New concept launched by publicans
My Shout, a mobile beverage catering business idea generated by publicans Ray Oliver and Andy Duke, is now servicing functions of up to 1000 people in both Australia and New Zealand.
It involves a portable self-contained bar, illuminated marquee, beverages and service staff primarily for private parties and corporate events.
My Shout has sold master franchises, and is in the process of increasing its franchisee base.
Territories are valued at a certain cost, and include bar kits which fit into a sign-written van that is leased by franchisee. Marketing and administration is undertaken by the franchisee, who pay a flat monthly fee per month.
Liquor supplies are centrally organised by My Shout, whose liquor licences cover franchisees. Software calculates the amount of liquor required for each event to assist the franchisee in quoting.
The client pays My Shout before the event. My Shout then pays the franchisee a fee for collecting liquor, setting up the bar, servicing and post-cleaning.

Gambling in Australia - Looking to 2004
While 2003 was characterised by consolidation and upheaval (Aristocrat) within the gaming industry here, 2004 is expected to involve a resolution of corporate activity and international expansion.
The domestic market offers increasingly limited operational opportunities, analyst Sean Monaghan from ABN Amro also reports in his outlook for the market over the coming year.
"2004 is likely to see the resolution of the Tab/Tabcorp/UNiTAB activity. If Tabcorp is successful with Tab, then it will be interesting to see who acquires the Central Monitoring System, and more importantly, who acquires the gaming links business (if the government decides these assets have to be disposed of)," he said.
Other candidates for consolidation could also be Burswood via PBL, and Sky City by an Australian-based entity. Rumours also abound that Tattersalls may seek listing on the market.
The coming year will see the much anticipated NSW IPART review being released in May and this could have wide-scale implications for harm-minimisation policies across Australasia.
He added that "The smoking ban front, Queensland and NSW are expected to release reviews and New Zealand should be the first to introduce complete smoking bans across gaming venues from December."

Hotels could offer lotteries
The trial between NSW Lotteries and TAB Ltd. To offer lottery products in a few selected TAB outlets has been extended to include all lottery products.
Instant Scratchies have been on sale at a number of TAB's for around a year.
If successful, the trial could be extended to more than 300 TAB outlets in addition to another 1,600 plus facilities in hotels and clubs.
NSW Lotteries sold nearly $1.1 billion worth of lottery products last year, a 7% increase on the previous year.

Publicans earn $59,000 per annum from each gaming machine
The NSW Department of Gaming & Racing's fiscal year results for the year ending 2003 show that the state's hotels earned an average profit of $59,000 per gaming machine. The report showed that 1,830 hotels were operating 24,255 gaming machines. Total turnover was $13.8 billion from July 1 2002 until June 30, 2003, while assessed profit was $1.4 billion.
The gaming regulator also rejected a number of machines which manufacturers wanted to introduce in NSW. One of the machines that was rejected had a game with a probability of one to 8 billion of winning the top prize.
Machines showing Australian banknotes were also banned for inducing gambling or implying players would win more than they actually did.
The recently released Casino Control Authority report also indicated that Star City was fined for non-approved gaming machines. Star City believed that the games were approved, however the software was not verified by the Liquor Administration Board.

Amendments to ACT Gaming Laws due to be enacted
Following the Gaming & Racing Commission's review of the Gaming Machine Act last October, the ACT Government has agreed in principal to grant two class B gaming machine licences to ACT taverns, and to limit the size of notes that can be accepted by larger gaming machines, rather than ban note acceptors altogether.
Apparently the Parliamentary Counsel is working towards a February to March deadline to have the legislation available.

Gaming Machine Numbers Falling in NZ
Gaming machine numbers in pubs and clubs are declining after years of continual growth, according to figures from the Department of Internal Affairs.
The number of gaming machines peaked at 25,221 halfway through last year, after year after year increases since machines were first licensed in 1988. In the second half of 2003, the number of machines dropped to 22,734, after the rate of growth had slowed in the first half.
The new Gambling Act, which became law in September, means that any gaming machine site licensed since late-2001 can only have a maximum of nine machines. Gaming machine societies also must maximise their returns to the community and take necessary harm minimisation strategies.
Along with the fall in machine numbers, the number of societies operating gaming machines also fell from 947 in mid-1999, to 672. However, the number of sites is falling more slowly -- from 2137 in mid-1999 to 2031.
The new legislation has also tightened up on the issue of whether gaming machines were an ancillary use at a site, or more a core product. This will be reviewed in more depth over the coming year, and sites will no longer be able to operate if their main activity is deemed to be the operation of gaming machines.

Ainsworth first profit expected
Ainsworth Game Technology expects to book a maiden profit for 2003-04 of between $1 million and $4 million, following its small operating profit in the first half.
Ainsworth booked a loss of $14.8 million for 2002-03, following a $4.6 million loss for the first six months to December 31.
"This improvement is due to the international expansion plans as outlined in the recent prospectus dated November 10, 2003, including the recently announced strategic alliance with Unicum Ltd within the growing Russian market and the expanded product range through the Celebrity and Ambassador Benchtop machines," the company reported.
"The extent of this improvement is difficult to quantify more precisely at this time as it is dependent upon many factors, including further expected international orders, the currency effect of the Australian dollar, changes to the regulatory process within which [Ainsworth Game Technology] operates and the extent of customer acceptance of current and new games being offered."

Global Gaming Expo organisers prepare for 2004
Total attendance at G2E 2003 grew by 7 percent, with 22,700 industry professionals attending the 2003 event last September.
Since its debut in 2001, G2E has grown from an event featuring 375 exhibitors in 133,330 square feet of exhibit space to the gaming industry's largest trade show, with 661 exhibitors in 2003. G2E 2004 takes place October 5-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Betting on cockroaches
A record crowd estimated at 7,000 attended the 23rd annual Cockroach Races in Brisbane on Australia Day.
Hosted at Brisbane's Story Bridge Hotel, the races are held on a circular track with the cockroaches released from an upturned bucket in the middle. First to the edge is the winner. The steeplechase event is a bit trickier with the runner having to navigate a circular fence to get to the edge.
The same cockroach can be entered in any number of events for a $5 fee, with all proceeds donated to a local children's hospital.
People who don't want to trap and train their own, could buy a cockroach for A$5.

ALP targets hotel and club cash outlets
ATMs should not be in gaming establishments because people losing money could easily get more cash, is the recommendation according to Victorian Opposition leader Mr Mark Latham.
A federal Labor government could use Commonwealth power over the placement of automatic teller machines as part of a national effort to combat excessive gambling.
Mr Latham said the Howard Government had raised expectations by having the Productivity Commission report on gambling, but then "did nothing".
In some areas, states had taken good initiatives to combat the problem. As an example, Mr Latham praised NSW for capping poker machine numbers.
The Victorian Government had put in place measures to combat problem gambling, including banning gaming-machine advertising.

Pokie losses in South Australia hit $700m
Office of the Liquor and Gambling Commission figures reveal South Australians lost $695 million on poker machines last year - nearly $60 million more than the previous year.
The data coincides with debate within State Government ranks over an Independent Gambling Authority proposal to cut pokie numbers by 3000.
Labor MPs are divided over the authority's proposal to slash the state's 15,000 machines by 20 per cent.
Other Labor MPs believe it will be costly for the Government which will be forced to buy back the pokies licences from hotels.
The hotel industry, which employs 25,000 people, is preparing its response to the authority's report ahead of a parliamentary vote later this year. Under the authority's report, poker machine numbers would be wound back and capped at 12,000 amid concerns over the level of problem gambling.

Largest pub group trading well
Australian Leisure and Hospitality, which started active trading last November following its debut on the stock exchange, is expected to perform well despite the forecast nationwide smoking bans taking place this year.
The company is Australia's largest operator of gaming machines in pub venues and has a strategy focused on expansion and operational improvement.
"We forecast the company will experience strong cash flows which should provide it with resources to take advantage of emerging opportunities in this consolidating sector," said ABN Amro analyst Sean Monaghan.
"Even if smoking bans take effect, these are not expected to affect earnings for three years."
Strong growth in gaming revenue is being achieved in Queensland which is offsetting the weakness in Victoria. Retail liquor continues to experience growth benefiting from changes in the distribution channel.
ALH is Australia's largest pub operator with 131 properties located across every mainland state. The company is also the third largest retailer of liquor behind Coles and Woolworths, and is the largest operator of detached bottleshops in Queensland.

Profit in sight for eBet
Cashless gaming company eBet, which listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in September 1999, is promising continued improvements to its profit.
"The company believes that bottom line losses are now behind it," wrote Managing Director Keith Cullen and chairman Michael Hale in the annual report.
By June 30 last year, it had accumulated nearly A$35 million ($39.8 million) in losses after posting a A$12.8 million loss for the latest year, up from a A$3.7 million loss the previous year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) for the year were a A$710,000 loss.
They say that after substantial sales growth in the previous six to nine months and major upgrades of its EPS (electronic payment system) product to more than 6500 machines in New South Wales, "there is considerable further growth available".
A further 28,000 machines run by its customers could potentially be upgraded and another 65,000 or so other machines use other vendors' systems or don't have any system, they say.
Ebitda in the first quarter of the current year was positive A$678,000 on sales of A$4.2 million.
The reason for this turnaround is that in November last year eBet bought a competitor, Turbo Bonus, the largest supplier of card-based loyalty systems for gaming machines in Australia.
Turbo's 230 customers, who operate more than 23,000 gaming machines, took eBet's gaming customers to 400 operating nearly 40,000 machines.
Even better, Turbo had been consistently profitable over many years.
eBet reckons that merging Turbo with its own operations and rationalising staffing shaved about A$750,000 a year off the combined overheads. And eBet has been able to sell its own technology to existing Turbo customers.
Although originally positioned as an online gambling business, the company appears to be changing its strategy.
As well as selling its Australian Capital Territory sports and race betting operation Sports Acumen, it further sold its casino website in late 2000 due to Government legislation banning internet gambling except for sports and racing.
The company still has contracts with New Zealand's TAB, Tattersalls in Australia and Penn National Gaming and Playboy in the US.
Online sales fell from A$5.2 million in 2002 to A$3.5 million last year, but sales of its gaming systems jumped from just under A$4 million in 2002 to A$8.8 million last year.
Cullen told the annual meeting last October that between July and October, revenue exceeded A$5.5 million with a further A$2 million in sales yet to be recognised and that the company was on track for sales between A$16 million and A$17 million this year.