graphics and animation,and will surely prove to be a popularhit with anyone who likes pandas,and who doesn’t like Pandas?”

Panda Panda is the latest game in abatch of innovative new contentfrom Habanero, who are scheduledto release ten new titles during2017, with four already live to date.

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p-27/27 st slim Casino slots eGTFollowing its first major installationin Mexico, Euro Games Technologyhas continued to gain ground in thecountry, delivering 130 slotcabinets of its P-27/27 St Slim tothe largest local casino operator –Codere, famous for its impeccableservices and vast gaming portfolioof over 20,000 machines.

The new installation marks thebeginning of a larger order of 400machines in total that will includedifferent Codere’s properties inMexico and will be completed upuntil the end of 2017. The slotcabinet P-27/27 St Slim will be theprevailing model followingdeliveries for its latest EGT platformExciter III and the Orange andGreen Collection multigame mixes,each containing 48 diverse gamingtitles. Another EGT product to beintroduced in all Codere’s playerswill be the recently developed but

fast establishing itself P-42VCurved St cabinet, the strikingSuper Premier, preferred for its two42-inch curved monitors and first-rate design, and the top product ofthe multiplayer division of EGT –the touch-screen roulette table ofLuxury Series.

Commenting on the current andforthcoming installations at theoperator, Nadia Popova, director ofEGT Central America and Mexico,commented on the partnershipwith Codere: “Our first deal wasactually concluded in Panama in2011 and was for our bestsellingslot model – the P-24/24 upcabinet. It soon outperformedmany rival products, gaining speedwithin the local gaming audience.So we extended further ourcollaboration to Colombia andMexico – markets of strategicalimportance to our company.

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Endorphina has released itsnewest slot game (In Jazz) alively slot that celebrates the artof jazz music that aims to takeplayers back to 1930s Chicago— where the culture of jazzsprouted from and boomed.Relax yourself with the soundsof jazz that will swing you backinto an intimate atmosphere ofdim lights, smokey air, clinkingglasses and powerful jazzyinstrumentals that fill the room.

Playtech has launched a premium-branded and officially licensed slotgame based on the award-winninganimated sitcom, American Dad!

Say ‘Good morning uSA!’ and headto Langley Falls in this eccentricfive-reel, 40-line slot game whereyou will be greeted by all yourfavourite Smith family membersand their wacky friends.

Land two ‘Schmooblydong Wheel’symbols for a re-spin with arandom modifier from a member ofAmerica’s most outlandish familyand land three for powered-up freegames.

Trigger ‘Roger’s Random Wilds’feature to witness the show’sbeloved space alien return from awild night out and spit out up to 10random wilds, or activate theWheels and the Legman featureand watch as the characters chase

one another across the reels leavinga trail of wild symbols on everyfeature spin, for a chance to winsome mega money prizes.

With eye-popping graphics, excitingfree games and all the favouritecharacters from the hit TV show,this feature-rich game isguaranteed to excite and engageplayers across Playtech’s extensivecasino network of licensees.

Delivering more than 600 of themost innovative and dynamic titlesacross all channels, platforms anddevices, American Dad! is a

fantastic addition to Playtech’sextensive portfolio of best-performing casino content.

James Frendo, Casino Director,Playtech, said: “American Dad! isanother top casino title and afantastic addition to our leadingportfolio of premium-brandedgames.

“Based on one of the world’s mostpopular animated sitcoms, thisvibrant, feature-rich game standsout in the market and providesplayers with unique and high-quality entertainment.”

iGT playspot mobile Gaming iGT IGT and MGM Resorts International have announced that IGT’sPlaySpot mobile solution, for the playMGM mobile sports betting app,has formally completed the trial phase and received all requiredNevada regulatory approvals.

playMGM enables MGM Resorts’ M life Rewards members to placesports wagers on their mobile devices anywhere, anytime withinNevada. MGM Resorts Race & Sports Books have created a menu ofbetting options, available exclusively on playMGM, including live in-game wagers as well as original prop and future bets. Players can signup for a playMGM account and deposit and withdraw cash at any of the10 MGM Resorts Race & Sports Books along the Las Vegas Strip.

The playMGM app, designed for iPhone and Android, is MGM Resorts’first mobile sports betting solution and IGT’s first sports bettingdeployment in the united States. It features functionality never beforeseen in legal mobile sports betting in the uS, such as a live “trendcloud” highlighting the most active bets of the moment.

“Our playMGM mobile sports betting app puts our Sports Books at ourguests’ fingertips,” said Lovell Walker, MGM Resorts Int. Exec. Directorof Interactive Gaming Development. “M life Rewards members canenjoy sports wagering in Nevada from the pool, their hotel rooms or ifthey are a Nevada resident, from the comfort of their home.”

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Following the incredibleperformance of Live 5’s Stairwayto Heaven, the Rank Group PLChas stepped forward to order thegame to go live in September.

“We are obviously delighted that acompany of the calibre of Rank haschosen to take Stairway to Heaven.It is great to receive confirmationthat our feature-rich portfolio ofgames is standing head andshoulders above many of the otherme-too titles currently in themarket,” says Live 5 Gaming CEOLloyd Butler.

“Stairway to Heaven raises the barhigher again,” says BhoteshMaheshwari at Rank. “After theamazing performance of HotelsDot Cash, we are pleased to beworking with Live 5 again and areconfident that this will be one ofthe many more innovative titlesfrom Live 5.”

Coral has launched its new CoralLive Casino Studio in collaborationwith Playtech, which raises thegame for players and offers aninnovative VIP customerexperience, sleek design andbespoke gaming products.

Elevating the customer experience,with cutting-edge audio visualquality, newly developedtechnology, and with a new userinterface, the Coral Live CasinoStudio offers four blackjack tablesand a roulette table, hosted 24hours a day by professional dealers.

The Coral Live Studio is powered byPlaytech, Coral’s provider of onlinebetting technology, and a leadinglight in gaming software and gamerexperience development. “The

collaboration strives to provide thevery best casino experience in theindustry, and is part of Coral’sstrategic initiative to bring CasinoLive closer to Sports bettingcustomers,” said Nir Hakarmeli,Director of Gaming Operations forLadbrokes Coral.

Olly Raeburn, Ladbrokes CoralBrand Director said, “We wanted toprovide something special for ourCasino Live customers, and haveenhanced the experience in everypossible way.”

Kevin Kilminster of Playtech said,“Coral’s new purpose-builtenvironment, in partnership withPlaytech, takes full advantage ofour new, next-generation livecasino studio and comes completewith a series of bespoke, flagshipgaming products, a speciallydesigned VIP area and a fresh andmodern design.

“We're confident Coral players willlove the new look and feel andexperience the ultimate love casinooffering on the market.”

Konami Gaming has announcedthe debut launch of its SmashSmash Festival linked bonusgame at San Manuel Indian Bingo& Casino. The colourful fiesta-themed game attracted hundredsof participants for its Cinco deMayo world premiere event.Packed with six jackpot levels andrandom credit prizes, SmashSmash Festival features acreative new twist on thetraditional linked progressive byincreasing the total number ofmystery piñata prizes in a winner-takes-all jackpot pool in lieu ofincrementing meters. Players atSan Manuel are the first in theworld to enjoy this new releaseand celebrated the debut launchcomplete with live performingmariachis.

“We here at San Manuel offer anexciting gaming andentertainment experience to ourguests every day,” says Loren Gill,general manager of San ManuelIndian Bingo & Casino. “One ofour latest additions is the SmashSmash Festival that debuted onCinco de Mayo and we are thrilledto be the first casino to unveil thisgame as part of our alreadyexpansive gaming options.”

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spin, Smash Smash Festivalawards players the opportunity toselect one of two mystery piñataprizes. The selected piñatasbursts open to reveal their prizeamount while the other piñataamount remains a mystery as it’sadded to a growing jackpot pool ofunselected piñatas. As thepiñatas pile up, the Smash Timebonus will be awarded, allowing

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“Every player aims for the SmashTime bonus to claim thosemystery piñata prizes. When ithits, it’s a big explosion of coinsand confetti—in true fiestafashion,” said Steve Walther,senior director, marketing andproduct management at KonamiGaming, Inc. “Not only does everyplayer have a chance to winmystery piñata credit prizes,there’s also a $5,000 gold jackpotthat provides even greaterexcitement.”

Smash Smash Festival isexclusively available for Konami’sConcerto Collection of video slots,including Concerto upright andConcerto Slant. Its debut releaseis featured with an exclusive basegame release called FlamencoFlare and one of Konami’s mostpopular Xtra Reward titles, ChiliChili Fire.

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Tech player propsDigital sports Betradar

Betradar have put pen topaper and partnered withDigital Sports Tech on anagreement that will see theleading solutions provider tothe sports betting industryprovide an exciting range ofplayer proposition bettingmarkets (“Player Props”) tooperators across the world.

Player performance betting —which is an almost untappedsegment of the sports bettinglandscape — allows operatorsto offer customers hundredsof additional markets as allinitial odds, odds updates andfull resulting is delivered byBetradar via their usual XMLfeed format.

Betradar will offer Player Propson four European footballcompetitions including theEnglish Premier League andthe uEFA Champions League,as well as the NFL, NBA, MLBand AFL.




Aristocrat has a successfulhistory in Latin America, andat the latest FADJA show inColombia the companyunveiled its Zorro Mighty Cashslot game, a new progressivelink game that was createdexclusively for its customers inLatin America.

Aristocrat Vice President ofLatin America Alvaro Noressaid, “Aristocrat has a leadingposition in the Colombiamarket, and FADJA 2017 is anexcellent opportunity toengage with our customersthere. As in previous years,Aristocrat showed its newestgames and cabinets, the latestresult of our passion fordevelopment andcommitment to ourcustomers.”

Zorro Mighty Cash is a newprogressive link housed in thein the high-performing ArcSingle cabinet. In addition toZorro Mighty Cash, Aristocratshowed a bank of theentertainment progressive linkPixie Wishes slot game,housed in the Helix uprightcabinet. Pixie Wishes wasdeveloped by Aristocrat’sGimmie Games studios, whichhas produced multipleentertainment-style gamesthat are popular throughoutLatin America. Pixie Wishesadds a linked progressivejackpot, bringing a newdimension of fun toentertainment classics like theSky Rider slot game.

Aristocrat also showed newtitles from its successfulMultigame, Jackpot and Corecategories, like Gold Star Ruby,Wonder 4 Stacks and Lucky88 Extra Choice.

The social Casino from Zitro, World of Bingo,celebrates three years since the date of its launch,coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the company.

Following the recent launch of their mobiletournaments, more than 1.5 million unique registeredusers already enjoy Zitro Video Bingo games in over194 countries worldwide. Two new games, Hot Diceand Fire Bingo, have been added to the existinglibrary of games of World of Bingo increasing the

variety of offer for its users.

As stated by Sebastián Salat, CEO of Zitro: "The socialcasino World of Bingo, created by our online divisionZitro Interactive, is an important strategic pillar forZitro. World of Bingo allows us to be in direct contactwith the consumer, learn from their tastes anddiscover their preferences. In Zitro we are committedto the development of social games, as well as thedevelopment of applications that reinforce land basedoperations, convinced as we are of the importance ofthe convergence of the different distribution channelsof the gaming industry.”

We Are Casino has launched its SlotBuilder: a powerful and easy tool touse that allows to develop CasinoGames. Although the namesuggests a dedicated softwareprogramme that builds solely VideoSlot games, with WAC Slot BuilderPro it’s possible to develop VideoSlots, Video Bingo and Video Pokergames.

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“There are no other software likeSlot Builder. Slot Builder is the firstsoftware that allows users to easilydevelop a Video Slot or Video Bingo

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Slot Builder Pro, works on the top ofthe We are Casino Game Engine,building HTML5 games compatiblewith all devices that support HTML5such as PC laptop or desktop andmobile devices (iOS and Android).

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IWG – a specialist in supplyingonline, instant win games tocommercial and lottery markets –is inviting players to travel to theheart of the Mayan Empire tounearth hidden treasures in threesuperb Mayan-themed games:

Players aim to find hidden treasureby matching Mayan artefacts to

reveal a prize and collect a goldenball. Each golden ball collectedremains between games and whennine are collected it unlocks theMayan-themed ‘Spin a Wheel’bonus game with guaranteed cashprizes up to £250.

This game uses the hugely populardice roll mechanic to explode Mayan

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Candy Dreamsonline slots microgamingCandy Dreams is a 720 ways towin, variable reel game. Playersspin on a colourful reel areafilled with candy treats, as theyplay towards enticing bonustriggers.

There are two different scattersymbols that trigger twodynamic features. 12 free spinsare activated by three or morespecial scatter symbols, duringwhich there is a special wild thatsends extra wilds onto the reelsto create new winningcombinations. The Candy Planetbonus is awarded when three ormore bonus scatters land, whichis a pick until you pop feature,awarding cash prizes.

merkurstar Casino slotsmerkur GamingThe invitations for Merkur GamingColombia’s official launch of theMerkurstar cabinet hinted at a veryspecial presentation. It turned outto be not just a special event but atrue spectacular: an evening thatenticed, enthralled and amazed thegathering of A-list operators thatattended.

Before they even had the chance tosee Merkurstar for themselves, agroup of leading Colombianoperators had been royallyentertained as they set aboutsolving a series of puzzles that ledthem to locate the key to a privatesalon within the Hotel EstelarGrand Playa Manzanillo in theevent’s spectacular host city,Cartagena. Inside, the salon’selegant setting provided a fitting

background for Merkurstar and itwas soon clear that, indeed, the keyis in the game.

Featuring two 24“ widescreen highdefinition displays (full HDwidescreen monitors) that arefurther enhanced by brilliant coloureffects on the monitor surroundsthat compliment the cabinet’sstriking overall appearance,Merkurstar has a highperformance, multi or single game,enabled technology platform forstress free performance inoperation. Compatible with all

major online systems, Merkurstaroffers easy service access to all itstechnical components.

Tomas Mieles, (Director of Sales forLatin America, Merkur GamingAmericas), closed out the launchevent by stating: "Merkurstar is acabinet of the highest ‘Made inGermany’ quality and itsperformance matches the thrillinggames that it hosts. Indeed, as the40+ visitors that attended itsofficial launch in Cartagena foundout for themselves tonight, truly,the key is in the game."


Harrah’s Resort Southern California will become thefirst casino in California to offer skill games andgaming tables from Gamblit Gaming.

"Gamblit's games and tables are evolutionary steps inthe right direction for the modern gaming industry,and we are honoured to be the first casino inCalifornia to offer the experience," said Harrah'sResort Southern California Senior Vice President andGeneral Manager Darrell Pilant. "The installation ofGamblit's products will allow us to engage withguests seeking a more interactive gaming experience.Gamblit's games and tables combine elements of thetraditional gaming experience with elements ofmodern video gaming and we're excited to bebringing this type of universally enjoyable gamingexperience to Harrah's Resort Southern California.

To start, Harrah's Resort Southern California haslaunched its first two Gamblit games, Gamblit Poker

and Cannonbeard's Treasure: Cannonbeard's Treasureis for the player who enjoys skill and strategy-basedgames. A modern take on blackjack, Cannonbeard'sTreasure pits players and their pirate ships againstone another. The game is focused on the communitycards in the centre of the table which allow players tobuild their hands and reach their objectives, with thefirst player to reach their goal winning the pot of gold.The game is fast-paced, full of excitement and has3D ships shooting at each other. Gamblit Poker andCannonbeard's Treasure will be offered on Gamblit'shighly social and interactive Model G gaming tablethat can host two to four players for a competitivegaming experience.

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Stiges Media Factory is seekinginvestors to be the first to provideLive Video Streaming of thefamous Golden 10 game. Followingextensive negotiations and thesigning of a Letter of Intent with areputable international partner,Spanish company, Sitges MediaFactory (SMF), is planning to bringback the popular game online in thenear future and offer fans all theexcitement they use to enjoy forover two decades until early 2001,as well as attract new enthusiasts.

SMF is looking for investors toparticipate in a project that alreadyhas access to over 80+ distributionpartners for its Live Stream ofGolden 10.

Focussed primarily on developingthe Live Studio and Onlineplatforms, the project aims ataddressing both B2B and B2Csectors of the gaming market byoffering access to its Live Streamthrough third parties or directly toplayers online. In recent history thisgame has proven extremely

successful in Benelux and GSAcountries. SMF CEO, GiuseppeFunaro said: “Online Live CasinoGames are increasingly popular allover Europe and currently representalmost 30 per cent of the totalonline casino games GGR (grossmargin) making Live Video Golden10 an extremely lucrativeopportunity for interestedinvestors.”

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NOVOMATIC is back at the JockeyPlaza Convention Center in Limaon June 21-22 for the 15th editionof the Peru Gaming Show (PGS).With a wide selection of top-performing products in Peru andaround Latin America, NOVOMATICwill be on Stand #59 with itsgaming highlights that arefavourites amongst operators andplayers in the region.

Making its premiere appearance atPGS this year is the attractiveGAMINATOR Scorpion cabinet thatbrings leading content to themarket in stunning high definition.A series of cabinets will presentgames from the new Impera LineHD Edition 5 such as Amazon’sDiamonds and upward, as well asCoolfire II-s Premium Multi-GameEditions with the latest 6-reel,Extra-Bet feature versions ofNOVOMATIC blue chip classicsBook of Ra deluxe and LuckyLady’s Charm deluxe.

Another first for the Peruviangaming show is the GENESIS IIcabinet that offers a cost-effectiveway for operators to present thelatest NOVOMATIC content on theirgaming floors. This twin screenmachine features a wide selectionof exciting slot content and will bedisplayed with titles such as Julie’sJourney, Eternal Elements, as wellas the new Magic 243 Lines andSecret of the Ankh..

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G3 June 2017

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