Las Vegas event opened yesterday its sixth edition, gathering an important number of visitors and offering operators and manufacturers a preview of the products and services that will lead the latest trends in the industry in 2007.

The central pavilion of the Las Vegas Convention Center offered yesterday an impressive image, in which thousands of persons (there are no official figures, yet, but 30,000 visitors were expected in the three-day event) visited the exhibition, and the main international brands aimed to catch their attention, with huge booths in which the latest developments were presented to the sector.

The majority of the public was attracted to slot machines. That’s why the new trends offer different development fields, and firms presented downloadable games and server-based games (to which IGT dedicated much of its space, and Bally and Aristocrat also announced their joint-venture on the development and marketing of this type of games) as well as Class II and Class III products, without forgetting progressives and a myriad of new titles based in successful franchises (almost all the big manufacturers presented novelties of the kind).

For example, Top Gun is one of the main products proposed by WMS, a firm that also presented its new corporate image. This game, which has not been presented in any casino worldwide yet, is being showcased at G2E, while the firm expects to receive the final approval for the North American market, which is supposed to happen next week.

Besides, many international companies have recently started to present developments for multiple players, with both innovative and traditional betting systems based in the attraction of roullettes, bingo, poker, blackjack and other classic casino games.

In total, the event gathers more than 750 companies from all parts of the world, and, on top of the numerous US visitors, there were many European, Asian and Latin assistants. The Food & Beverage Sector also gathered many directors and professionals from the sector.

G2E organizers focused, from the opening of the event and afterwards, in supporting future G2E Asia event, which will debut in Macau next June 13-15. Today, the exhibition will open its doors at 10 am, and it will offer its longest day until 5 pm. The sixth edition of the event will conclude tomorrow at 4,30 pm.