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Dillon back Joe Dillon, who served most recently as president ofTaito America, has been appointed vice president of sales for the Williams/Bally Midway product lines, effective July 9. It's his second go-round with both companies. Dillon assumes the positions previously occupied by Marty Glazman (Williams) and Steve Blattspieler (Bally Midway) . They both left to pursue other interests. " Joe certainly is no stranger to Williams/Bally Midway, and we are happy to have him back to help reorganize our sales efforts to meet the challenges of the '90s," said Ken Fedesna , vice president and general manager of WMS Games Inc. Said Dillon, " It's great to be home. I am looking forward to working with the greatest creative team and distributing WMS moves to Chicago Joe Dillon organization in the industry today. '' He was Williams' vice president of sales from 1980 to 1987. Then came a brief stint at Bally , followed by a return to Williams from August 1988 to October 1988. WMS Industries, the parent company of Williams Electronics Games and Midway Manufacturing , has moved its corporate headquarters from New York City to its existing Chicago facility . The move was expected to be completed by July 31 . The company is also reducing its corporate staff. The relocation will save WMS an estimated $2 million annually . Said Louis Nicastro , WMS chairman and CEO , ' 'This move should permit the company to generate improved results in future periods by reducing corporate overhead and by enabling management to more closely focus on building its amusement game businesses. ' ' Atari acquires stock from Namco Atari Games Corp. has signed an agreement to repurchase stock presently held by Namco America Inc ., the wholly owned subsidiary of Namco Ltd . of Japan . Part of the agreement calls for Namco Ltd. , one of Japan's largest video game manufacturers and a major shareholder in Atari Games , to sell all of the shares it owns back to Atari, along with cash and other considerations. In turn , Namco will receive ownership in Atari Operations Inc ., which operates some 40 video game arcades in the western and southeastern U.S. According to Atari Games, the company will benefit greatly from this transac- tion. The stock repurchase and subsequent sale of Atari Operations will provide Atari Games with new opportunities to conduct business in Japan and the Far East. Closure of the transaction is subject to the approval of both parties ' board of directors . Video poker bill dies in Louisiana A bill that would ' ve legalized video poker machines in Louisiana died in the Senate chambers just hours before thesession ended on July 9 . It was a bitter pill to swallow for members of the Louisiana Amusement and Music Operators Association (LAMOA), which saw their efforts fail because of an alleged doublecross by Gov . Buddy Roemer . David Goudeau of Gerald ' s Amusements in Lafayette, vice president of LAMOA, says operators went to Roemer early in the session to see if he would veto the bill in the event it reached his desk . Roemer allegedly promised he wouldn ' t, Goudeau says , so they went ahead with the bill. It got farther than any 12 PLAY METER/August 1990 other such bill in Louisiana history , clearing the House and a Senate committee before stalling on the Senate floor . " Roemer never thought the bill would get that far , so he went ahead and made promises to us , " Goudeau said . " In his mind, he probably said, ' Why make political enemies?' Even a week before the session ended, Roemer told operators to their faces that he wouldn ' t veto the bill. "We had the required 20 Senate votes all lined up , but one of Roemer's aides came on to the Senate floor and told the senators not to bother voting for the bill , because he 'd veto it. He scared off our votes; why bother voting for it if it's going to get vetoed? The bill never even came up for a vote. This was a couple of hours before the session closed at midnight. I don 't mind losing , but Roemer shouldn 't have lied to us and made us waste money and a lot of long hours ." If all of this wasn 't bad enough, another bill dealing with the potential state lottery 's guidelines and penalties has declared video card games " illegal lottery devices. " It gives police the authority to confiscate and immediately destroy machines ''that come to their attention. ' ' Should the bill become law (it had not reached the governor 's desk as we went to press) , it would remain to be seen how aggressive police would be in their enforcement.