Merit Entertainment has announced the release of their latest Sneak Peek titles – Spider Kings and its symbol version 13 Spiders.  These addictive twists on Spider Solitaire automatically download to all MegaNet-connected Megatouch Force and ION machines.

In Spider Kings, players must clear the entire board of cards in descending order, from King to Ace. 13 Spiders requires players to create 4 descending stacks from 13 to 1. In both games, players can chase the hi-score by playing quickly and racking up bonus points for time left remaining on the clock.

Sneak Peek Games are free to all MegaNet-connected Force and ION machines (including the Aurora). Merit reminds operators that MegaNet itself is free for any broadband-connected Megatouch linked to an AMI jukebox.

"Merit's slate of 2009 Sneak Peek games gives a powerful earnings jump to our connected operators," said Colin Higbie, Merit's Director of Marketing. "We all know that new games and new software attracts players. Not only do MegaNet operators always get the newest games, make money on them months before anyone else, have the software appear automatically without a DVD install, and get updates several times a year, their Megatouches will also be offering players our next batch of Sneak Peeks when other machines are just getting games like Spider Kings for the first time."

Money Controls, world leader in money-handling solutions, has strengthened its North American sales team with the appointment of Rebecca White as VP Sales, North America, with specific responsibility for delivering sales into the retail, kiosk and transportation markets.
Rebecca brings with her considerable knowledge and experience of the retail sector, gained during her previous spell with Money Controls from 1994 until 2002 and her subsequent role with associate company Coinco.
The appointment signals Money Controls’ intent on targeting the retail sector, particularly in the areas of kiosks and self-checkout terminals, as Rebecca explains: “Our portfolio of products for secure handling of cash is the most comprehensive in the industry, covering coin acceptors, bill acceptors and coin hoppers [payouts] and is ideally suited to the retail market. However, we offer more than just individual products; we deliver complete, integrated payment solutions.
“Thanks to ccTalk, the industry open-standard protocol, and PayLink, our USB integration module, our solutions dramatically reduce the cost and time-to-market for new kiosks and terminals, and enable rapid implementation of new applications and services software. Essentially, we present kiosk designers with a payment system that takes care of itself — one that accepts valid coins and bills, rejects frauds and pays out the correct change, with no need for application-specific payment software.
 “But that’s just part of our integration story,” Rebecca continued, “Our Application Engineering Team is unique in the industry, working with OEMs to design custom solutions, incorporating our standard products.”
The company is currently involved with some of the world’s leading kiosk and terminal suppliers on a number of innovative projects such as bulk coin recycling; this reduces a retailer’s coin-handling requirements, as well as simplifying and speeding up self-checkout payment transactions.
“It’s an exciting time in the retail sector and Money Controls’ expertise, coupled with its growing range of products and solutions, was enough to convince me that the time was right to come back home. I’m looking forward to getting reacquainted with former customers and discussing opportunities with new and prospective customers,“ concluded Rebecca.

Money Controls is exhibiting a host of money-handling products from its extensive portfolio at G2E Asia, but the undoubted star on Booth 1129 is the revolutionary Ardac Elite bill and ticket acceptor, with the company showcasing its Server Based Gaming (SBG) capabilities.
Uniquely, Ardac Elite takes a full-colour, whole image of every bill and barcode ticket inserted, yielding 200,000 data points for high-speed analysis by its advanced data processing technology. This enables it to deliver first-time acceptance rates of over 97% for both tickets and street-grade bills. And it’s this technology that ensures Ardac Elite detects all known frauds, even some of the most difficult US ‘superfrauds’, an important consideration in the Asian gaming market, where the US dollar is a widely accepted currency.

Bill Murphy, Money Controls’ Asia Pacific Sales Director, is looking forward to meeting casino operators and machine manufacturers at G2E Asia: “We are currently working on a number of new software features which will enable operators to make the most of Ardac Elite’s advanced technology and add value to their SBG customer interface. One such example, which ties in nicely with the increasing popularity of TITO [ticket in: ticket out] machines, is to send a scanned image of barcoded tickets to back-office systems for data storage of every ticket validated. Scanned note images could also be instantly transmitted to back-office systems. I see G2E Asia as an ideal opportunity to discuss the future of Server Based Gaming with both operators and manufacturers, and to look at ways in which we can work together to realize the full SBG potential of Ardac Elite.”

The display on a PDA of a full-colour image of the last-note inserted is sure to impress visitors to G2E Asia. Now, disputes can be resolved in seconds, with no need to access the cashbox: all floor staff need do is connect a PDA to the USB socket on the front of the Ardac Elite for instant proof of what note was inserted last.

Money Controls has unrivalled experience and expertise in designing and developing money-handling equipment and has gained an enviable reputation for innovation over the last forty years. This innovation began with the Universal Hopper – the latest version of which is still the world leader – and continues today, not just with Ardac Elite, but with other products such as PayLink, Money Controls’ USB integration module. PayLink enables developers to integrate a variety of payment peripherals into the software for new games without having to create bespoke payment software — dramatically reducing the time-to-market for PC-based machines, lowering costs and enabling trouble-free peripheral upgrades.
Ardac Elite, Universal Hopper and PayLink are joined on the Money Controls booth by the Condor Premier coin acceptor and the Cyclone Range of hoppers, which now includes three variants – standard, high-capacity and the new mid-capacity – to meet the differing needs of machine manufacturers.

EAAPA 2009 will be held February, 11-13 in IEC “Crocus Expo”. In comparison with 2008 the area has increased till 8 500 sq. metres (in 2008 the exhibition took only 4 000 sq. metres), practically the area has doubled – first of all it is an answer of the show to the industry’s rate of growth and also confidence in support of its exhibitors/ Many of them has already announced about participation in EAAPA-2009 with increase of the booth’s area. 
    In 2008 in EAAPA exhibition more than 60 companies have taken place, among them ItalPark, ITO, Vector-M, Air Palace, Eurocomplect, KSIL, LNT-Centre, ODA, Karusel, Alpagor-Sport, Sarner and etc.   
    The show was visitied by more than 3000 specialists from Russia (geography of visitors spreads from Tumen till Sochi), the former Soviet republics (Ukraine, Belarussia, Tadjikistan, Armenia, Kirghizia, Kazakhstan) and foreign countries (Italy, Izrael, Great Britain, Roumania and others).
    The main themes of EAAPA –2009 will stay the same:
 - entertainment equipment for parks, shopping and entertainment centers, sports- and playgrounds
 - cash receipt systems
 - security and control systems
 - 3D-4D cinemas
 - video- and interactive games
 - lazertag equipment
 - products and services in food & beverage sector
 - consulting
-    decorations
-    organization of festive events
 - lighting facilities, laser and acoustic equipment
 - ice skating rink (artificial cover)
 - water sports – equipment for aqua parks, swimming pools and so on

The perfect format – exhibition and congressive part which allows not only to find potencial partners but also take part in discussions the most important questions of Russian amusement industry’s development. 
    Successful dates, PR-company covering all the territory of Russia and the former Soviet republics, address invitation of industry’s professionals, support of government and professional organizations it is all allow  announce with certainty  about EAAPA exhibition that it is the show with new professional rate filling needs of the upcoming industry.

Merit Entertainment announces that it will stop offering its 17” Aurora product as of July 1, 2008.  In keeping with Merit’s 30-year history of outstanding product support, the company will continue to support the 17” Aurora well into the future. Merit will continue sales of the 19” Aurora, the industry’s highest-earning countertop. While the 17” Aurora has been consistently out-earning all competitors’ products, the 19” steadily beats it by 11% or more.


“With the Aurora, we developed both 17” and 19” screens to offer choice to our operators but the market has dictated that the 19” is what players and locations want,” stated Bob Mills, Merit’s Vice President of Sales. “Those operators who have had success with the 17” Aurora should get their orders in to their authorized Merit distributors before the end of June, to take advantage of our limited supply of those models.”