Well, that’s G2E Asia over. What a show it was! Unrecognisable from last year’s event, Reed has certainly invested a lot of time and effort into making this the must-attend event for Asia. As many exhibitors explained to me at the exhibition though, Reed need to go one step further and bring in more operators and potential customers from outside Macau – then they really will have something special on their hands.

I’m fed up with the latest media buzz-phrase ‘credit crunch’. Using this soft-soaping, as most news agencies in the UK are, is skirting around the fact that, globally, we appear to be teetering on the edge of quite a nasty recession. I’m curious though – are the people responsible, the individuals that sold mortgages en masse to bad credit risks in the US and UK, being punished in any way? Are the decision makers being brought to book? Not that I’ve seen…

With one of the most boring budgets in the history of politics behind it, and a vow from the UK Government that there will be no ‘supercasino’ in Manchester, things in the UK haven’t been all that exciting of late. But the pessimism of the UK economy is tempered by the enthusiasm the gaming world has toward the Gran Scala project which should be breaking ground in just a few months.

ICE was excellent yet again, with all the buzz and optimism this international show brings. But there was more to it this year, with the buzzwords ‘Gran Scala’ on everyone’s lips, and a general good feeling despite worries about global economic downturn. The night before ICE began, the first-ever International Gaming Awards were held in London – if you weren’t there, you can read who won what on page 48.

2008 promises much, with new casinos springing up seemingly everywhere and new territories opening up and moving toward regulated gaming.

I can’t speak for the rest of you, but I’d bet you feel the same way I do – excited, as G2E is just around the corner! Indeed, some of you may be reading this issue for the first time at the show. Such a feast of technology and innovation – I can hardly wait. Will WMS be able to top last year’s technology? What will Bally have up their sleeves? And of course there’s IGT, Interblock, Aristocrat and a million other companies vying for attention and sales.

Another month, another move forward for Casino International. This issue sees three exciting developments for the magazine. First we have the inaugural column from our colleagues at Macau Business, which tells you all about the Macau Venetian opening on page 14. I hope that will be the start of many columns on this exciting part of the gaming world from them.

Casino International Managing Editor Jon Bruford enthuses about the September issue of the magazine...

Reed's involvement in G2E Asia seems to have been a resounding success, with only a few minor gripes about the show from exhibitors. It's certainly going to become a key date on the international calendar when it expands into the Venetian next year, and those gripes will hopefully be wiped out.

I’ve been thinking about Bally’s 75th anniversary celebrations. It’s a rare thing for a company to last 75 years in what is a technology and innovations industry, never mind to consistently be at the forefront of that industry. It’s an impressive achievement, particularly when you think of how many companies are bought out, taken over or simply fail…

Not to be too UK-centric, but it’s hard not to be riled by the latest budget to come from Gordon Brown’s incredible imagination. It’s not one that gives the UK’s voters any confidence in the man…

It’s all go, this industry, isn’t it? Just when you sit down for a breather, some law changes or a merger happens and it all begins again… But that’s also part of the reason it’s so exciting.