News
EUROPEAN UPDATE MEI’s touch of Italian bravura
A successful value added trial shows the strength of MEI’s Cashflow SC in Italy
Italy’s Casino di Campione now specifies MEI’s Cashflow SC note validator for its property. The casino performed a value- added trial (VAT) to compare the performance of the Cashflow SC note validators with the note validators already in use on the casino floor.
The performance of Cashflow SC note validator exceeded the expectations of casino management, resulting in the specification of MEI for all new slot machine purchases and refurbishes.
Cashflow SC offers operators the highest acceptance rates, unrivalled security, best jam performance and lowest cost of ownership in the industry. Giacomo Saladino, technical slot manager at Casino di Campione, saw the benefits of Cashflow SC first hand.
“The performance of Cashflow SC is
Aristocrat names new games chief
Aristocrat Technologies has named Rich Schneider as its new Chief Product Officer. As CPO, Mr. Schneider will lead all aspects of product design, portfolio management and global marketing activities, and he will direct the overall leadership of Aristocrat’s creative studios. Mr. Schneider will be based in the company’s Las Vegas office and will report directly to CEO and MD Jamie Odell. “The appointment of our CPO is significant, and we are fortunate to have attracted someone of Rich’s calibre, and he will play a critical leadership role in the next stage of our turnaround story,” Mr. Odell said. “I could not be more delighted about joining Jamie and the entire Aristocrat team. Aristocrat’s breadth of product, coupled with a great game library, and a strong tradition of delivering games that players just love to play are all great building blocks for a successful future,” commented Mr. Schneider.
Casino di Campione houses 650 slot machines
manufactured by
Aristocrat, Atronic, Golden Games, IGT, Konami, Magic
Dreams, Unidesa and
WMS. The property is situated in a Swiss
enclave right by Lake Lugano. The new building was
inaugurated in 2007
and is right next to the original casino from 1933.
James Boje, VP EMEA at MEI, comments: “This win for MEI proves Cashflow SC is a great product. Gaming operators appreciate the importance we place on our customers and with MEI they are getting an excellent product with service to match. We thank the team at Casino di Campione for participating in a successful VAT. Its change in strategic direction underlines how important the note validator choice is in Italy with the growing gaming base.”
Olympic Entertainment sells Romania business
Estonian casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group has sold its Romanian subsidiaries Olympic Casino Bucharest SRL, Muntenia Food and Beverages SRL and Olympic Exchange SRL to an Israeli entrepreneur, according to the company’s announcement to the Tallinn stock exchange.
The €0.5m deal, plus €2.5m which represent the losses of the Romanian subsidiaries. The group operates two Olympic Casino units in Romania, with a total of 79 slot machines and 13 game tables. The name of the buyer was not disclosed.
The company, which runs activities in Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland and Slovakia, entered the Romanian market in 2007. The withdrawal was triggered by the lack of profit from local operations and lack of profitable prospects. Endemic corruption within the country is also believed to have influenced Olympic’s decision to exit the market.
The company posted revenues of €2.7m in Romania in 2010, down 25.7 per cent on 2009. Olympic lost €2.5m in Romania last year, down on operating losses of €6.3m in 2009.
G3 I JUNE 2011 I PAGE 22
excellent. After experiencing the reliability, ease of use and robust nature of the product, we decided to specify it for our property. It is simple to maintain and the PPM allows us to update the software for all game manufacturers on the floor very easily,” said Mr. Saladino.
Aristocrat Technologies has announced that the US District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled in its favour in relation to a claim of inequitable conduct brought by International Game Technology (IGT). The claim is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Aristocrat against IGT for infringement of Aristocrat’s Hyperlink patents. The District Court’s recent decision reinforces the validity of Aristocrat’s Hyperlink patents and further strengthens Aristocrat’s ongoing commitment to protecting and defending its intellectual property.
Georgia is to grant licence exemptions for casinos opening in the recreational zone of Gudauri. The country’s parliament is to vote on proposals from Gudauri’s town council to exempt operations within its borders. It currently costs five million lari to acquire a casino licence in Georgia. However, the casino fee is only 250,000 lari in Batumi, in the vicinity of Lake Bazaleti in Dusheti municipality, in Kobuleti and Borzhomi. Other tax exclusion zones include Bakuriani, Tshaltubo and Signakhi.
Oxford-based International Brand Gaming has appointed Amy James as Marketing Manager. Amy brings with her a wealth of marketing
experience and has over 12 years in the marketing environment with the last nine years being in the gaming industry. Amy will be responsible for all of the marketing activity for IBG including enhancing the presence of IBG, and its offering, within the industry. “I’m delighted to welcome Amy on board,” stated IBG's MD, John Malin.
New research indicates that Asians prefer playing at mobile casinos over online casinos and have the highest percentage of smartphone users. The research in over 43 countries has documented overwhelming growth of the smartphone industry. After interviewing 34,000 smartphone owners to determine their mobile habits and to uncover new trends, some interesting conclusions were drawn based on the data. While Europeans and North Americans overwhelmingly prefer to use their PC to gamble online, the trend is completely opposite in Asia. Asians overwhelmingly prefer to play mobile casino games over PC based online casino games. Singapore, South Korea and Japan have the biggest penetration of smartphones that account for 70-90 per cent of all mobiles in use. The Asian countries that took part in the survey were China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Japan. Between those eight countries, 1.8 billion mobile phones are in use with 5.7 per cent being smartphones.
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