IGT has named Craig Billings as its new Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, and Tom Mikulich as its new Vice President MegaJackpots.

UK-based online gambling operator Party Gaming has struck a ‘non prosecution' deal with the US Government as part of which it has agreed to pay $105 million dollars over the next three years.

Rolf Klug, member of the management board of the Gauselmann Group, has decided to leave the company after 13 years to pursue a career as a self-employed consultant in the gaming industry.

Cath Burns, Bally's Vice President and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, has received Casino Enterprise Management Magazine's 2008 Great Women of Gaming ‘Proven Leader' award.

With the looming July 1st deadline for the closure of casinos outside four designated gaming regions in Russia, a lack of investment in replacement infrastructure does not bode well - at least not for the future of the legal casino industry.

The Gaming Standards Association (GSA) and the Gaming Technologies Association (GTA) co-hosted a  Gaming Communication Technology Workshop in Sydney, Australia, to review recent changes in technology and explore how Australasian jurisdictions might be affected by those changes and by the application of GSA protocols.

A £15million refurbishment of the UK's London Hippodrome, due to complete in 2011, is set to create the largest casino in London. The relaunched Hippodrome will offer fine dining and live entertainment alongside gaming. The project is being taken forward by, Simon Thomas and his father Jimmy, who sold their Beacon Bingo business in 2006 for £80 million.

Ian Burke, Rank Group Chief Executive, took part in the Cape Argus Pick 'n' Pay Cycle Tour, a 109km race around the Cape of Good Hope peninsula, South Africa. He rode to raise money for several good causes, including Mecca Bingo's charity of the year, the children's mobility charity Whizz-Kidz. So far Ian has raised £21,000, of which he will be giving £16,000 to Whizz-Kidz.

The Californian Barona Resort and Casino has put up a prize fund of $23,000 in a viral video competition that aims to link in to social networking to promote the venue. Five videos will be shorlisted from entries received by the end of May and the winner will be decided by public vote in June.

The five-year-long intellectual property dispute between Elixir Gaming and Shuffle Master has ended, with Shuffle Master paying between $2.4 and $2.8 million for Elixir Gaming's intellectual property related to card shuffling and card deck checking equipment, including the RandomPlus Shuffler, the ShufflePro Shuffler, and the DeckChecker. As part of the deal, Shuffle Master is to buy Elixir's inventory of those products.

Bank Buster is the third Viridian Hyperlink from Aristocrat. Featuring a charismatic safebreaking pig, designed to entertain players with his vault-raiding antics, the game combines a four-level progressive jackpot with six swag-snatching Bonus Features.

Dr Stanley Ho will be given the 2009 G2E Asia Visionary Award this June, during Global Gaming Expo Asia.

After nine years as the head of exhibitions at Clarion Gaming, organisers of International Gaming Expo, or IGE, Karen Cooke has returned to work at Eurocoin.

WMS Gaming is moving into electronic bingo, Class II and other central determination lottery-based markets following a licensing agreement for back-end systems technology from Canadian firm, Bluberi Gaming Technologies.

Following the appointment of Chris Butler as Gamestec Leisure's new Managing Director, Peter Collinge has now joined the company as Operations Director.

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution on online gambling that points the way to continued exclusion of the sector from the application of EU Internal Market principles.

The European Commission has finalised its draft report following a year-long investigation into United States measures affecting foreign suppliers of Internet gambling services.

This year's Asian Poker Tour will be a 12-day festival of poker, running from August 12th-23rd at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau.

Casino Barrière de Sainte- Maxime, with views over the Gulf of St Tropez, claims to be the first casino in France to provide a true open-air gaming terrace.

Monaco-based Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) is equipping four casinos with Atronic's Crystal.net, upgrading from Crystal Web. According to Atronic, SBM is the first operator to select Crystal.net as a floor management solution following the system's launch in January.

MEI has agreed to licence use of Easitrax Soft Count to its competitor Money Controls. The deal gives Money Controls global access to MEI's integrated software/hardware solution that places information collected in a bill validator into a database that can be accessed to analyse slot floor performance.

Online games based on Forrest Gump and Bravehart are due to be released by Cryptologic before the end of this year, under a licensing deal the company has entered into with Paramount Digital Entertainment.

The Taiwanese national government has announced that it will be issuing no more than two licences for casinos established on the offshore islands, following a local referendum.

Bally collected more awards than any other gaming supplier in the judging for Casino Journal's ‘Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Technology Products 2008'.

Ritzio International has opened Volcano-themed clubs in three Croatian cities: Metkovic; Mokosica; and Orebic. It now manages 34 gaming clubs in over 20 Croatian cities and towns, part of an international chain of Volcano-themed clubs with premises in six European countries.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY and Aristocrat Technologies Europe Limited have signed a distribution deal under which TCSJOHNHUXLEY has non-exclusive rights to distribute Aristocrat electronic gaming machines into the European jurisdictions of Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria and Northern Cyprus.

Nanoptix Inc, a global thermal printer solutions provider for the gaming, point-of-sale and kiosk markets has signed a representation agreement with Jon Temple of Demon Interactive (www.demoninteractive.com).

Using the slogan "Get in the game, Bet in the game", the Las Vegas M Resort Spa Casino is the first US casino to offer ‘in-running' betting, allowing account customers in its Race and Sports book to place bets on live sporting events before and during the game.

Casino surveillance specialists Dallmeier talk us through their work with Sun International’s Golden Valley Casino

Sharon Harris profiles one of the most respected companies in gaming, seating experts Gary Platt…

Justin Thouin, Vice President of Business Development and Product Management at CryptoLogic, spoke to Casino International about recent developments at this exciting online casino and gaming content provider

It’s gone from a regional triumph to a national success; Colleen McLaughlin, National Gaming Academy Manager, talks to Casino International about the enormous success of the project

After a period that saw parts of the industry ‘get drunk on cheap credit’, belts are being tightened across the globe. Making the most out of customers and putting existing facilities to best use are now high priorities – and Casino Management Systems have a major role to play in boosting the bottom line. Graeme Kidd takes an overview…

Casino International talks to Nick Hogan from Gaming Support about its excellent Jackpot Junction Table Bonus Module, which we think is the most exciting thing to hit the Roulette wheel for players in some time…

Ricki Chavez Munoz reports back from the gaming hot-spot in his Spanish-language column

Ricki Chavez Munoz reports on what’s happening in South America

Former UK Shadow Gambling Minister Nick Hawkins sorts the wheat from the chaff in his bi-monthly column…

Sharon Harris is going crazy. Or is she?