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Australian Gaming Supplier Says It Succceeds Despite Government's Policy

27 June 2001

SYDNEY. Australia – June 28, 2001 -- (Press Release) -- The Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Next Generation Entertainment (Aust) Pty Limited – Mr. Tony McAuslan , announced today that while the Australian Federal Government's current assault on online gaming companies had appeared to have had a negative impact on some Australian operators , the current moratorium and proposed ban had failed to have any effect on his company's continued rapid expansion into what is now estimated to be a US$5 Billion dollar industry.

Speaking from London , where he is currently overseeing the opening of the company's new London sales office and its expansion in to Europe , Mr. McAuslan said that " Despite what Senator Alston and certain members of the Press would have you believe , Australia is still the 'Clever Country' and smart companies such as NextGen already had carefully developed contingency plans to operate outside of Australia well in advance of the Government's announcement last May."

Mr. McAuslan went on to say that " although overwhelming odds had been created artificially by the Federal Government's short-sightedness , Next Generation Entertainment has managed to overcome these and establish a niche for itself that in any other industry would be lauded as a major coup by a Minister for Technology." Referring to a number of lucrative supply contracts that the company had recently signed , Mr. McAuslan said that " NextGen is now the only design studio in the world who are supplying state-of-the-art games to both major land-based gaming machine manufacturers and online casino operators located in Australia , Europe , Canada , The United States and South Africa ."

"People from all sectors of the internet , gaming and software design industries and even Austrade all agree that we should be receiving an award for our achievements in export excellence . Instead , we have been forced to hide our light under a bushel . The Australian Federal Government should be hanging its head in shame." He said.

Mr. McAuslan added that " In the last two months alone, we have seen the sale of a unique games patent to one major US-based gaming machine manufacturer , the sale of over A$1 million dollars worth of games to another and the launch of one of our lottery games on the internet by a major European Government gaming agency. Not bad for a small Aussie company of less than 40 people."

Mr. McAuslan stated that the company - which has just completed a third round of fund raising from venture capital groups in both the U.S. and Australia – was " Now executing on its plans to move in to the rapidly expanding wireless gaming and interactive television markets in Europe " and that the company was now planning to move to a public listing in the U.K. " About this time next year."

"We already have a number of amazing wireless games in Beta test mode here in Australia and our suite of interactive games recently knocked the socks off of the interactive television guys in Europe" He said.

" We are not really complaining" said Mr. McAuslan , " Senator Alston's plans simply forced us to seek bigger markets offshore much more aggressively than we would have under normal circumstances. I suppose you could say that we wouldn't have got this big so fast if we hadn't been spurred on by the Government's mishandling of the online gaming issue. But it's a shame that many other Australian companies who spent a lot of money in good faith have been so adversely affected."

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