Aristocrat Europe has reinforced its presence in the French casino sector following a sustained period of growth over the last six months. Working in tandem with Tranchant Gaming Technology, formerly Techni Import Professionnel, the Aristocrat brand is now more prevalent in France than ever before.

GLI Europe, based in Hillegom, The Netherlands and Bologna, Italy, and SMI Software & Messtechnik Institut (based in Graz, Austria) have combined to create Austria’s most extensive and capable testing laboratory, adding to GLI’s presence throughout Europe.

Las Vegas Gaming, Inc. (LVGI) has named gaming industry leader Jon Berkley as its President/CEO, effective from June 4.

Berkley is a long-time industry veteran, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and Business Manager of Global Gaming and Lottery for TransAct Technologies and as a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Gaming Standards Association.

Ariella, a widely-recognised fashion brand for cocktail and eveningwear, exclusively designed the female uniforms for London Clubs’ The Casino at the Empire, Leicester Square, which opened in spring. The casino is the largest in London.

London Clubs International’s grand project, The Casino at the Empire, has kitted out their gaming rooms with a selection of TCSJOHNHUXLEY product.

Inspired Gaming Group has made a number of changes as part of its ongoing drive to exploit the worldwide growth in Open Server-based Gaming.

Gaming Support has entered into a service partner agreement with CARD, the Austrian-based subsidiary of Shuffle Master. Under the terms of the agreement – effective July 1, 2007 – Gaming Support will be CARD’s exclusive service point entity throughout Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg (aka Benelux).

The Hungarian (Veszkény) production plant of AGI Hungaria Kft., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH (AGI) has been certified according to EN ISO 9001:2000.

FutureLogic has expanded its global support and distribution network into the Asia Pacific market, with the official opening of its new sales, service and distribution centres in Macau, China.

Casino Technology’s popular GAMOPOLIS multi-game video slot machine has been the subject of a series of tournaments co-organised by the Bulgarian slot specialists.

Bulgarian company Casino Technology is celebrating a successful exhibition at FADJA 2007 in Bogota. With their attractive Gemini luxury cabinet on show, there was plenty of interest in their stand; Gemini has already helped the company gain a foothold in Latin American markets, and apparently wowed the crowds again.

Atronic’s King Kong Cash has made it’s way to Scandinavia and is ready to thrill visitors at Casino Cosmopol Gothenburg, Sweden. ‘The Casino by the Water’ is one of four casinos of the Casino Cosmopol Group and is situated in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city.

MEI has made a substantial investment in the future of the company with a move into new world-class premises in Earley, Reading.

The move follows the sale of MEI last April from Mars Incorporated to Bain Capital and Advantage Partners.

The Gaming Standards Association has released an errata upgrade to its Game-to-System (G2S) protocol. The upgrade is available for immediate download through the organization’s website, www.gamingstandards.com.

A wave of capital flowing into the gaming sector, worldwide, is fuelling massive growth in casino and other gaming properties, according to Ernst & Young’s annual Gaming Bulletin.

Aristocrat has completed the first European installation of Jackpot Deluxe Hyperlink. The Olympic Entertainment Group, the largest operator in the Baltic States, agreed to the implementation of the system on a bank of six of Aristocrat’s top performing 20-line games, Queen of the Nile and Dolphin Treasure, at Olympic Casino Latvia, in Riga.

The Suzo-Happ group have released a new generation of toppers for casino and AWP machines. Toppers are used as a lure toplayers to draw their attention to the machine; Suzo’s R&D department was given a brief to comeup with new technology to improve and advance toppers beyong the first generation, which were individually controlled by the host machine. Well, not one advance but two have come out of their research.

Gaming Partners International has completed an order valued at approximately $1 million from the new Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas.

3M has signed a new distribution agreement with Elatec Vertriebs GmbH to reach new customers in selected East Central Europe markets. Elatec will market 3M’s comprehensive range of touch products to customers in Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria, providing in-depth technical support for their application specific requirements.

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 love writing this column. It is the one place where I can inject my personal thoughts while reporting on current gaming topics in the US. Every other job requires objectivity and “polite” journalism. Here, I can vent and editorialize, giving a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” opinion on what I consider the good or bad.

“Well, this is another complaint about the Veneto”. This was the weary comment from the Panama Tourist Board officer stationed at Tocumen international airport, who received the Guest questionnaire I filled in before I boarded my flight to the Dominican Republic on the morning of June 16, the day after the Sagse Centroamerica 2007 expo ended.

“Otra queja más contra el Veneto.” Este fue el comentario resignado del funcionario de la Comisión de Turismo de Panamá en el aeropuerto International Tocumen, quien recibió la nota de comentarios que le entregué antes de partir para República Dominicana, la mañana del sábado 16, a la conclusión del Sagse Centroamérica 2007.

Without realizing it Gavin Isaacs, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President at the Las Vegas based Bally Technologies, Inc. follows one of American General George S. Patton’s most famous rules: "No general ever won a battle from his swivel chair!"

Early April, GPI completed the production of an order from Crown Macau Casino for approximately 70,000 Bourgogne & Grasset high frequency (13.56MHz) RFID plaques as well as for all the wheelchecks with its Bud Jones roulette chips. GPI supplied several sets of the state-of-the-art B&G plaques using high frequency RFID technology from Magellan.

The Casino Career Institute (CCI) at Atlantic Cape Community College (ACCC) in southern New Jersey has trained casino workers for over 30 years, sending more than 50,000 graduates into the gaming industry in Atlantic City, across the United States, and around the world.

G2E Asia was most certainly a success. Many of the casino industry’s stalwarts exhibited, and those that didn’t had partner companies in the Macau Tower. Complaints were uniform, but everyone attending knew that next year, things will change.

The ‘eyes in the sky’ are vital to casino operations on many levels. They allow operators to monitor staff, streamline security operations by remotely directing staff to where they are needed, and solve player disputes. So why is it that casino operators are seemingly unwilling to upgrade to the latest technology with CCTV?

Shuffle Master recently gained approval from the Gambling Commission to introduce five new table games and side bets to the UK. The games will be distributed by Cammegh in the UK following their agreement with Shuffle Master’s Austrian arm, CARD, which happened late 2006.

Tom Kenny, Commercial Director, Cantor Gaming speaks to Casino International about the company and the plans for their hugely impressive wireless gaming platform which should see its first trial in Las Vegas before the end of 2007.

People in the casino industry travel a lot, often to many different continents in a year. But few places on the international calendar can be as breathtaking as Lake Como, the setting for the first International Gaming Expo organised by Zemporex.