The UK's favourite French chef and TV personality, Jean-Christophe Novelli, is working in partnership with Genting Stanley to deliver a tailored training programme to the company's top chefs. He has created an exclusive signature menu to enhance the casino group's dining offer.

Aristocrat is moving its global manufacturing operations from Sydney to London in a decentralising operation that the company plans to have completed by June 2008.

Ethan Tower is the new Protocol Director for the Gaming Standards Association (GSA), and has joined the organisation as a staff member. He is responsible for overseeing the continuing development of GSA's System-to-System (S2S) protocol as well as for ensuring alignment of schemas between S2S and the Game-to-System (G2S) protocol.

Following extensive field tests  at the Treasure Island Hotel  and Casino in Las Vegas, LVGI's PlayerVision system was named as ‘best product of 2007' by Casino Journal.

Bally Technologies has opened new sales and support offices in Barcelona, Spain and Midrand, South Africa, which will be followed this spring by the opening of a full-service office in Mexico City, Mexico.

A fter a rooftop fire led to the closure of the MGM Monte Carlo hotel in Las Vegas on 25th January, it was ready to re-open the doors by mid-February and planned to have all but 500 of the 3,000 guest rooms available before the end of the month.

Money Controls plans to strengthen its sales offices in Las Vegas and in Miami to support growth in North and South America.

Sebastian Salat has been promoted to the newly-created position of President, WMS International.

Lottomatica Spa's wholly-owned subsidiary, GTECH Corporation, has acquired a 50 percent controlling interest in the Atronic group of companies from the privately-held Gauselmann for €20 million in cash.

Tasmania has been added to the UK Government's ‘Whitelist' of countries or jurisdictions allowed to advertise remote gambling in the UK.

FutureLogic, which started as an electronic design consulting company in 1983, is celebrating 25 years in business this year. Today the company designs and manufactures thermal printers for casino gaming, medical, RTAL, gas pumps, promotional equipment, kiosk, and industrial applications.

In what the company claims is an industry first, players joining online game operator BackgammonMasters' VIP program can now use their mouse to add an electronic version of their signature to the terms and conditions documentation.

PokerTek has gained licences and is starting field trials of its PokerPro products in the US states of Iowa and Indiana.

The Las Vegas Gaming Commission has approved the purchase of the Las Vegas Stratosphere along with a 17-acre parcel of land and three other Nevada casinos by a Goldman Sachs investment fund.

Octavian has gained GLI certification for its ACP (Accounting, Control, Progressives) casino management system, which opens up new international markets for the system. It is already being used by operators in Europe, Russia, and Latin America.

The private equity deal that takes Harrah's Entertainment, Inc into private ownership has been completed, and Harrah's shares no longer trade on the New York Stock exchange.

Asset manager Van Eck Global has launched The Gaming ETF, which it claims is the world's first exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of the international gaming industry. The fund seeks to replicate the price and yield performance of the S-Network Global Gaming Index, which follows 69 gaming companies.

A drop in attendance figures of almost six percent over the first two days at the Amusement Trade Exhibition International (ATEI) in London, this January was explained by the event organisers as the result of "consolidation and uncertainty" in the coin-op market, but both zones of the International Casino Exhibition (ICE) showed year-on-year growth in visitor numbers.

Casinos Austria International's newest casino and entertainment complex, the Gran Casino Beograd in Belgrade was completed in a record time of just one year, and opened with a Gala Night at the start of February.

Joe Corradino has joined Gary Platt Manufacturing as Southern Nevada Sales Manager, serving the Las Vegas, Nevada area. Corradino joins Gary Platt with 34 years of experience in casino operations and casino equipment sales, including 26 years in casino operations domestically and internationally. His Las Vegas management positions included VP Casino Operations at Santa Fe Hotel & Casino and Director of Casino operations with Hacienda Hotel & Casino. Joe served seven years as Director of Sales at Casinovations and VDC.

Gaming Support BV and Alpha Video and Audio, Inc have extended the strategic alliance launched in 2005.

The Californian slot machine market grew by over a quarter in early February, following a successful campaign by four Indian tribes to gain voter approval for up to 17,000 new slot machines at four Casinos. Further growth may result if other tribes in the state press to increase the number of slots they are allowed to run.

Lubov Loginova is the new CEO of Unicum Gaming, taking over from Valery Klesov, the previous CEO who has become a member of the company's board.

The content of a letter to the Scottish Government from the UK Government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was made public in early February, which prompted speculation that the UK Government plans to drop the proposal for a ‘supercasino', but still allow a total of 16 new casino licences. As these pages went to press, the DCMS stated that a formal decision had not been taken following a review of UK casino plans instigated by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Members of the Red Hat Society gathered at Harrah's Las Vegas in an attempt to break a Guinness world record. Around 1,700 participated in a chorus line to welcome the comedy HATS! to Harrah's Casino.

W agerWorks has taken the IGT slot machine game Elvis Multi-Strike online, and has included two of the bonus round games - Fan-O-Meter and Photo Memories.

USA Congressman Jim McDermott has introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act, which would tax regulated Internet gambling. He estimates that regulating Internet gambling would generate between $8.7 billion to $42.8 billion in new federal revenues over its first ten years.

A legal dispute over a patent relating to automated shuffler technology between Shuffle Master Inc and Elixir Gaming Technologies, Inc (formerly known as VendingData Corporation) has moved a little closer to settlement, following a ruling from the US District Court For The District Of Nevada. The court found that Elixir had not infringed Shuffle Master's patent, either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.

To mark a "staggering" eight-fold increase in sales during 2007, MD of Tyco Electronics' Elo TouchSystems business, Luc Mergeay, presented a special ‘Star Distributor' award to gaming distributor Suzo International during ICE in January.

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.

Chicken Little, Chicken Little, the sky is falling. Remember that childhood fable of a chicken that overreacts and exaggerates disaster? It reminds me of the doom and gloom attitude of some following the year-end financial reporting on Atlantic City’s casinos.

Former Shadow Gambling Minister Nick Hawkins berates the UK press and Government over their foot-dragging and chicanery...

Venimos de Hollywood en Florida, donde ya se juega con máquinas tragamonedas Clase III, o tipo Las Vegas, como le llaman. Nos imaginamos que dentro de un año, los casinos Hard Rock de la tribu seminola se parecerán en mucho a Las Vegas con mesas de baccarat, blackjack y miles de videojuegos de las más prestigiosas marcas, donde destacan Bally y IGT, quienes entregaron las máquinas  al Hard Rock Casino de Hollywood antes el periodo indicado. En fin, todos felices.

Ricki Chavez-Munoz brings the latest news from Latino America...

Ricki Chavez-Munoz has been taking part in the Colombian expo for the past five years and speaks to organizer Jose Anibal Aguirre about the broad support for gaming expansion in the South American region

Thomas Zvipelj, CEO of the Elektroncek Group, spoke to Casino International about their exciting new electro-mechanical Blackjack game, part of the G4 Organic range...

Groove Media’s Michael Haines discusses this hot topic…

‘The London Show’ fulfilled its promise again in 2008, with the buzz and excitement the gaming industry associates with ICE. Casino International rounds up the best of the show over eight pages.

The inaugural International Gaming Awards took place the night before ICE opened its doors in London, January 2008. Find out who won and the plans for next year's show…

Casino Technology entered 2008 with a new cooperation project with Merkur Casino. The Bulgarian slot manufacturer provided a number of machines from their premier GEMINI range to complement the slot mix at the recently opened Merkur location, situated in the prestigious Prater district of Vienna.

After seven months in operation, Atronic’s eMillions Wide Area Progressive jackpot has been a major success for Holland Casino…

Casino seating experts Gary Platt Manufacturing have shipped 734 Gazelle style seats to Emerald Queen Casino in Fife, WA. Emerald Queen has over 700 of the newest games in town.

GPI has supplied both Maxims and Mint Stanley casinos in Southend on Sea, UK, with chips and plaques fitted with 125 KHz RFID technology.

Bally Technologies has signed a three-year operating agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to provide an initial order of 2,000 new Class III gaming machines for the Seminole’s seven casinos in Florida.