Spanish bingo operator the ‘Codere Group’ were celebrating at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in Kensington London on Monday night when they picked up the ‘Bingo Operator of the year winner’s accolade’ at the 2008 Gaming awards.
A glitzy evening on the eve of the launch of this year’s ICE International casino and gaming exhibition at Earls Court saw 16 gongs being presented.
The awards were truly international this year with many of the recipients receiving their accolades for work supplied and carried out outside of the UK.
Codere for example currently manages almost 50,000 gaming machines and has shares in bingo halls, sports gambling parlours, race tracks and casinos in Spain, Italy, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Mexico and Uruguay.
Others in the running for the bingo award were the Gala group and The Palaces.
The ‘Casino Equipment Supplier category’ was perhaps the most competitive of the evening with the world established brand leader Bally technologies fighting off the likes of Abbiati, Shufflemaster and TCSjohnhuxley to take the award.
Wagerwork’s game ‘Monopoly with Pass “Go” Bonus’ lost out on the Slot Machine game winner’s spot to the “King Kong Cash” game from Atronic. An online version of the game from the leading UK based iGaming software provider can be found on Getminted's online casino site.
Casino Review won in the journal/magazine category beating rivals Casino Life and Casino World.
Money raised from the Gaming Awards went to the charities – Care International and the Macmillan Cancer Support group.
In attendance was the Shadow Minister for Tourism and Leisure Tobias Ellwood from the Conservative Party and the night was presented by British comedian Jimmy Carr.
This was the first ever International gaming awards ceremony for land based gaming and initially it was supposed to be held at the Natural History Museum. However increased demand for tickets meant it was moved to the Kensington venue.
A spokesperson for organisers Empire Events said “These are our Oscars, when we get a chance to publicly recognise the wonderful achievements of some of the people and companies over the year. The events turns our short-listed nominees into stars for the day, but in reality, they are stars all year around. We would like to make it a truly international event and our plan is to relocate the awards ceremony to a different part of the world each year, supporting more charities around the globe.”
List of award winners:
Bingo Operator Winner
Group Codere
Casino Equipment Supplier Winner
Bally Technologies
Casino Interior Design Winner
Crown Macau – Melco PBL Gaming Ltd
Journal/Magazine Winner
Casino Review
Gaming Equipment Design Winner
Poker Pro by Aristocrat
Hotshot Winner
RedPlanet Gaming
Innovation Winner
“Slingshot 2” by Cammegh
Casino Operator Asia winner
Genting Corporation
Casino Operator Europe Winner
Casinos Austria
Casino Operator USA Winner
MGM Mirage
New Casino Winner
Venetian Macau Resort – Sands Corporation
Poker Room Winner
Bellagio Las Vegas
Socially Responsible Operator Winner
Holland Casinos
Slot Machine Game Winner
“King Kong Cash” by Atronic
Slot Manufacturer Winner
Bally Technologies
Technology Manufacturer Winner
Progressive Gaming
