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To: David W. Tucker who wrote (163)	1/3/1998 12:52:00 AM
From: Silicon Trader	Respond to of 7701

Sharp Image A few points, I personally visited Sharp Image headquarters ( but of course you know that dave , because you have researched and been around for awhile ) along with the Governer of Cojedes ,Venezuela, George Zilba , James Gagel , Federico from LYMCA, and a few others. The facility is located in my home town of Chatsworth Ca.It was there before i left and guess what they are still there after 12 years. While on this visit we toured the Marango casino near Palm Springs, CA . The Facility was one that Sharp Image had over 900 machines installed and operating . It was a weekday in the middle of the afternoon and all the machines were in use , not some but all the machines. At this particular location they were playing a game called Wildfire , something Sharp Created . I can assure you there was a band playing , a full bar, eating area and no one cared . They were at the machines. This is not my point but only a small part. Sharp image is a dominating company in California , New Mexico , Washington and couple other states that they were just entering the market at that time . Sharp's goal as it was told to me in conversation was to have a high percentage of presence in every state in the union, with there Wildfire game. All the locations are of the same size or larger then the Marango. The Venezuelan project is of the utmost importance to them but as you can see they are doing pretty good without it..( 8 locations times 900+ machines at a daily drop of 300.00 each machine .hmmmmm yup they can afford it) LET's NOT FORGET WHO BROUGHT SHARP IMAGE TO DINNER ON THIS DEAL NOW. GO NRAG MBA

To: David W. Tucker who wrote (163)	1/3/1998 3:19:00 PM
From: george eberting	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 7701

<<<<<<you have obviously not conducted your research. Sharp has agreed to fully fund 100% the cost of the VLT's and their installation. I'll give you this one. Even though I previously read the 10/23 press release, I forgot about this arrangement. I've gone back and re-read the consultant's report and the recent press releases and I see nothing about the schedule for shipping subsequent batches of machines. I do see statements that 1,300 machines are to be installed by end of 1998. I also see that a contract has been executed for the first 200 machines, but contracts for additional machines are only "contemplated," not executed. Did I miss something? I found no info about the status of the advertising and promo program, only that there is supposed to be such a program. My question about who is checking the machine intake for NorAm still isn't answered to my satisfaction. yes, the machines apparently will be audited by Golden Games personnel, but..........???? Where does it say that an audit is being done for/by NorAm??? My question regarding bribes was purely rhetorical and was prompted by the well known fact that payoffs to public officials has long been a fact of life overseas. I in no way stated that this was practiced by any participant in this project. Anyone who thinks that passage of a law will prevent this practice probably thinks that adultry stopped when Moses came down off the mountain. I was gratified to learn that NorAm has not given up on its efforts to recover stock from old PR firms. I do recall that MBA stated that no efforts were being made to recover those shares, however. You can therefore understand my confusion since MBA is acting as a company spokesman. I would like to know if any lawsuits have been filed in this effort and, if so, in what jurisdiction(s). Regarding the Gagel Report. I presume NorAm paid for this report. If so, they certainly didn't pay him to say mean things. In fact, Gagel's credibility is largely diluted, IMO, when he says things like: Mr. Zilba is "tireless" and is the "driving force." And I was especially turned off when he says the project should "be an explosive success storyof very significant magnitude." If it looks like hype, and it sounds like hype,........... I presume the 1998 projections are for the entire Golden Games JV. This should be more clearly stated, and NorAm's share should be shown separately. The only reference to NorAm's independent share is in the 11/13 press release which gives a 27 cent per share figure for 1998. (Is this before or after recovering the shares given to the PR firms?) It is interesting that the firms involved keep quoting each other for the revenue projections. There really is no "independent" evaluation, is there? Finally, why would capital expenditures be called "operating expenses"? What kind of accounting is that? Is the life expectancy of the machines that short? What is the life expectancy of the machines, by the way. You can bark at me all you want. But I think YOU are the one who has not done complete DD. Until I'm satisfied that NorAm has all of its bases covered I'm not buying into it. George E.