infinity gaming magazine february 2012
DESCRIPTION
Infinity Gaming Magazine February 2012TRANSCRIPT
* Download any QR Reader to your smartphone and scan code.
ENTER THE WORLD OF REGULATED MARKETSScan for latest case studies, info & product previews
www.playtech.com
* Scan to EntEr
THE WINNERS
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD 2012 RECIPIENT Mr. Bertil KnutssonThe Fifth International Gaming Awards Recipient of the Out-standing Contribution to Gaming AwardBertil Knutsson
TCS John Huxley chairman Bertil Knutsson received the Out-standing Contribution to Gaming Award at the fifth Interna-tional Gaming Awards.
Mr Knutsson was honoured at the annual award dinner held on January 23 at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London, among leading figures of the international gaming commu-nity.
The award, which has seen past recipients include Dr Stanley Ho and Andrew Love, recognises the influence Knutsson has had on the gaming industry. In a career spanning more than 60 years, he is one of the industry’s most influential charac-ters. Born in 1932 as the youngest of four children, he was brought up in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Developing a keen interest in boxing when he was younger, he was an international boxing referee and became a promoter of professional boxing events featuring legends such as Sonny Liston. He also promoted other sporting events such as The Harlem Globetrotters and the tennis tournament WCT, which hosted legendary players such as Björn Borg, Stan Smith, Ar-thur Ashe, Ilie Nastase and Rod Laver.
It was not until 1959 that he started in the gaming industry, operating casinos in Sweden. However, Sweden soon became too small for his visions and in the early 1980s he branched
out to international market. It was at this time he invented the ground-breaking chip sorting machine, the Chipper Champ, which changed the face of gaming floors worldwide. In 2001, with his partners, he formed a company introducing Lad-brokes eGaming into the Nordic countries. Within five years the company recruited over 300,000 new members, making around 40 per cent of Ladbrokes eGaming’s total poker rev-enues. Among many others, he and his family are also major shareholders in Betsson AB and Net Entertainment.
In 2003 TCS acquired John Huxley and TCS John Huxley was born. The company continues to be at the forefront of the sup-ply and manufacture of live table gaming equipment and goes from strength to strength in this competitive arena. On re-ceiving the award, Knutsson commented: “I am overwhelmed and extremely delighted to receive this honour from the IGA Academy. It is very satisfying to be acknowledged not only for my achievements to the gaming industry, but also the varied other work I have been involved with over the years.”
Casino/Integrated Resort of the Year Galaxy Macau Integrated Resort
Casino Operator Of The Year EuropeCasinos Austria International
sponsored by
sponsored by
Casino Operator Of The Year AmericasFoxwoods Resort Casino
Casino Operator Of The Year Australia/AsiaGalaxy Entertainment
sponsored by
sponsored by
Casino VIP Room of the YearCrown Limited
Customer Experience of the YearCity of Dreams, Melco Crown Entertainment
sponsored by
sponsored by
iGaming Software Supplier Playtech
Industry Publication/Portal of the YeariGaming Business
sponsored by
sponsored by
Mobile Operator of the YearPaddy Power
Online Bingo Operator of the Year888ladies
sponsored by
Online Casino Operator of the Year 32Red
Online Poker Operatorof the YearPartyPoker
sponsored by
sponsored by
Online Sportsbook Operator of the YearBetsson
Payment Solutions Provider Company of the YearOptimal Payments
sponsored by
Socially Responsible Operator of the Year Land BasedALH Group Australia
Socially Responsible Operator of the Year OnlineSkybet
sponsored by
sponsored by
Slot Manufacturer/Provider Online or Land BasedIGT
Slots Operator of the Year (Online)Redcorp S.A (7Red)
EMPIRECasino Recruitment & Consultancy
sponsored by
Technology Provider/SupplierContinent 8 Technologies
Traditional Casino Equipment SupplierCammegh
sponsored by
sponsored by
I was recently a guest at a casino hotel in the United States. My stay was at best okay and, in reality, lacking in many ways.
Things got off to a bad start the moment I walked into the hotel. I waited for more than 30 minutes to check in at the front desk. Later, people trying to reach me from my office had to call four times before they got through to my room. One day, my room was not serviced. None of these things should have happened and I won’t dwell on my other experiences because the worst is yet to come and that’s the real reason for this column.
A couple of days after I returned home, I received the obligatory email asking for my opinion. They wanted me to fill out a survey, and I flinched at the thought. I haven’t seen a casino survey yet that I liked, but I assumed this property wanted to improve and that learning about my experiences could help.
The welcome page stated that the casino valued my opinion. It also said the survey would take 15 minutes. Suddenly, there was a seri-ous problem and I hadn’t even started. Setting aside 15 minutes for an online survey is like waiting 30 minutes to check in at the hotel. That amount of time is way too long for the average person.
But I love research, so I moved on to the questions. The questions started out with a traditionally broad look at my stay. What services did I use? How did I rate them? Why did I give them that rating? These questions were much too detailed for the average guest. I couldn’t help but wonder who, other than me, would put up with this. Then I noticed a new problem. The questions were transitioning away from learning about my experience. Now they were edging into the realm of marketing. This casino wanted to know how I ar-rived at the property, whether my airline flight had a connection and how I booked my room. I know a lot about marketing and I know why the casino wants this information. The marketing department wants to justify its efforts and show how smart it is.If you want to know about my experience as a guest, stop once you have that data. Just because you have asked permission to learn about my experience doesn’t mean you have the right to ask me about other unrelated matters.
Then I came to something I just couldn’t believe. One question in the survey asked about my sexual preference! This casino wanted to know if I was (1) gay, (2) lesbian, (3) didn’t know or (4) other. If I’m gay, what does that have to do with becoming frustrated over standing in line for more than half an hour to check in at the hotel? Perhaps if I don’t know my sexual preference, I will overlook the day my room wasn’t cleaned and tell my friends they should stay at this property. Again, I understand marketing and segmentation and the idea of knowing how different people make decisions about your property, but really. I mean REALLY!
Do casinos go too far in their surveys? Obviously they do. But please don’t get me wrong. My primary challenge is not the question about sexuality. It’s the idea that a casino would waste a guest’s valuable time with all these questions that don’t even provide worthwhile data for making better decisions. Worse yet, it’s highly unlikely the data will be put to use anyway. A survey of this length produces so much information, no one will want to slog through it to see what it all means.
Research published by Harvard University shows that it only takes five questions to obtain a very accurate picture of who a customer is and what’s important to them. Beyond that, you are wasting time, energy and money.
Martin R. Baird is chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based consulting firm to the global gaming in-dustry that is dedicated to helping casinos improve their guest ser-vice so they can compete and generate future growth and profit-ability. Robinson & Associates is the world leader in casino guest experience measurement and improvement. For more information, visit the company’s Web sites at www.casinocustomerservice.com and www.advocatedevelopmentsystem.com or contact the compa-ny at 208-991-2037. Robinson & Associates is an associate member of the National Indian Gaming Association.
Do Casinos Push the Envelope With Customer Surveys?By Martin R. Baird
The growth of Macau’s gaming market, VIP in particular, has so far appeared unstoppable. This is buoyed by an increase in the number of players – mostly Chinese. These players contributed US$3.4 bil-lion in gross gaming revenue in the month of October (2011) alone. Such explosive growth over a short period of time will inevitably lead to some negative externalities that, hopefully, are reversible. Perhaps more interestingly is how the growth of Macau’s gaming market has helped spur the growth of other sectors, particularly the luxury industry.
It is interesting how the growth of Macau’s gaming market has sig-nificant changed the scenes on Macau’s streets. An apparent change is the number of Chinese-speaking ‘outsiders’ who patron shops selling luxury apparel and other accessories. You also see them on streets near to VIP-only entrances to hotel properties and in res-taurants late at night. Macau has been experiencing a retail boom in the last few years, in support of the expanded gaming market. Luxury retail shops here are among the most lucrative retail busi-nesses in the world today. Macau now has many shops selling all sorts of luxury products and brands to cater to its visitors.
While one would expect many of the casino players to keep a low profile during their stay here, there are some who are not afraid to flaunt their wealth. There is almost a dress code for this ‘new generation’ of younger male Chinese players, who actively patron-ize Macau’s casino properties and retail malls. You don’t have to try very hard to identify them on the streets and in restaurants. A short-sleeve polo shirt from Versace, straight pants from Armani, a gold watch from Rolex, a gold/silver necklace from Cartier, shining shoes from Prada, and more importantly, a Louis Vuitton leather man-bag or ‘murse’ that he cross-slings over his shoulders. A man-bag not only has functional uses for a typical Chinese player (guess where they put their credit cards, cash, chips, and lucky talisman) but also social ones. They carry with them a social status and are a sign of how successful one is. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Armani, and Burberry are some of the popular brands carried by some of these players.
Despite the financial problems in the US and Europe, we are now approaching the one million millionaires mark in China. The super-rich Chinese male consumers now represent a formidable force in Mainland China’s luxury industry. According to one report that I read, China’s luxury market has now grown to an annual sale of around US$10 billion. Another report states that more than 40% of purchases in the US$1.2 billion luxury handbag segment come from men. Luxury brands are increasingly bought as gifts. Many Mainland Chinese actually like to buy these brands from overseas where vari-ety is wider and prices are lower.
As the number of casino players and luxury products increases, so does the business for some pawn shops downtown. Macau’s pawn shops offer loans to individuals using personal items as collateral. Often open 24 hours a day, these shops are often found on streets next to casinos. The typical symbol of a pawn shop in Macau is a bat grabbing a round coin. Inside these pawnshops you can find brand-
ed watches, jewellery and other accessories left behind by those who just can’t beat the house. This is an easy way to get credits – just pawn away the luxury items that you had just bought.
An expanded gaming market has also injected some excitement in the luxury car market. There are now many different types of super-luxury cars on the streets of Macau - Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. The number of luxury MPV (multiple-purpose vehicle) is also on the rise. These cars are often bought by companies to service the VIP guests. They are also bought by individuals who have profited from the impressive growth of the gaming market (VIP in particular).
Precious casino players play a huge part in the growth of Macau and its marketplace – not just in gaming but also in other economical-ly-related areas. Undeniably, they have become a part of Macau’s bloodline and a formidable element (both in positive and negative ways) to the sustainability of Macau’s economic and social develop-ment.
* Desmond Lam is an associate professor of marketing at the Uni-versity of Macau. He can be contacted by [email protected].
Precious Players By Desmond Lam
Full Tilt Poker Lawyer speaks to Infinity Gaming MagazineInterview with Behnam DayanimPartner at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLPLaw Firm
Infinity Gaming Magazine speaks to Behnam Dayanim, the partner at AVH law firm, whom are handling the negotiations with the US Department of Justice and their client Full Tilt Poker.Mr Dayanim tells us how the discussions are progressing and what of the future both for Full Tilt Poker and US Online Poker in general Stateside.
Q: Behnam thank you for talking to us today, firstly can we ask you to explain who AVH are and what in particular are your concentrat-ed areas of expertise?
A: AVH is a mid-sized firm with offices in New York City, Washing-ton, DC and Hartford, Connecticut. The firm is very well known for our leading antitrust, intellectual property and complex litigation practices, and in Washington we also boast a regulatory practice with specialties that include gaming, advertising and promotions, data privacy, export control and sanctions. I co-chair the firm’s liti-gation and regulatory practice group, and specialize in the gaming, advertising and marketing, data privacy and export and sanctions areas. My work includes counseling, regulatory compliance, inter-nal investigations and litigation.
Q: In particular one of you areas of expertise is in the Gambling sec-tor, can you tell us a little about what currently is your firm han-dling? We understand you cannot name clients and particular cases, but what kind of cases do you currently involved in?
A: Sure. Gaming is one of my areas of focus, and I represent a range of clients, including traditional land-based US companies, inter-net gaming operators, payments providers and others. In recent months, I’ve been involved in a range of activity, including litigation in the state of Kentucky involving internet gaming, advice to compa-nies looking at various internet gaming models and regulatory work.
Q: Much of 2011 in Europe was all about USA maybe legalizing on-line gaming or Poker again, was your firm involved in any of this?
A: I’m sorry. As I am sure you can imagine, the state of play with respect to US federal and state legislation is very sensitive at the moment, so I can’t really discuss any work in which I may have been involved on those fronts.
Q: How does AVH see the US making online gambling industry evolv-ing in 2012?
A: Online gaming in the US is inevitable, either at the state or fed-eral level. Nevada is the first state, but will not be the last, to le-galize and regulate online gaming. The only question is whether 2012 will see the first steps by states into the market or whether the federal government will enact legislation that provides an overall framework for online gaming in the country.
Q: In your opinion will 2012 see either federal or state legal online gaming?
A: Yes! Which it will be, I’m not certain. But we will see legal online gaming this year – in Nevada, if nowhere else, but I am confident other states will follow suit if the federal government does not.
Q: What has AVH seen a growth in, related to land based or online gaming? Have you been approached mostly on online gaming legis-lation in the US or other matters most?
A: Our expertise is primarily in online gaming. I am familiar with traditional gaming regulation in many states, but we do not hold ourselves out as traditional gaming licensing counsel. Our clients typically are either of two varieties: (1) licensed gambling compa-nies – either traditional or online – that want advice on internet gaming issues; or (2) non-gambling companies that want to offer online games but not have those games cross offer into regulated (prohibited) gambling.
Q: Most recently AVH and your good self have been involved in the Full Tilt Poker/Group Bernard Tapie case with the US Department of Justice, has that now been concluded?
A: No. That is a very “live” matter. We are hopeful we will be able to get to conclusion soon, but substantial hurdles remain between now and completion. It will be interesting to see how matters unfold in the next few weeks.
Q: On the same subject, what is the legal standing with FTP/GBT going back into a regulated US market, when that happens in the US?
A: At this point, there is no regulated US market, other than the soon-to-be-opened intrastate market in Nevada. It would be foolish to build a business model based on a non-existent (legal) market. GBT’s strategy is based on a Rest-of-World model. What the future may hold would require an oracle, not a lawyer!
Q: Do you think AVH will see an large increase in online gaming clients in 2012 as more speculation grows on regulating online gambling in the US?
A: From your mouth to God’s ears….. I certainly would welcome more inquiries along those lines!
Seriously, I do think this is an area that is drawing increased attention from two directions – the licensed gaming (gambling) companies that know they cannot ignore the opportunities online gaming presents and the non-licensed non-gambling gaming companies that want to replicate the online gambling gaming experience as closely as pos-sible without crossing the line into prohibition or licensing. Licensing is a cumbersome process, and companies that are not familiar with it rightly find it intimidating.
Q: If you could offer one small piece of advice to any European On-line Operator, big or small looking to enter a new regulated US online market, what would it be?
A: Find a US partner that already is a licensed US gambling company. No matter how the rules are set out, it will be far easier navigating a US licensing regime with a US partner that already knows its way around.
Thank you Behnam for talking to us today and sharing your thoughts on the US and online gambling industries.
Chinese Lantern Festival THE Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival since more than 2000 years ago. The 15th day of the 1st lunar month is the Chinese Lantern Festival because the first lunar month is called yuan-month and in the ancient times people called night Xiao. The 15th day is the first night to see a full moon. So the day is also called Yuan Xiao Festival in China. According to the Chinese tradition, at the very be-ginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve the puzzles on the lanterns and eat yuanxiao (glutinous rice ball) and get all their families united in the joyful atmosphere.
On the 15th lunar day of the year, some Chinese families worship the Heaven Officer of Taoism and pray for luck at home or temple during the daytime. Traditionally, Chinese should decorate the light lanterns around the house and children carry the candle paper lan-tern on the street at night. It might the safety concern, not too many follow this custom today. In stead, many people will attend different activities of the Lantern Festival.
Traditional lanterns are made by paper. They can make the lantern tuning around by the heat circulation from the candle inside. Today the light of the lantern is from the electricity. People like to design lantern using zodiac animals, historical figures, saint and gods of Taoism or Buddhism. Certainly, the current year’s animal symbol of the Chinese calendar is most popular subject. Using the computer tool today, they can design the lantern with different movements, the different colors of light and even using the laser light with spe-cial visual and sound effects.In Taiwan, the government builds a giant zodiac animal lantern more than 15 kilometer high on the square of a major city every year to promote the touring business since 1990.
Iced ChocolateHOT on the heels of the MINI Baker Street and MINI Bayswater comes the third in a trio of spe-cial editions for spring 2012 – the all-new MINI Highgate.
Continuing the brand’s es-tablished policy of taking the names of fashionable areas of London, the High-gate is a sophisticated new version of the drop-top Convertible.As with all special edition MINIs, this four-seater offers a raft of unique ex-terior and interior features. Providing a fresh interpretation of MINI’s pre-mium appeal and style, the Highgate is designed to take the fun and excite-ment of ‘wind-in-the-hair’ motoring to the next level.
The car is finished in an all-new metallic ‘Iced Chocolate’ body colour, which works perfectly with the tailored ‘Silvertouched Truffle’ fabric roof. The dis-tinctive look is enhanced by truffle bonnet stripes with blue edging. Mid-night Black metallic or White Silver metallic paintwork can be specified as an option. The door mirror caps are always finished in the same shade as the exterior.
TitanCITAN is the name of the new urban delivery van from Mercedes-Benz. The name was an-nounced for the first time yesterday at the Mercedes-Benz Design Centre in Sindelfingen, during a symposium on brand competence and city logistics. The name Citan is derived from the words “City” and “Titan”, so emphasis-ing the vehicle’s role as a high-calibre specialist in city logistics, designed specifically for the rough and tumble of everyday working life.
Its design is correspondingly robust and durable. At the same time it man-ages to meet the requirements of customers across the service industry, retail sector and a broad spectrum of trades: a generous load compartment with compact dimensions, allied to typical attributes of the brand such as quality, economic efficiency, safety and dynamic driving, all combined with low fuel consumption and the low CO2 emissions to match. The choice of drive systems comprises a broad range of economical and low-emission diesel and petrol engines – including a BlueEFFICIENCY package. A version powered by an electric engine is already being planned.
The controls, the interior and the quality of materials and workmanship in the new Citan are at the high level that has become the hallmark of all Mercedes-Benz vans. The urban delivery van was developed and tested to the same standards as its larger Sprinter and Vito siblings and is in no way inferior to these. As with every Mercedes-Benz, safety is paramount: ESP is part of the standard specification for all variants.
1 million notifications A POST on Facebook has received over a million comments, making it a contender to take a place in Guiness. 107 fans of the freemium Zynga game Frontierville joined together in a Guinness World Record attempt led by Cathy Matthews and Tracey Hodgson. They collectively hit the 1,001,291 post with an average of 9,358 posts each. Before you start considering Face-book a 21st century institution for free expression and the exchange of new ideas, it appears that a good deal of the comments simply consisted of Mat-thews typing the word “go” at high speed. “Once you get the rhythm, you can go pretty fast,” she commented. The attempt has been submitted to
Guinness for appraisal, but the team is yet to receive a response.
Water powered smartphonesWATER may soon be all you need to charge your dying, slick electrical de-vices. We know its not usually a smart idea to put your smartphone any-where near a drop of water, but company myFC, has developed a portable fuel cell charger that runs on water called the PowerTrekk.
PowerTrekk is a cutting edge product that uses clean fuel cell technology, which efficiently converts hydrogen into electricity. Users simply insert the Pow erTrekk puck and add ordinary water to provide instant power on the go. “PowerTrekk Water Charger gives your mobile phone power anywhere at any time”, says Björn Westerholm, CEO at myFC. “From now on, you do not have to rely on having an electricity grid nearby.”
Unlike solar chargers, fuel cell power is reliable and quickly generated. The speed of charging is not impacted by weather or solar position. Fur-thermore, there is no power degradation like there is with batteries. “The launch of PowerTrekk marks a paradigm shift in fuel cell technology and at myFC we are very excited to bring this cutting edge product to the end consumers”, says Björn Westerholm, CEO at myFC.
Millions of people worldwide lack connection to the electricity grid from time to time. This applies for people in emerging markets as well as out-door enthusiasts and daily cell phone users all over the world. With the launch of the first ever water based fuel cell for commercial use there is now a clean energy solution when in need of a portable source of power. PowerTrekk is both a portable battery pack and fuel cell, intended for peo-ple who spend time away from the electricity grid. PowerTrekk provides instant power anywhere to electronic equipment such as cell phones, GPS-devices and cameras.
Smart gets smarterMOTOROLA has claimed that it will push forward its “smart actions” which makes it easier for people to control how their phones act. The claims could see the tables turning on other smartphones currently battling it out on the market.
For example, if a phone is consistently running low on battery, the phone recommends settings to improve battery life. If a user misses several calls in a row, the phone can suggest turning up the ringer.
Motorola Senior VP Alain Mutricy told Ina Fried of AllThingsD, tackling these functions is certainly possible through menus and Android set-tings wizards, but he said, “You need to be a geek to do that.”
Motorola also spoke about its potential plans to expand the Razr line. It is also supposedly investing it the Webtop software that allows phones to connect to laptop-like docking stations. The phone maker has already introduced the Razr Maxx — a new, high-end version of the Razr with a more capable battery. There are no confirmed details about new de-vices or the company’s soon-to-be-reported earnings, Mutricy said that Motorola is focused primarily on the high end of the U.S. market, par-ticularly as carriers upgrade to high-speed 4G LTE networks.
The BEST smartphone is…BLACKBERRY’S are flying off the shelves like hotcakes in Britain, accord-ing to the latest figures from research firm GfK. “The latest results from data firm GfK show that BlackBerry was the #1 selling smartphone in the British market for the second year running,” boasted a press release from Research In Motion today.
“It continues to dominate the market, grabbing 26.3% of December sales and averaging 27.7% through 2011.” The news comes after co-CEO Mike Lazardis smartly stepped down from the firm. He handed the reigns over to Thorsten Heins and said: “I absolutely know he will take this company to new heights.”
With increasing competition from Samsung and Apple eating into the smartphone market, RIM firmly believes that THEY are the ones to beat to stay ahead.
After all the controversy surrounding the great BBM blackout late last year, RIM are holding their head up higher than the iPhone fanbase out there with the latest news. RIM said it had more than eight and a half million active subscribers in the UK by the end of 2011, but did not give comparable figures for 2010. However, it said its global subscriber base increased by 35% year on year in December to 75 million.
The manufacturer’s forthcoming plans include an update to its Black-Berry 7.1 OS, which includes features such as the ability to turn a Black-Berry into a mobile hotspot that can be shared by up to five Wi-Fi-en-abled devices. The PlayBook 2.0 is also due to hit the market in February.
Tricked?YOU could be part of the Anonymous hacker collective. It’s been reported that Anony-mous tricked its 249,000 Twit-ter followers into joining their attacks on cyber-space.
Users who click the links inevitably become a part of Anony-mous’ attacks, which can be launched only by relying on thou-sands of personal computers to crash the government websites.
“I’m not sure if participants in this instance would get away with claiming that they innocently clicked on links by mistake,” The Daily Mail quoted Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley, as saying.
Security experts have warned that these very same Twitter users could be jailed for cybercrime.
“This change in tactic from Anonymous, which allows attacks to be launched by simply clicking on a link, means that Internet users need to be extremely careful when clicking on unknown URLs or they could unwittingly be joining this latest zombie army,” he added.
The cyberattacks are a part of Anonymous’ ‘Operation Megaup-load’, which was launched to protest the shutdown of a file-shar-ing site.
World’s largest video game controllerBRITISH engineering student, Ben Allen (23), has taken gaming to a whole new level with the world’s largest video game con-troller. He came up with the concept in …the pub.
The giant NES controller is 30 times the size of a standard con-troller. It weighs in at a whopping 252 pounds and measures 144 in. x 62 in. x 20 in. That means he and another gamer have to play it by jumping on the buttons.
The giant NES controller was unveiled at London’s Liverpool St. station to kick start the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamers Edition. Commuters had the opportunity to test their gaming skills on the giant controller. What a perfect way to start 2012.Allen, who studies at Delft University of Technology in the Neth-erlands took five months to build the giant controller and spent about $6000 in the process.
All bets off?
BETFAIR has announced that it will no longer offer its services to South Africans as from next Tuesday. According to the public affairs manager Tom Tuxworth, access to its services from SA-based IP addresses will be blocked.
The decision is in light of the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling last Sep-tember that declared online, or interactive, gambling illegal, says Bet-fair public affairs manager Tom Tuxworth. Tuxworth says, following the Piggs Peak decision, Betfair has decided not to take any more bets from South Africans. “Our Web site is in the process of being IP-blocked to the entire country.”
In addition, “the technical work required to put the block in place need-ed to be planned and tested prior to being implemented”, Tuxworth says. “It was also necessary to communicate with our customers to en-sure an orderly closure of their accounts.”
The Gambling Review Commission has recommended that online wa-gering be legalised, and that more than 10 licences be issued. Changes to the legislation could take about two years to come into effect.
On 14 February, all existing accounts will be suspended and Betfair says South Africans must withdraw their funds before then. Betfair is apply-ing for a traditional back-only sportsbook licence in the Western Cape under the existing framework, says Tuxworth. Sports betting is legal in SA under the current gambling framework.
In other Betfair news, the firm has today launched its next generation iPad App into the Apple store.The bespoke native application is a marked enhancement from previous products and is the first to come out of Betfair’s development office in San Francisco, where the Company has recently relocated key parts of mobile development under the leadership of Raj Vemulapalli, who was recruited from Yahoo!
Commenting on the launch, Raj Vemulapalli, Vice President of Mobile Engineering and Head of Mobile Technologies at Betfair said: “This App is a game-changer for our customers, offering them a seamless bet-ting experience that replicates the fixed web, whilst making use of the unique features available on iPad. Mobile is the coming force in the bet-ting industry, and the shift from online to mobile is in many ways more exciting than the shift from offline to online.”
Tony McAlister, Chief Technology Officer at Betfair said: “Mobile is in-creasingly important to Betfair’s bottom line and product launches such as this are now key strategic milestones. In addition, the fact that this App was developed in just two months out in San Francisco shows that our decision to launch a US technology office in Silicon Valley is already paying off. I hope this is the first of many US developed products which will extend our lead in the online betting space”.
Back to BaccaratCHINESE New Year celebrations have had an outstanding impact on gaming destinations; Las Vegas in particular have noted that Asian big-time gamblers are flocking to Las Vegas to play baccarat and providing the skills and cash in boosting the casinos out there.
“For us to make money in gaming today with-out baccarat is almost impossible,” said Debra Nutton, senior vice pres-ident of casino opera-tions at the MGM Grand hotel-casino. “We need the big whales to make money.”
It’s been known that Baccarat has raced ahead of Blackjack in the world of gaming. It now represents nearly 60 percent of the MGM Grand’s table games revenue over the past year. It’s especially popular this week with tens of thou-sands of tourists from Asia in town to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
In Las Vegas parlance, a “whale” is a big-time gambler who easily wa-gers more in one night at the tables than most American families make in a year. Casinos cater to them with plush, secluded gambling salons inside the top casinos — with baccarat games that often start out at a minimum $10,000 per hand. The whales typically favor baccarat — a game romanticized in James Bond flicks and highly popular in Macau and Singapore.
Nevada figures show that during the 12 months ending Nov. 30, casi-nos statewide won $1.27 billion from baccarat players, with the game offered at 258 total tables in 24 casinos. Blackjack, meanwhile, pulled in just $1.03 billion — even though it was offered across 2,810 tables in 151 casinos. Slots are still the most popular and lucrative form of gambling in Nevada, with nearly 165,000 machines over 330 locations including supermarket, gas stations and airports.
Baccarat has been the most lucrative table game since 2009, and has been increasing its share since then, according to an analysis of gam-bling revenues by Dave Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Re-search at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “The real high-end play is happening in maybe six or seven casinos,” Schwartz said.
Calls for new gaming exhibitionAt the recent and last ICE Expo at Earls Court, many exhibitors called for a stand along casino only gaming exhibition. There was also a group of poten-tial organizers for an alternative show canvassing interest to manufacturers and suppliers.
Not wanting to be named at this stage, but one supplier said that they would be very interested if there was an exhibition setup that only serviced the land based gaming industry. They felt that the current gaming organizer of ICE Totally Gaming were too comfortable with no competition and were squeezing exhibitors with extra costs.
At the recent and last ICE Expo at Earls Court, many exhibitors called for a stand along casino only gaming exhibition. There was also a group of poten-tial organizers for an alternative show canvassing interest to manufacturers and suppliers.
Not wanting to be named at this stage, but one supplier said that they would be very interested if there was an exhibition setup that only serviced the land based gaming industry. They felt that the current gaming organizer of ICE Totally Gaming were too comfortable with no competition and were squeezing exhibitors with extra costs.
ICE show was up on numbers, but not all happyReports to the iGaming Post have confirmed that there were potential orga-nizers of a separate show for traditional gaming equipment exhibition at the ICE Expo and that their feedback from exhibitors was positive. The iGaming Post does not know currently where an alternative show would be orga-nized, but many exhibitors said they were not happy with the relocation of ICE Totally Gaming to the Excel Centre on the East End of London.
One exhibitor said “all our clients like to go out to dinner and the wives like to shop, that is impossible over at the Excel, it would take 40 minutes plus to get into central London from there. There is only a limited amount of hotels and evening entertainment.”
“With Earls Court still open for business in 2013, Clarion made a mistake moving too soon, they panicked because of the potential of Reed coming in.” The exhibitor continued.
2012 will be a challenging time for Clarion and time will tell if a competition event will materialize for the Gaming Industry for 2013.
One billion people & 1 legal casinoONE billion people and only one legal casino in Goa, could India be crying out for a gaming haven? Las Vegas Sands have got their eyes on developing a presence in the nation, as well as other hot spots around the world such as Spain, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Tai-wan.
Whilst addressing the media at the Venetian Macao, Las Vegas Sands Chair-man and CEO Sheldon Adelson expressed his desire for a beach head in India. Previously, in 2008, Aldelson said that he wanted to develop a Cotai Strip similar to Macau in India. He revealed that he had approached offi-cials in Delhi’s Ministry of Tourism for permission to run an integrated resort but never heard back.
It will take the company a considerable amount of time to get required li-
censes and approvals before it could start work in India, but it could be an interesting opportunity if it materialises.
In an interview with Vietnamnet online newspaper, Sheldon also revealed his investment plan in regards to expanding in Vietnam. Speaking about meeting Vietnaese government officials, he said:“It was for my company to make investments in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to develop integrated resorts. That’s our speciality. We are the only developer in the world that is developing IR which is our convention base.
That means our fundamental business model is designed to support exhibi-tions and conventions. We were the only privately own exhibition centre in the world in 1990s to build strong Sands convention and exhibition in Las Vegas.
That’s scenery between what Vietnam wants to have and what we can pro-vide. It would like to boost tourism. We are specialised in tourism and bring-ing in tourism. Vietnam has no IR so far and that is fundamental component of our company. So it’s an extremely comfortable fit that we can cooperate in this.
We believe the Vietnamese government is very interested in our model and we think it also wants to have our IR in Vietnam.”
Macau’s responsible plan A NEW association, Macau Responsible Gaming Association’s (MRGA), has been established today in a bid to focus on responsible gaming. It has the formal blessing of the powerful gaming industry, acknowledged organising committee member and liaison officer Sung Wai Kit.
“Every citizen in Ma-cau, not just gam-blers and casino workers, shares a responsibility and is a stake holder in the gaming industry’s present and future, which has an impor-tant bearing not only on the city’s eco-nomic structure, but also the well-being of neighbouring cit-ies”, Sung said.The association will hope to tackle gambling problems, including providing counselling services for pathological gamblers, Sung told Macau Daily Times.
And MRGA also hopes to work with other social groups such the Federation of Trade Unions, and the General Neighbourhood Association Unions, both of which have a large social network of members and resources.
Sung also stressed and denied that responsible gaming means a negative compact on casino revenue. Responsible gaming is to achieve a more bal-anced economic structure, or diversification of the economy, to turn Macau into an international travel and leisure centre, as laid out in the country’s 12th Five Year Plan, Sung explained.
Rank to buy Gala Casinos
Rank Group, the owner of the Grosvenor Casino Brand is reported to be preparing to stake £250 million on a deal to buy the casino arm of rival Gala Coral.
The move would see Rank create the UK’s biggest operator by merging its 35-strong Grosvenor Casinos chain with the 24 outlets owned by Gala.It is being reported that talks involving the two companies were at an ad-vanced stage and could be completed in time for Rank’s interim results on February 9.
Such an acquisition would accelerate Rank’s plans to have 45 Grosvenor outlets by the end of 2015 through the faster roll-out of its G-Casino format, which attracts a younger, less formal crowd. The business, which employs more than 3,000 people, has all but four of its casinos outside London.
A sale of the casinos would allow Gala Coral to concentrate on its Gala bingo and Coral bookmaking divisions, as well as strengthen its finances amid a net debt figure of £1.3 billion at the end of 2011.
The company has been seen as ripe for a break-up since a big debt restruc-turing in 2010 saw many lenders left with shares in the company, fuelling speculation that Rank would look to buy the casinos.
Rank is listed on the London Stock Exchange but majority owned by Guoco, the investment vehicle of Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan.
The business also has more than 100 bingo clubs under the Mecca brand and owns the Bluesq sports betting and gaming business.
Malaysian firm Genting is the UK’s biggest casino operator with 45 sites, including its flagship Crockfords casino in London’s Mayfair.
UK Tax hike to Gambling In-dustryIt is bad news for Investors in UK gambling companies as they are warned by at least one analyst this week that the industry is facing a tough year due to plans by the government to introduce a damning tax hike.
Oriel, the analyst group, said that while “there are always risks for betting and gaming stocks ahead of the budget,” the risks are “greater this year.”In March, Chancellor George Osborne will unveil his budget, and it is ex-pected that it will include higher taxes on internet gambling companies that operate offshore, including William Hill, Betfair and Ladbrokes.
As a result, analysts have downgraded share ratings of some online gam-bling companies and are urging caution in what it calls UK gambling invest-ment risks.
In 2011, the UK government announced that it would be re-examining the way it taxed companies which operated offshore yet still offered their ser-vices to UK gamblers.
Several companies operate from tax havens such as Gibraltar so as to avoid the already high 15% tax rate imposed on the gaming industry by the UK government.
The government, however, wants to force these companies to pay taxes as well, and has said that it would address the issue in the March budget. Ana-lysts say that the re-examination “could result in gross profits tax introduced for offshore operators in late 2013 or 2014.”
Due to this scenario, Oriel said that it anticipated “some uncertainty and share price weakness” for some of the main groups mentioned. Oriel down-graded their Ladbrokes and William Hill ratings to ‘reduce’ and removed Betfair from their recommended buy list altogether.
Ladbrokes share prices dropped 1.9p to 139 p, William Hill saw its share prices drop 4p to 222.2p, while Betfair’s were down 11p to 864p.
The only group which has managed to buck this trend is Rank which made public its intentions to purchase the Gala group this week. Rank’s share prices climbed 4.1p to 131.1p.
Rank’s chairman and chief executive officer, Ian Burke said late last month: “Britain’s landbased gaming entertainment industry has potential to boost employment and thereby contribute to the growth of the economy.”
Playtech has also shown that there is still much potential in the UK gambling industry, after it agreed to pay £15 million for the Cheswick based Geneity, which creates lottery and sportsbook software for groups such Betfair, Lab-drokes and Coral. The group has also signed joint venture agreements with South African and German gambling groups.
TCSJOHNHUXLEY earned it’s A* for its ACCESS ALL AREAS (AAA) event at the Roof Gardens Kensington on the 24th & 25th January 2012. From the moment guests were greeted with a glass of cham-pagne by the Valet Girls at the AAA Limo Lounge at Earls Court and transported in style to the Roof Gardens, they were able to get a taste of things to come. Once at the venue, VIP’s were whisked to the 6th floor of the iconic London landmark, which had been transformed into a stunning casino environment. The all white interior provided an impressive backdrop for the new range of TCSJOHNHUXLEY in-novations as well as highlighting beautifully handcrafted furniture..
The event linked neatly in with the ICE show at Earls Court, where global gaming professionals exhibited the crème de la crème of the gaming world. The unique aspect of the event focused on the indi-viduality and exclusivity of AAA; giving guests their very own spot-light and making them feel warmly welcomed.
David Heap, Group Chief Executive exclusively spoke to Infinity Gaming Magazine about the event. He said that “the main aim of the event is to introduce new products, give a quality customer ex-perience and to entertain our visitors at a unique location– the best that London has to offer.”
The Roof Gardens Kensington oozed a lavish and luxurious feel as TCSJOHNHUXLEY’s very finest products gleamed in all their gaming glory. Outside in the roof top gardens, gorgeous pink flamingoes gave the event an exotic, tropical feel. Stepping outside of the chic room was like being transported outside of the hustle and bustle of London as these listed gardens gave the venue and the AAA event a rich edge.
David Heap told us: “Out of all the venues we had to choose from, this had the best location, it offers the best experience for those visiting us, and delivers the best service to our guests. One of the opportunities for us using our Access All Areas format is that we’re able to selectively target the people that we think would benefit from visiting us, as well as all of our valued customers and product partners that we want to see. The response we’ve had has been first class; everyone’s enjoyed it, they’ve appreciated the hospital-ity and our products, our calm and comfortable atmosphere, and the privacy that comes from a more intimate environment. We’ve managed to get quality time with them as individuals, making much more use of their visit to London.”
I asked David Heap whether they had a location in mind for 2013. He said: “Access All Areas in 2013, well we have not made a decision just yet; we need to analyse the results from this event and then make a decision over the next few weeks about our activities for 2013. Whether it’s Excel or another unique showcase event, either way, what I can say is that we will focus on an outcome that is best suited to our customers.”
The hot topic at the moment is if and how online and landbased operators from around the gaming globe will stick to their own turf
or join hand in hand as from 2012. David Heap shared his thoughts and insights into the future of gaming:
“My predictions for 2012…I think the industry will continue to grow, I think what most landbased operators have started to realise is that if they work together with the online sector, it’s good for both parts of the business, landbased and online.”
Still beaming with pride; David spoke about how proud the TCS-JOHNHUXLEY team was to see their Chairman win the Outstand-ing Contribution Award at the International Gaming Awards on 23rd January 2012. He said Mr. Bertil Knutsson was immensely proud to be recognised and honoured on the glitzy night.
“With regards to the International Gaming Awards and the Out-standing Contribution Award that we were honoured with, it’s fan-tastic. It is great recognition for both our Chairman and the company as a whole; I know that he’s over the moon with the award. Bertil is quite a modest individual, so we were a little nervous that perhaps he would be embarrassed about receiving such an award, but it’s been very well deserved and well received. He was overwhelmed and extremely delighted to receive this honour.”
Their latest products on show wowed the Access All Areas guests; amongst these, the Infinity Auto Dealer made its sparkling debut at the event. The Infinity Auto Dealer is a revolutionary utility device that offers continuous, fully automated, real-time, card shuffling and dealing using standard casino playing cards. Capable of dealing in excess of 70 Parallel Deal Blackjack or Baccarat hands per hour, Infinity Auto Dealer is the perfect device to significantly drive in-creased performance on the casino floor. It will feed electronic play-er terminals, hybrid tables or support online web services to greatly increase profit from your table operation. Infinity Auto Dealer sup-ports an unlimited number of satellite tables and remote terminals without any sacrifice in game speed. David Heap said: “The Infinity Auto Dealer is a fantastic new opportunity for casino operators to dramatically enhance the performance of their electronic gaming terminals through live card games such as Blackjack or Baccarat - it’s the eagerly awaited card equivalent to the auto roulette wheel.”
A* for Access All Areas 2012 By Harvy Matharu
The SuperNova system was also on show brimming with updates for 2012. It’s now the worlds first progressive Roulette system for local and wide area table game applications and it really has to be seen! SuperNova is a floor wide progressive and game bonusing system for use on all live table games which now includes Roulette. Card and Roulette tables can be linked to drive increased revenues by adding higher levels of player excitement and loyalty to all live tables. Its multi-level event based and mystery prizes can be em-ployed even on games that don’t normally run progressive jackpots.
The new Tablet Roulette system was another new product on show that seemed to be constantly busy with casino operators literally queuing to have live demonstrations. Tablet Roulette is a very slick server based Roulette solution, offering tablet gaming in a live en-vironment. The system allows casino guests to play live Roulette ta-bles on a touch screen tablet device throughout the gaming venue making it the perfect Roulette solution for what have traditionally been non gaming areas such as bars, restaurants, and smoking ter-races.
As well as updates to it’s e-FX range of winning number displays,
TCSJOHNHUXLEY also introduced a new range of eye-catching and functional Interactive Table Limit Signs that will deliver professional yet cost effective table limit information and multi-media messag-es. Easy to retro fit on to any table shape, these signs incorporate a robust Android based graphics template system with adjustable Minimum, Maximum and Side Bet values that are system generated - with no fixed graphics needed. Table limits can be shown as just Minimum, Minimum and Maximum or Minimum, Maximum and Side Bet.
David Heap, Group Chief Executive commented: “We know our Ac-cess All Areas format is very successful with our customers, as it allows them to spend quality one-on-one time with our team in a beautiful location. However it was important to raise the bar for the London event and there’s no doubt the spectacular Roof Gardens provided the perfect venue with its incredible gardens, resident fla-mingos and stunning layout. All these elements together with our unbeatable range of product offerings allow our guests to experi-ence the wow factor, which is what this is all about.”
The future is bright for EGT By Harvy M
EURO Games Technology (EGT) showcased their finest products in London recently and proved that they are one of the fastest growing companies in the global gaming industry. INFINITY GAMING MAGAZINE exclusively spoke to EGT about their vision for the future and why they are hoping to bring online and landbased gaming fac-tors closer together.
Concerning Multiplayer Solutions, EGT has showcased the brand new STORK Ter-minal which introduces a new, more practical and flexible design combined with high-quality technology and user friendliness in every respect.
Krasimir Boev, Multiplayer Solutions Department Manager told us: “We present the new multiplayer terminal, you can choose from 3 wheels to play; each wheel has video streaming for the wheel, that’s why it’s so accurate. They will feel closer to the wheel. This is a standard requirement for roulette wheels to incorporate a video of the
wheel. We want to reach out to new customers. We are trying to be com-patible all around the world; our customers come from a global basis, with huge experience and partners around the world. Landbased and online players like the reality; with this idea in mind, we just make the distance between players and casinos closer.”
EGT showcased a brand new cabinet from the Premier Series. Designed by EGT, the P-22/22 cabinet is a product of our 10 years’ ex-perience in combina-tion with the latest
developments in field ergonomics.
Silvia Mincheva - PR & Marketing Manager told us: “By designing this product we have taken into consideration different physical and psychic factors and have achieved perfection even in the slightest details. To make things even better, the software for P-22/22 is run by the technologically advances platform Exciter II® which allows better graphics quality and faster performance. A Multigame with 20 attractive games – the Premier Multi-1, completes the Premier Series combination.”
She added: “We showcased the product here first. EGT designed it and we have put together our experience about what we know about the players to develop it. It is also aimed to be extremely eco-
nomical. The edges are designed to be easy to use and very clear and visible to players. The software runs innovatively, this means faster animation and the sound is better. It’s an extremely beautiful cabinet with a very amusing animation.”
Speaking about ICE, she said: “The stand has been full the whole time,” said Mincheva. “Our representatives have been busy throughout the show. It has been one of our most successful shows and we’re expecting even more next year.“We’re getting bigger and bigger each year so we believe we have a bright future.”
Bally Technologies sign deal with ComTradeCOMTRADE recently announced that it has signed a technology de-velopment agreement with Bally Technologies supporting Bally’s In-teractive initiatives. This agreement will enable Bally Technologies to leverage ComTrade’s extensive Online development experience to ac-celerate Bally’s delivery of its award winning land based Slot games to an online audience.
ComTrade was recognised ahead of its competitors for offering a team experienced in developing Online Casino Products and robust scalable online gaming platform. The partnership also further illus-trates Bally Technologies’ intention of becoming a prominent figure within the online gaming sector.
Ales Gornjec, Director of Gaming at ComTrade said “Bally Technolo-gies is a well respected industry player with a history in landbased gaming that dates back to 1932. This just goes to show that the gap is closing between the online and land based industries. We believe that ComTrade’s experience and development strengths will acceler-ate Bally’s growth in the iGaming space, and we look forward to de-veloping this relationship further.”
“Bally is highly selective in our technology partners and Comtrade became the clear choice among the options we explored” said John Connelly, Vice President of Business Development for Bally Technolo-gies. “Their world-class experience in IT systems, their previous work with numerous top tier online providers, along with their deep pool of over 1000 engineering resources make them an ideal partner to work with for Bally Technologies. We look forward a long term rela-tionship with them”.
When Bally met BettyBALLY Technologies, a leader in slots, video machines, casino-man-agement, mobile and interactive solutions, and networked systems, recently announced the addition of four new titles to its library of play-for-fun mobile applications: Cash Wizard™, Golden Pharaoh™, Fireball™, and Betty Boop’s Love Meter™. Based on the successful full-size casino versions, these apps are available to download now from iTunes® for iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad®. With nine titles now available, Bally’s play-for-fun mobile apps have been down-loaded more than 92,000 times in just over a year.
“Cash Wizard, Golden Pharaoh, Fireball, and Betty Boop’s Love Me-ter are all standouts on casino floors,” said Dan Savage, Bally’s Vice President of Marketing.
Each of these apps from Bally are Game Center-enabled, allowing players to track their progress and compete against each other on leader boards and against themselves to earn virtual badges and rewards.
“We’re growing our mobile play-for-fun application library at a rapid pace and we’re looking forward to introducing additional titles like Betty Boop’s Fortune Teller™, Hot Spin™, and Lighting Jackpots™,” Savage said. “When you combine and integrate these play-for-fun slot apps with our impressive collection of custom casino property mobile apps through our Bally Interactive mobile business, you can see that Bally delivers an unmatched mobile experience for both operator and patron.”
Innovative InterblockINTERBLOCK once again showcased its very finest innovative de-signs of its G4 Organic range at ICE. Infinity Gaming Magazine went over to their huge and eye-catching stand to find out what the ex-citement was all about.
Great interest was shown in all our multiplayer gaming products:
• G4OrganicRoulette™08withPIDinFootballShape• G4OrganicRoulette™10withPIDinFootballShape• G4OrganicVirtual™07BlackJack• G4OrganicCard™07• G4 Organic Twins™ 12 in Football Shape with Rouletteand Dice center• G4OrganicBartop™• G4OrganicLivePulse™
Mr. Tom O’Brien, V.P. of Sales at Interblock USA, explained:
“We would like to say that each and every show is just getting better and better for the Interblock team. The 2012 ICE show was a huge success for us and we are starting to be noticed by everyone in our business. Our display was first class and the staff did an excellent job with our customers. Well Done.”
Mr. Klemen Sitar, Regional Sales Manager at Interblock, further ex-plained:
“This year’s company presentation with a renewed stand and twice the size stand of the last year’s was in my opinion was absolutely stunning. Our client and distributors from Belgium and the Nether-lands share the same thoughts with me. Our new range of Organic products, the Football shaped tables with attractive PID’s, Virtual card table, Bartop terminals and especially brand new product, G4 Live Pulse are once again a new step forward for our company. I have enjoyed every moment of the show.”Our special guest at this year’s show was Slovenian multiple IBF box-ing champion, Dejan Zavec. His appearance was a result and con-tinuation of last years boxing theme and Interblock slogan: ‘Fight for the Revenue!’
Mr. Bojan Dreven, Regional Sales Manager at Interblock, comment-ed the show:
“Interblock again catches an interest of Casino operators with intro-ducing a new Organic concept, the G4 Organic Live Pulse™.”
“It is another new product in G4 Organic range of products, which completes multi terminal- multigame Organic portfolio offer with more ideas, which brings every casino floor to a new level, helping them to ‘ fight for their revenues’ in this difficult times.”
“It was a pleasure to hear compliments from customers already us-ing Organic products, for them this means more options to see posi-tive trends in the returns generated by their venue floors.”
One of the newest and most attractive amongst the exhibited machines, the ‘G4 Organic Live Pulse or Pulse Arena’ is an im-pressive looking product, launched for the first time at this year’s ICE 2012 for the first time. The version that was displayed at the show was in theater layout and consists of 32 play stations and two live games, Roulette and Baccarat with the ability to place wagers electronically on a live wheel operated by a croupier or a live shoe being dealt for a baccarat game.
Mr. Miha Miklavcic, Re-gional Sales Manager at Interblock, added:
“For me personally ICE 2012 was the most suc-cessful show in the company’s history. In-terblock’s fantastic new booth layout, together
with our professional sales and development team, has successfully presented the full range of Interblock’s G4 Organic product line to the around the globe customers. Based on the show activities, I be-lieve that our company will increase our leadership as a global pro-vider in electronic table games.”
Mr. Primoz Bohinc, Regional Sales Manager at Interblock, conclud-ed:
“First of all I would like to point out that all visitors were positively surprised about our redesigned booth which in their opinion looked extremely attractive and trend-setting. Further they were impressed about our latest product Organic Live Pulse with two different Live generators. Our existing customer’s thinks that this kind of setup can enrich their casino floor towards more “community” type of gaming also on multiplayer gaming machines. In general I would say that this year’s ICE exhibition showed that innovations based on the needs of the operators and experiences of our customers are the right way for the future and fits the slogan “Fight for the Revenue”.
Playtech coming out to play?THE world’s biggest provider of online gaming software, Playtech, has hinted that it is gearing itself up to enter America’s lucrative market. CEO Mark Weizer said that the Playtech are in talks with a number of partners at the moment.
“We have lots of potential customers that approached us or that we approached that would like to have us as their suppliers of online gaming products when the market opens up,” Weizer told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
“There is a lot of work being done behind the scenes in various states by various local authorities. We have people on the ground now in the U.S. working with us in order to monitor all these processes,” Weizer added.The United States Justice Department said in December that only bet-ting on sporting contests is unlawful, giving the green light to other types of internet gambling such as poker and casino games to be le-galized.
The company also announced joint ventures with German gaming machine business Merkur and South African gaming and hospitality business Peermont as well as the 11 million pound ($17.2 million) acquisition of sportsbook and lottery software firm Geneity.
Playtech revenue up 89%PLAYTECH has announced an impressive 89% increase on their Q4 2011 earnings compared on a year before. Casino revenues were up 13%, bingo revenues up 9%, while poker revenues declined by 2%. Overall, the revenues for Q4 approached $90 million.
In addition, Playtech announced recent joint ventures with German and South African partners. As company CEO, Mor Weizer stated, “Playtech is preparing itself for each and every market to make the most of the changing regulatory landscape.”
The success reflects their current playtime with global players. Playtech are hoping to take advantage of the current online sports betting in the United States. Playtech is looking to take an advantage and pursue business with multiple casinos based in the country. It is also currently in talks with potential partners in the United States.
Mobile sports betting is also looking to be expanded with its acquisi-tion of sportsbook developer, Geneity.
The recent acquisitions and strong performance will allow the com-pany to place itself in a better position in relation to Microgaming, its major competitor. Both companies prepare themselves for mobile casino games with constant innovations and an expanded market-place offering. This will only make online casino gambling and sports betting a more exciting venture for punters.
Galaxy Entertainment strikes successInternational Gaming Awards leaves Galaxy starry-eyed
GALAXY Entertainment Group Limited won two top awards at the prestigious International Gaming Awards ceremony in London on Monday. The Group received the Casino Operator of the Year Australia/Asia award, and Galaxy Macau™ was recognised as The World’s Best Casino / Integrated Resort of the Year. Further-more, GEG’s StarWorld Hotel & Casino was shortlist-ed in the Casino VIP Room of the Year category.
This is the first year in which the International Gaming Awards has presented a gaming ‘Oscar’ for the Best Casino/Integrated Resort, and the shortlist comprised the most high-profile integrated resort properties from around the world. This is the fourth major award that Galaxy Macau™ has won since opening in May 2011, including the most recently announced “2011 Best In-tegrated Resort” award at the Top Travel Awards in Beijing in December 2011.
Dr. Che-woo Lui, Chairman of GEG said, “We are delighted to receive such encouraging global recog-nition for our achievements and success in delivering our vision. GEG’s objective has always been to build a unique identity, and develop our casinos and resorts to a world class standard. These awards not only recog-nize this vision, but are also a great endorsement of our management team’s endeavor and the passion of our devoted staff to succeed.
“We have never sought to replicate Las Vegas, instead we developed Galaxy Macau™ to be a truly integrated and Asian Centric Resort for the Asian market. Com-bining the inspiration of Asia’s long and distinguished history with world class hospitality, we are proud to have created a globally recognized standard and de-fined a new category in the industry especially in the Asia P acific region. We are also delighted that GEG is helping Macau diversify into an international tourism and leisure destination.”
Spinning into infinitive success
CAMMEGH promoted their latest product, the GLI-endorsed Mercury 360 Bonus Numbers feature, at the ICE show; it cer-tainly caught the attention of many passersby and those who are within the gaming industry. Cammegh states that they “have dedicated the last 20 years to perfecting the roulette wheel and we now feel the time is right to broaden our gaming offer to include high quality tables to complement our growing product range.”
This was certainly evident at the event where their slick, sophis-ticated products stood out amongst its surrounding competitors. The GLI-endorsed Mercury 360 enables five additional random numbers to be physically generated by the Mercury 360 roulette wheel each game.
Cammegh added: “Bonus Numbers creates an unrivalled oppor-tunity to bring a wide range of side bets, mystery prizes and, ultimately, progressive jackpots to roulette. We are showing two games using the Bonus Numbers feature, Double Shot and Aurora Roulette, which have received serious interest from our customers, as the Mercury 360 running Bonus Numbers is the future-proofed option for roulette.”
Wynn’spublicspatgetsmessySTEVE Wynn has desperately urged a U.S court to brush off legal claims made by Okada, its largest shareholder. The future control of the $15 billion casino giant could be in jeopardy.
In a 117-page filing with the Clark County District Court in Ne-vada, Wynn stated that Kazuo Okada, who holds a 20 percent stake in the firm, was “utilising innuendo, hyperbole, half-truths and sweeping generalisations” in his legal petition that was filed on Jan. 11.
Wynn had previously stated that Okada’s inspection requests were “nothing more than stockholder inspection requests, on behalf of Aruze.”
“Nevada law does not afford Okada or any other individual di-rector the right to do an end run around the express statutory limitations on stockholder inspection rights, or to play detective, while unnecessarily distracting and burdening Wynn’s manage-ment with the endless task of satisfying his unfounded and unar-ticulated ‘concerns’,” the filing said.
In an email sent to Reuters on Tuesday, Aruze USA said that as a member of the board of Wynn Resorts, Okada had the right to inspect the corporate documents he deemed necessary to carry out his duties as a director.
“The response of Wynn Resorts’ management, while full of col-orful rhetoric, cannot explain this away. We look forward to pre-senting our position to the Court,” Aruze said.
Wynn Resorts says that to try to get around this problem, Mr Okada had presented his request as a director rather than a shareholder, a “maneuver” the company expects to be “flatly re-jected by the court”.
$125 Billion
GAMBLING in casinos roughly generates 1% of the U.S economic ac-tivity, according to a study by The Brattle Group and further pushed forward the American Gaming Association. It also revealed that the activity creates around 820,000 jobs from direct and indirect spend-ing.“There is no doubt the commercial casino industry is a significant and vital part of our nation’s economy,” said Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., presi-dent and CEO of the AGA. “The industry generates and supports eco-nomic activity that stretches far beyond the communities that host casinos and into the greater American economy.”
According to the report, 566 casinos in 22 states supported about $125 billion in spending and nearly 820,000 U.S. jobs in 2010. Taking all lines of spending into account, commercial casinos directly gener-ated $49.7 billion in consumer spending and about 350,000 jobs, with salaries and benefits totaling nearly $15 billion in 2010. When indi-rect and induced impacts are taken into account, the industry sup-ports an additional $76 billion in spending with suppliers and other businesses, and more than 470,000 additional jobs.
“The data in this report shows the significant scope of impact of this industry,” said Dr. Coleman Bazelon, principal at The Brattle Group. “This report shows the economic activity spurred and supported by the commercial casino industry has a ripple effect throughout the na-tion’s greater economy.”
“Beyond the Casino Floor” was prepared by The Brattle Group, a consulting firm specializing in economics. The report is based on eco-nomic modeling and analysis and supported by data from AGA mem-ber companies and publicly available sources.
All bets off?BETFAIR has announced that it will no longer offer its services to South Africans as from next Tuesday. According to the public affairs manager Tom Tuxworth, access to its services from SA-based IP ad-dresses will be blocked.
The decision is in light of the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling last September that declared online, or interactive, gambling illegal, says Betfair public affairs manager Tom Tuxworth. Tuxworth says, following the Piggs Peak decision, Betfair has decided not to take any more bets from South Africans. “Our Web site is in the process of being IP-blocked to the entire country.”
In addition, “the technical work required to put the block in place needed to be planned and tested prior to being implemented”, Tuxworth says. “It was also necessary to communicate with our customers to ensure an orderly closure of their accounts.”
The Gambling Review Commission has recommended that online wagering be legalised, and that more than 10 licences be issued. Changes to the legislation could take about two years to come into effect.
On 14 February, all existing accounts will be suspended and Betfair says South Africans must withdraw their funds before then. Betfair is applying for a traditional back-only sportsbook licence in the Western Cape under the existing framework, says Tuxworth. Sports betting is legal in SA under the current gambling framework.
In other Betfair news, the firm has today launched its next genera-tion iPad App into the Apple store.The bespoke native application is a marked enhancement from previous products and is the first to come out of Betfair’s devel-opment office in San Francisco, where the Company has recently relocated key parts of mobile development under the leadership of Raj Vemulapalli, who was recruited from Yahoo!
Commenting on the launch, Raj Vemulapalli, Vice President of Mobile Engineering and Head of Mobile Technologies at Betfair said: “This App is a game-changer for our customers, offering them a seamless betting experience that replicates the fixed web, whilst making use of the unique features available on iPad. Mobile is the coming force in the betting industry, and the shift from online to mobile is in many ways more exciting than the shift from offline to online.”
Tony McAlister, Chief Technology Officer at Betfair said: “Mobile is increasingly important to Betfair’s bottom line and product launches such as this are now key strategic milestones. In addition, the fact that this App was developed in just two months out in San Francisco shows that our decision to launch a US technology office in Silicon Valley is already paying off. I hope this is the first of many US developed products which will extend our lead in the online betting space”.
