Las Vegas giants and Malaysian gaming

Three Las Vegas giants and a Malaysian gaming firm are left in a high-stakes battle to build Singapore’s first casino after rivals from Australia, South Africa, the Bahamas and Hong Kong pulled out, according to the Malaysian Business Times.

Although several companies abandoned their bids, competition remains intense because the surviving contenders are among the world’s biggest gaming firms.
Fourteen foreign investors were invited after Singapore lifted a ban on casino gambling in April 2005, but two immediately opted out and eight withdrew their bids in succession as athey evaluated their prospects. Bidding for the first casino project on Marina Bay, adjacent to the central business district, will close on March 29.

Still in contention are Harrah’s Entertainment, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Mirage – all US gaming giants that have partnered with entrenched Singapore-based property developers and Malaysia’s Genting International.

Taito buoyant about sales

Kenji Horii of Taito brought a number of Taito Space Invaders mechanical reels games as seen at the Rome show – to the ATEI . his mission was to use feedback and opinion from ATEI visitors in order to modify and test the space Invaders machine to suit UK market requirements.

Also on his stand was Battle Gear 4, which has been a hit with punters at London’s Trocadero. “Income from this has been fantastic,” beamed Horii, while praising UK distributors PMT and Deith.

Inomata puts faith in Dragonball Z

Banpresto’s Super Dragonball Z game is now in English and was introduced to the European industry at the London show. The video game, which uses Japanese characters very familiar to European youngsters, will sell strongly in France, Spain and Italy, where the characters are most familiar of all, said Banpresto’s Junji Inomata.

Visitors to the Brent stand at the show were told that the company is currently in negotiation with a number of European distributors who will be handling the game in their own countries.
They were also able to see another new Banpresto game, Convenicatcher, ‘lift’ crane in which players raise a horizontal grab before propelling it forward to snatch at a prize