London Preview last week

[borgcontact4]

Well for all that didn't make it, and mind you the place was deserted of operators, the distributors and manufacturers outnumbered the operators. The business is bad and they, the operators, aren't helping if they don't get to a trade show and start buying some new machines. Now after spending a very boring two days there for my company I can't say I blame them as there seemed to be major lack of new products for pubs that is.For anyone who isn't in the know the preview last year was bad , due to the new gaming rules and the removal os section16 machines, but this year was worse.
I spent a good few hours in Games Warehouse's hospitality suite and played their games, drank their booze and oggled the girls. Needless to say, the booze and girls were the best thing there. Dr Who, new game did not strike me as anything different. The new tournament Paragon looked a nice piece of kit, attractive cabinet and graphics with LED moving display on the top. No one could say exactly what games would be on tournament other than Merit stuff.
Games Media showed the new terminal,IND2, again an attractive cabinet but content was just the same old stuff. I do believ these shows are all about showing the operators the new look machines and who cares about the games.
FatBox, new game, World Master Darts, not worth commenting on as can't play darts and a as it is promoted as true skill then i had no chance.
Gemini had some converted fruit machines stacker clone called Cash Stacka, very original name, pretty poor and really can't see anyone trade buying these so will be very rare to spot one. Also in same format Nearest the Pin. Trying to stay with SWP Brent had the deal or No Deal stand up arcade piece, redemption but said they had a cash game in development, again seaside arcade typ piece. RMLS had the terrible Deal or No Deal led game which all comments made when shown at ATE in January have come true. I have no ideas why they had it on their stand, all tests showed it to be a dog. Oh very interestingly this was the first show that Skill Ball Bingo wasn't on anybodies stand
Maybe we have seen the last of it, somehow don't think so though.
Anyway will continue with this report looking at AWP's tomorrow. Oh the really big game was ASTRA MiCRO BINGO, you will hear a lot about this machine!!!!

[whiteswan]

Hi

Did u see this new machine.............

http://www.fatspanner.com/open_black_main_event.htm

I just wondered what the 8 new games were.

Dave

[borgcontact4]

Yep!! Saw the FatBox machine, had 11 new games on according to their advertising material. can't say too much as I didn't see any new stuff, so it was probably old advertising leaflets. Certainly i did see the darts game. it may be they had others but no one was talking about them.
In fact there is a rumour in trade that this company is not doing so well and was likely not to be around for long, only a rumour. There can be no doubt that SWP terminal business is tough and the two USA companies now Gameswarehouse and Game media are powerful competitors and would love to have more market share without the Birmingham bunch at FatSpanner.
Also Fatbox is only terminal without Nova's bingo game. Must have issues between them.

[Mystery_Plum]

Did you pick up your Fatspanner keyring and dart flights?

[borgcontact4]

Hmmm been going to trade show for nearly ten years now. Gave up taking items from other stands years ago. Its all cheap crap, nice looking pens that leak in your pocket or fall apart when you drop them and other such items, all in a similiar vein. Sorry didn't even see anything on the Fatspanner stand as their guys know me and while I am a fruit designer they still think I'm trying to gain vital information, so just play the games and ask some questions but just related to games.

[Barry Trotter]

I think the main things you'll hear about this machine are:-

Is that legal?
That can't be legal?
Have the Gambling Commission seen it?
Have the Gambling Commission said its ok?
No?
Oh well... back to the drawing board...

The gambling commission bought S16/21 machines under the B3 moniker to be able to regulate them - all Astra have done is found a way of making a "bingo game" (in its loosest term) look like a fruit machine in the same way that S16/21 were lottery games made to look like a fruit machine.

Fair play to the innovation, but a very dangerous game to play with the gambling commission, bearing in mind that they are no able to outlaw anything they want if they deem it not in the spirit of the act...

[PMK]

Maybe the Gambling Com people should sit and play a Rainbow Riches on £1 a go. I reckon before they even got a feature (Bout 3 hrs/£300-£500)they'd get bored and outlaw it.

[Mystery_Plum]

I think the main things you'll hear about this machine are:-

Is that legal?
That can't be legal?
Have the Gambling Commission seen it?
Have the Gambling Commission said its ok?
No?
Oh well... back to the drawing board...

The gambling commission bought S16/21 machines under the B3 moniker to be able to regulate them - all Astra have done is found a way of making a "bingo game" (in its loosest term) look like a fruit machine in the same way that S16/21 were lottery games made to look like a fruit machine.

Fair play to the innovation, but a very dangerous game to play with the gambling commission, bearing in mind that they are no able to outlaw anything they want if they deem it not in the spirit of the act...

At least someone is trying to drive the industry forward with new ideas. I didn't see anything else there remotely innovative in terms of Cat C or B3. And according to this weeks CoinSlot, it is legal.

[borgcontact4]

Ok Micro Bingo. I said we would hear a lot about this.
It is legal as it is a game of bingo and a game of bingo is exempt from the gaming machine category. Part 10 of the Act, section 235 defines a gaming machine.
It is the industries opinion that in drafting this section they, the Gambling Commission wanted to cover all bases to ensure that a Section 16/21 didn't occur again, and that making a very broad definition, they say any machine which has a game of chance will be deemed to be a gaming machine. Now here lies the problem, with such a broad definition they were faced with a bingo blower.! It is a machine, it does have a chance element attached to it and so would be classed as a gaming machine. See the problem?

So what do they, GC, do...... they exempt a game of bingo falling into their definition. Total delight to Astra who used this to clone a Caddilac Jack machine that was shown and distributed by Crown more than three years ago. As Section 16 machines took off the Caddilac Jack machine was lost in the struggle to deliver Section16 machines to the marketplace.

It is reported that site testing of Micro Bingo has gone very well, but the news is that it seems that the players are leaving B3/4 machines to play, so its just moving money from one machine to next. However, the big thing about Micro Bingo is that there is no limit on the number of machines you can have in a Bingo hall or Adult gaming centre. this is a boon to the operator.

OK what will happen, the GC may put a time limit on the game, for instance, they could say a game of Bingo has last for at least 30 seconds. But that is not changing the gaming laws , it is changing the game of Bingo, so can they do that. Well Astra are hanging their hat on the fact that it will be difficult if not impossible to amend the rules of a game of Bingo.

So...... no one knows!!!

[mr lugsy]

how does this game play? does it assign the bingo numbers to fruits?
forgive my ignorance ,i've only seen a blurred pic of this ,and i'm sure there were fruits on it.
in any case is it random or compensated?
any variation on the format in the pipeline? any copycats?

[HorseRacingKing]

Maybe the Gambling Com people should sit and play a Rainbow Riches on £1 a go. I reckon before they even got a feature (Bout 3 hrs/£300-£500)they'd get bored and outlaw it.

All about profit fella

[mr lugsy]

word is that the gov got astra on the technicality that bingo is a multi player game.also bacta have sent out an email to all members telling them to to be wary of what they buy .