Well, ICE is far behind us now, and what a fantastic show it was. Of course, much has happened since the show ended, not least the announcement from the UK’s Casino Advisory Panel on the best location for the country’s ‘supercasino’ project.

Two politicians who were part of the Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Act have come out in support of Blackpool’s failed bid for the UK’s sole supercasino licence. Great Yarmouth MP Tony Wright and Barnsley East’s Jeff Ennis are among six former members of the Joint Committee who have formally called for it to be reconvened, according to reports.

The British Casino Association has voted unanimously to take legal action against what it has described as ‘unfair competition’ from casinos to be built under the 2005 Gambling Act. The BCA’s argument centres around the fact that new casinos under the Act will have a far greater range of gambling facilities than casinos which have adhered to the 1968 laws.

Australian gaming company Ainsworth has appointmed Danny Gladstone as Chief Executive Officer, effective as of February 5th.

Danny has been involved and held senior positions in the gaming industry in a career spanning 35 years. His most recent position was Director of Konami Australia.

Bally Technologies has signed contracts with two companies controlled by Madrid-based Codere S.A. for complete casino management, bonusing and coinless solutions at six gaming locations in Panama.

Aristocrat Technologies Europe has announced the appointment of Marc Campman to the post of Marketing Director for Aristocrat, with responsibility across Europe, CIS, Middle East and North Africa, and the global marketing of ACE Interactive.

Following their recent trade show successes with the PortalVision product, Las Vegas Gaming, Inc. has named Karen Fisher as Vice President of Business and Product Development. Fisher will evaluate business and product opportunities and strategies to enhance business growth.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY USA has announced the appointment of Ron Coiro to the position of Business Development Manager for Eastern USA and Eastern Canada.

Inspired Gaming Group (INGG) has announced it is enhancing its senior executive team to drive server-based gaming growth in the UK and international markets.

Atronic International is playing a big part in the opening of Casino Duisburg with an array of e-motion and Harmony machines being installed, all coinless and with ticket printers.

Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs has selected FutureLogic’s GEN2 Universal printer as the standard printer for its existing and new TITO slots and gaming platforms.

Croatian leisure and tourism company Cubus Lux has signed a marketing agreement with ActivityBreaks, one of Europe’s leading activity breaks companies.

Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s largest casino entertainment company, has selected JCM as a preferred bill validator vendor for its properties. The decision was made after Harrah’s conducted a technical evaluation of JCM’s award-winning Universal Bill Acceptor (UBA) validator software and hardware.

Merkur Casino, a subsidiary of the Gauselmann Group, recently remodelled the interior of its successful gaming location in Hungarian county capital Györ.

Taking place in early March, the richest poker tournament in Asia just got richer – organisers of the Asian Poker Classic (APC) have guaranteed a minimum add-in of $250,000 to the prize pool, which means more than $1million could be available at the first professional poker tournament ever staged in India.

Building on a solid reputation and expanding services, GLI Italia has signed its Testing Accreditation Agreement for the Italian Comma 6A jurisdiction. This took place during a meeting with the Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS) in Rome.

eCOGRA has published the results of its comprehensive online gambling survey, which took in answers from almost 11,000 players in 96 countries. It is certainly the largest questionnaire of its kind to date, and the results are quite fascinating. eCOGRA commissioned the study, which was actually carried out by the International Gaming Research Units and the UK’s Nottingham Trent University.

Aristocrat Technologies Africa has announced the appointment of William Wilsnagh as Managing Director. William will replace Dominic Barbieri who moves into a non-executive directorship position with effect from 1 April 2007.

William brings with him significant experience in both the gaming and technology sectors, an ideal combination for driving Aristocrat’s South African business forward.

Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH (AGI) has announced it has joined the Gaming Standards Association (GSA) as a Gold Member in order to advance open communications standards for casino gaming equipment.

Since its announcement last year to allow and encourage independent third-party development of protocol tool kits, companies have been progressing steadily on test suites for Gaming Standards Association protocols. Now GSA is proud to announce the release of a tool kit for its System-to-System (S2S) protocol.

Lee Weekes has joined the Customer Support Department as a Support Engineer and Robert Peck has joined the Engineering Department as a Software Engineer. “Both Lee and Robert are important new recruits to Heber,” said Richard Placito, Managing Director. “Lee is an important addition to our expanding Customer Support team.

Boutique project management company Concept has won a contract to project manage an £11 million casino in Leeds, UK for London Clubs International.

Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH (AGI), the wholly owned subsidiary of the Novomatic Group of Companies has significantly strengthened its international commercial team with the appointment of Jordi Pedragosa.

Gold Reef City Casino, Johannesburg has followed the trend of smart card operations in South Africa as players get more used to and comfortable with smart card gaming. The casino – one of the city’s four largest – has adopted Atronic Systems’ smart card cashless system solution, CHIP CASH, late in 2006.

The Jackpot Factory (www.jackpotfactory.com), a leading online casino group known for first-rate customer support and a wealth of games, has announced that its VIP Lounge Casino (www.jfviplounge.com) has received accreditation and the coveted “Play It Safe” seal from eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (www.eCOGRA.org).

As February is carnival time in Latin America, we just had to escape to this beautiful region. It’s true, really, whichever way you look at it, from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, Latin America is just gorgeous, and the gaming industry just now, as exciting as ever.

Como es el mes del carnaval, nos dimos nuestra escapadita anual a la linda Latinoamérica. Es verdad, por donde se le mire, desde México hasta Tierra del Fuego, la región es bellísima, y la industria del juego, no se queda atrás.

When the stakes are high, the investment risk is usually worth it; so thought numerous casino companies that competed for Pennsylvania gaming operator licenses.

A ‘Russian Roulette’ of negative perceptions – The Ceres Partnership analyses the media coverage following the controversial decision to award the UK’s ‘supercasino’ license to Manchester. An analysis of media coverage following the announcement of the location of the UK’s ‘Supercasino’ has shown the industry has an uphill struggle to overcome negative perceptions.

The casino industry’s most vibrant, international and exciting show hit London late January. Did it live up to last year’s success? Jon Bruford brings you part one of our show report so you can judge for yourself…