News INTERNATIONAL UPDATE Future strategy for GCBaden
Forthcoming competition from the new Zurich licence is propelling GCBaden expansion
Grand Casino Baden is on forward strategy in response to projected competition from the soon to open Zurich licence. Despite achieving marginally lower gross gaming revenue in 2011 as compared to the previous year, Grand Casino Baden has held up well in a difficult environment, posting BSE of 103.7m francs, making Grand Casino Baden the market leader in Switzerland in terms of sales. However, the opening of the Zurich casino scheduled for October is expected to put a major dent in profits of Grand Casino Baden, which failed in its tender for Zurich.
Grand Casino Baden is expected to lose a third of its sales to the new Zurich licence. In order to meet this challenge the casino has embarked on a radical investment programme. According to Casino Baden AG Chairman, Peter Blöchlinger, the company wants to one of Switzerland's leading casino groups, with Baden looking to interests at home and abroad. This year alone the group has bought 90 per cent of the share capital of Davos Casinos Ltd. from previous owner Siegfried Dietche. The Davos Casino has a
TransAct enter into NEWave alliance
TransAct Technologies has entered into a strategic alliance with NEWave, a leading software supplier to the gaming industry, to work together to integrate the innovative EPICENTRAL Print System and NEWave's gaming industry software solutions. “We are pleased to be working with NEWave to enhance the EPICENTRAL Print System's capabilities, which we believe will help casinos better streamline their marketing and operational processes to achieve their objectives,” said Bart C. Shuldman, Chairman and CEO of TransAct. “Through our new alliance, casinos should be able to reduce their labour costs and improve overall player satisfaction by automating the time-consuming W-2G jackpot filing process. This is another way that EPICENTRAL can change the way casinos market to their patrons.”
June 2012 PAGE 20
The Grand Casino Baden has an
Swiss A-license with unlimited
stakes in the Grand Jeu and posted
gaming revenue for 2010, gross 105.2 million francs.
B license and last year generated sales of 3.1 million francs. In the Principality of Liechtenstein, Baden won the first and only casino concession of Vaduz. The Vaduz Casino is expected to open with 150 slot machines and seven table games situated in the Grand Jeu following an investment of CHF80m. Casino Baden AG expects 100,000 visitors at the new casino and an annual gross gaming revenue of 20 million francs.
At home, Grand Casino Baden is to investment CHF6m expanding its Swiss casino in Baden into a ‘house of entertainment.’ The plan is to transform the casino into a Culture and Congress Centre in the city.
JCM Global takes stake in printer specialist Nanoptix
JCM Global has announced that it has completed its acquisition of 49 per cent of Nanoptix. The agreement sees JCM and Nanoptix team forces from an equity standpoint to deliver both bill validators and printers. “Our initial investment has proven to be a successful and profitable one, and we are very pleased to invest in the future with this acquisition,” said JCM Global President, Aki Isoi. “We have a clearly defined roadmap for development that will exploit our network of technology relationships, and we expect to announce several new application projects that will build on the iVIZION platform and will further position PayCheck 4 for success.”
Nanoptix President, Daniel
Vienneau, said: “We have found a tremendous partner in JCM Global. When two technology companies share a vision to dramatically improve the gaming industry, incredible things happen, and that has been the case with our partnership with JCM.”
Since JCM’s initial investment last year, the PayCheck 4 Thermal Printer has been rebranded, marketed and sold as a JCM product, and in the few months since, the product is on track to earn more than a 40 per cent ship share to new casino openings in 2012. The pairing of JCM’s iVIZION bill validator and the PayCheck 4 printer has been enormously successful, resulting in numerous contracts since JCM and Nanoptix joined forces.
ADMIRAL CASINOS & ENTERTAINMENT (ACE), an operating division within the Novomatic Group has won one of the licenses for the operation of AWP/LPM gaming machines in Lower and Upper Austria. Changes to Austrian gaming laws recently saw a new tender process for new licenses. In a gradual process AWP/LPM gaming (Kleines Glücksspiel) will be allowed not only in the provinces of Vienna, Lower Austria, Carinthia and Styria but also in Upper Austria. The first region to issue the new licenses was Lower Austria in March. The Novomatic subsidiary Admiral Casinos & Entertainment AG was awarded the sole 15-years’ license for a maximum number of 1,339 gaming machines that may be operated in locations with ten to 50 machines. Five companies applied and those applications were duly reviewed by the authorities.
The province of Upper Austria put out two AWP/LPM licenses (362 machines each, for up to 50 machines per location) and one gaming concession (449 machines for up to three machines per location) to a European tender process. The three concessions are valid for the duration of 15 years and comprise of 1,173 machines.
Admiral Casinos & Entertainment AG also won one of the AWP/LPM licenses for Upper Austria. The second license was granted to the PA Entertainment & Automaten AG and the single site concession was assigned to Excellent Entertainment with its HQ in Traun.
THE IGT BOARD HAS released a statement saying that it unanimously backs CEO Patti Hart following allegations that she misstated her academic
credentials to the board of online firm Yahoo. Hart revealed she has decided to step down from the Yahoo board after careful consideration. “My primary responsibilities are to serve as chief executive officer of IGT and to eliminate activities that may interfere with my ability to carry out my commitments to IGT and its valued stakeholders,” Ms. Hart said. Hart, CEO of the slot machine giant since April 2009, has been challenged, along with the Yahoo board, for failing to vet new CEO Scott Thompson, after it was revealed he had claimed a science degree he did not earn. A subsequent Yahoo internal investigation found that Hart's biographical information also misstated her academic credentials.
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