I'm very glad to announce that SDLMAME has been accepted in Ubuntu.
Packages will be available in the multiverse repository component, since MAME licence expressly disallows commercial use whereas universe component policy requires GPL-compliant distribution terms.
First release to be included is 0.123, starting from forthcoming Ubuntu 8.04 (codename Hardy Heron), due for release next April.
Let me finally remind you that universe and multiverse components are official repositories, but they are community-fed and
don't get distributed on CD, i.e. you'll have to download SDLMAME from the net.