Global Gaming Business, September 2016 by Global Gaming Business

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GGB Global Gaming Business Magazine

OK TriBAl GAmiNG reGulATOry reFOrm SerVer-BASed GAmiNG Please visit us at Booth 2709

September 2016 • Vol. 15 • No. 9 • $10

Game On!

TheBIGGames OUR ANNUAL

AGS brings out the big guns in slots, tables and social

The Future of iPoker

How land-based and online versions of the game will converge ®

Official Publication of the American Gaming Association

‘GLOBAL GAMES’ REVIEW PROFILES THE MOST EXCITING SLOT PRODUCTS AT

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eSports & Casinos

Will the twain ever meet? Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers

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MEET US AT G2E

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CONTENTS Global Gaming Business Magazine

Global Games 2016 Page 32 Our annual spotlight on new slot games and major slot manufacturers reveals a burst of innovation in game styles, cabinets and form factors used to present another stellar collection of new content for the slot sectorâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including major new licensed brands, skill-based bonuses and new games designed to appeal to the millennial customer. By Frank Legato, Marjorie Preston and James Rutherford

34 Ainsworth Game Technology 40 AGS 44 Aristocrat 50 Aruze Gaming America 52 Casino Technology/Alto Gaming 54 Everi 64 Incredible Technologies 68 International Game Technology 74 Konami Gaming 80 Novomatic Americas 84 Ortiz Gaming 86 Scientific Games

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

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Vol. 15 • No. 9

september 24 COVER STORY The New AGS

COLUMNS

Since becoming CEO of supplier AGS, David Lopez has transformed the company from one known mainly as a Class II supplier Cover photo ID on p. 25 into a diverse, full-service gaming supplier with product portfolios on both the slot and table-game sides, as well as a growing presence in the social gaming space.

20 Fantini’s Finance Cotai Questions Frank Fantini

94 Customer Service Follow the Customer 118 Table Games Insult to Injury

FEATURES U.S. gaming regulators are challenged to adapt to the changing world while maintaining the level of integrity that has been necessary for gambling to thrive.

Geoff Freeman

Kevin Hibbs

By Frank Legato

96 Reforming Regulations

18 AGA Mississippi Miracle

Roger Snow

120 Revisiting

124 Global Gaming Women Show Us Your Shoes

Class III operators are revisiting the operational efficiencies afforded by server-based gaming technology.

Ellen Whittemore

Server-Based

DEPARTMENTS 6

The Agenda

102 The eSports Opportunity

By the Numbers

The eSports phenomenon, and its particular appeal to the digital-native millennial generation, presents a unique opportunity to casinos.

12 5 Questions

By Mark Balestra

By Robert Rippee

By Dave Bontempo

Our monthly section highlighting and analyzing the emerging internet gaming markets.

Feature 106 iPoker Futures Can internet poker—or land-based poker—recapture the prosperity of the heady mid-2000s? By Steve Ruddock

128 Oklahoma Leverage As Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin’s stormy relationship with the state’s gaming tribes ends, the tribes see little need to rush into new compact negotiations.

14 Gaming History 16 AGEM 126 Frankly Speaking 128 Cutting Edge 130 Goods & Services 133 People

110 iGames News Roundup

134 Casino Communications With Per Eriksson, President & CEO, NetEnt

By Dave Palermo

SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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THE AGENDA

Political Persuasion

Vol. 15 • No. 9 • September 2016 Roger Gros, Publisher | rgros@ggbmagazine.com twitter: @GlobalGamingBiz Frank Legato, Editor | flegato@ggbmagazine.com twitter: @FranklySpeakn Monica Cooley, Art Director | cooley7@sunflower.com

Roger Gros, Publisher

hen casino gaming came to New Jersey in 1976, it included a prohibition against campaign contributions, political activity and office-holding by any casino executive or even employee. This applied to state offices and political activity in Atlantic County and Atlantic City. Casinos could hire lobbyists to influence issues being considered by the state legislature or city council, but they couldn’t directly contribute money to any official, so their influence was slight. The reason for this was clear, and Governor Brendan Byrne said it most succinctly when he kicked off the opening of Resorts International in 1978. The told organized crime to “keep your filthy hands off Atlantic City.” And I’m paraphrasing here. That kind of reaction was understandable at that time. Nevada was by then slowly extricating its casino industry from the grasp of the mob. Remember, Tony Spilotro and Lefty Rosenthal were still active at that time, as documented by the excellent book Casino by Nicholas Pileggi (the movie is more fiction than fact). So, Byrne was rightly concerned about mob involvement. But New Jersey regulations were tough, and proved to be effective in stopping “undesirables” from participating in the industry. Fast-forward almost 40 years, and the success of Atlantic City inspired gaming’s expansion across the country, even into markets the Boardwalk town previously owned exclusively, sending the city’s casinos into an economic freefall. While most of those states expanded gaming because the potential tax revenues were too lucrative to ignore, the integrity that New Jersey proved could be maintained by strict regulations was often copied, including the political bans. Atlantic City did little to protect its investment or its territory, however, and I contend that prohibition on political involvement played a not-insignificant role in that inactivity. Many times in those early years, that ban on political involvement was a blessing, not a curse. The money was rolling in, times were good, and casino executives weren’t all that worried about what Trenton would do—and it actually saved them time and money. But when the tide turned and even more onerous regulations were proposed, they had nowhere to turn. They weren’t part of the political network.

They couldn’t make campaign contributions, so politicians didn’t have any incentive to get to know them beyond the “grip-and-grin” photos at the grand openings. So, when things turned sour in the face of regional competition, raising real threats against New Jersey and its gaming tax revenues, there was no network to turn to. Politicians did silly things like proposing smaller “boutique” casinos, as if a tiny casino would work better than the bigger ones. Casino executives had no forum to sit down with influence-makers to make a case for public/private cooperation. Governor Chris Christie unleashed his minions on Atlantic City who knew nothing about gaming, and finally, in a last desperate attempt to recoup the lost gaming tax revenues, there’s a hazy proposal on the November ballot to expand gaming into North Jersey. The city of Atlantic City, meanwhile, spirals down the bankruptcy black hole with seemingly no way out, a state takeover looming. Blocked from utilizing the skills, background and wisdom of its most experienced businessmen—casino executives—Atlantic City’s elected officials are stymied. Let’s imagine, for a moment, that casinos and their executives had been part of the political process. They would have been able to educate elected officials about their businesses and suggest ways the pubic sector could help, backed up, of course, by the promise of campaign contributions in election years. This is the real world, after all. Or imagine if a casino executive who lived in Atlantic City could become a member of city council or even mayor, bringing his budget expertise with him or her, and point out that the existing spending and budget process was unsustainable. Unfortunately, outside of proving that gaming could be effectively regulated, New Jersey and Atlantic City have been the bad example for gaming around the country. Let’s hope other jurisdictions have learned the lessons so painfully taught by Atlantic City and involve their casinos and executives in the political process, so everyone can work together to find answers to both their challenges and opportunities.

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

John Buyachek, Director, Sales & Marketing jbchek@ggbmagazine.com Floyd Sembler, Business Development Manager fsembler@ggbmagazine.com Becky Kingman-Gros, Chief Operating Officer bkingros@ggbmagazine.com Lisa Johnson, Communications Advisor lisa@lisajohnsoncommunications.com Columnists Frank Fantini twitter: @FantiniResearch Geoff Freeman twitter: @GeoffFreemanAGA Kevin Hibbs | Roger Snow Ellen Whittemore Contributing Editors Mark Balestra | Dave Bontempo Dave Palermo twitter: @DavePalermo4 Marjorie Preston | Robert Rippee Steve Ruddock twitter: @SteveRuddock James Rutherford

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Rino Armeni, President, Armeni Enterprises

• Mark A. Birtha, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Hard Rock International

• Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, President, Lifescapes International

• Nicholas Casiello Jr., Shareholder, Fox Rothschild

• Jeffrey Compton, Publisher, CDC E-Reports

• Geoff Freeman, President & CEO, American Gaming Association twitter: @GeoffFreemanAGA

• Dean Macomber, President, Macomber International, Inc.

• Stephen Martino, Partner, Duane Morris, Baltimore

• Jim Rafferty, President, Rafferty & Associates

• Thomas Reilly, Vice President Systems Sales, Scientific Games

• Steven M. Rittvo, Chairman/CEO, The Innovation Group

• Katherine Spilde, Executive Director, Sycuan Gaming Institute, San Diego State University

• Ernie Stevens, Jr., Chairman, National Indian Gaming Association

• Roy Student, President, Applied Management Strategies

• David D. Waddell, Partner Regulatory Management Counselors PC Casino Connection International LLC. 901 American Pacific Drive, Suite 180 • Henderson, Nevada 89014 702-248-1565 • 702-248-1567 (fax) www.ggbmagazine.com The views and opinions expressed by the writers and columnists of GLOBAL GAMING BUSINESS are not necessarily the views of the publisher or editor. Copyright 2016 Global Gaming Business LLC. Henderson, Nevada 89014 GLOBAL GAMING BUSINESS is published monthly by Casino Connection International, LLC. Printed in Nevada, USA. Postmaster: Send Change of Address forms to: 901 American Pacific Dr, Suite 180, Henderson, NV 89014 Official Publication

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BY THE

NUMBERS

$ $ $

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LEASEd VS. OWNEd I

t sounds like a consideration about buying a car, but slot machines can also be a lot like automobiles. From the days of Megabucks, the first wide-area progressive slot machines (WAP), casinos have shared the profits earned by the slot machine in their casino with the manufacturers, but also share in the liability (with other casinos in the “wide area”) once someone hits a jackpot. So when a player wins $2 million on a WAP, the casino is only on the hook for a specified percentage, depending upon the play in their particular casino. Slots that have lower jackpots, but popular—and expensive—themes are also frequently leased games because, again, the manufacturer and the casino share the costs, risks and rewards. So the discussion about the benefits between casino-owned slot machines and leased machines is ongoing. It also plays a role in the payback percentage discussion because most leased slots have a higher hold percentage than do casino-owned slots. The charts are from the Fantini-Eilers Slot Survey for the second quarter of 2016.

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NUTSHELL

“They

5Questions

Mike Dreitzer

President, North America, Ainsworth Game Technology

ike Dreitzer has been the leader of the North America division of Ainsworth Game Technology since 2013. He spoke with GGB Publisher Roger Gros recently about the company’s approach to the opportunities available today. To hear a full podcast of this interview, visit GGBMagazine.com. Ainsworth North America has just opened a new state-of-the-art headquarters in Las Vegas. What does that mean for operations in North America? Well, it obviously is an enormous step forward for us. We are very happy with how our building turned out. It’s a 290,000-square-foot facility. That means a couple of important things. No. 1, I think it shows a commitment to the market in both North and Latin America, in a way that is very profound, and very visible, of course. Operationally, it enables us to service our customers better. We can reduce turnaround time, and reduce lead time, and get things to customers in a scale that we’ve not been able to do. And there’s plenty of room for us to grow.

1 2 3 4 5

Former Aruze Americas CEO Kelcey Allison just joined the company, and other people on your staff have long experience. Is it important to get all those knowledgeable, experienced players inside the company? We firmly believe in our slogan: Experience Counts. And starting with the Australian team and CEO Danny Gladstone and the group around him, we all have many, many decades of gaming. They are focused on experience and the long game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. So when the opportunity arose to bring Kelcey on board, I told him he really fit in quite well with our narrative. He has a great sense of experience, a great knowledge base. He’s very, very good with customers, with a lot of solid relationships, and our business is built on relationships. And generally speaking, we do look for people with experience at all levels.

Ainsworth hasn’t really emphasized branded and leased participation games in the past; is that an ongoing strategy, or is that something you’re reconsidering now? We have dabbled, I’d say, in the branded stuff. We can do better at it, and we will do better at it. I think that you’re going to see a more conscious and directed effort towards improving our performance and library in that space. But that’s a super-competitive segment, and we’d better come with our A game. We will. We’ve got some really interesting new premium titles coming out—things that I think will be seen as very compelling. We recognize that it’s not about all the glitz and glamour and the Hollywood sort of stuff. We have experiences where we get games out and they’re the workhorses. And in many cases, we see games staying on the floor for years and years.

Where does Ainsworth stand on the skill games issue? We are moving forward. There are some pretty interesting titles that are going to come out that have skill features for us. I think there are still some regulatory items that need to be settled, in terms of the parameters of what you can and can’t do. One of the challenges there is to make a skill game that is compelling but also can perform well on the floor. Any time you add a skill element, it takes time, and if you take time away, you’re reducing your spins per hour, so to speak. So, I think you have to kind of marry the skill experience with the gaming experience.

Novomatic recently purchased the majority of shares in Ainsworth. What does that bring to the table in terms of North America? When the transaction closes within the next 12 months, we anticipate a lot of benefits of the two companies working together. There are many ways that we can help one another. If you look at the geographic map, obviously Novomatic is very, very strong in Europe, as well as Latin America. We of course have strength in Australia, and we’ve been getting stronger in North and Latin America. So it fits together pretty well, as two companies working together globally, and we anticipate a lot of benefits across games. But we are very excited that they’ve committed to keep Ainsworth as Ainsworth, moving forward.

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

Said It”

“I do not want people in the government entering the casino. You are in the government with a measly income, and yet you’ll be seen in a casino?” —Rodrigo Duterte, new president of the Philippines, who has banned all government workers and their families from gambling in casinos

CALENDAR September 26-29: Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 2016, Sands Expo Center, Las Vegas. Produced by the American Gaming Association and Reed Exhibitions. For more information, visit GlobalGamingExpo.com. October 18-20: EiG - Excellence in iGaming 2016, Arena Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Produced by Clarion Events. For more information, visit eigexpo.com. October 23-24: IMGL Autumn Conference 2016, Dublin, Ireland. Produced by the International Masters of Gaming Law. For more information, visit GamingLawMasters.com. October 31-November 3: IAGR 2016 Conference, Sydney, Australia. Produced by the International Association of Gaming Regulators. For more information, visit IAGR.com. November 7-9: Malta iGaming Seminar (MiGS) 2016, Hilton Malta. Produced by the Malta Gaming Authority. For more information, visit MaltaiGamingSeminar.com. November 9-11: SAGSE Buenos Aires, Costa Salguero, Buenos Aires. Produced by Mongraphie. For more information, visit Monographie.com. November 23-24: Balkan Entertainment & Gaming Exposition and Eastern European Gaming Conference, Inter Expo Center, Sofia, Bulgaria. Produced by the Bulgarian Trade Association of Manufacturers and Operators in the Gaming Industry. For more information, visit BalkanGamingExpo.com.

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GAMING HISTORY

Meeting expectations The latest edition of G2E is the result of years of experience in the gaming trade show business. By Roger Gros

he first gaming trade show ever organized was the International Gaming Business Exposition, held in 1984 at Caesars Atlantic City, and founded by Irv Babson, the owner of company that owned International Gaming & Wagering Business (IGWB) magazine. The industry had grown exponentially since the first New Jersey casino opened in 1978, and there was a big market for slot machines. The first show I remember attending was held at the Showboat in Atlantic City in 1987. It was the first World Gaming Congress (WGC), the predecessor to G2E. It was operated by the new owners of IGWB (Babson had sold IGBE to another company). At the time, I was working for Casino Journal, which had morphed from an employee publication in Atlantic City to the second-ranked national gaming magazine in the U.S. Showboat at the time was the newest casino in Atlantic City. It didn’t have much in the way of meeting space, so the exhibits in the smallish Mississippi Pavilion took about an hour to see (as opposed to today’s G2E, which takes days to circumnavigate). As I recall, there were a few rudimentary seminars, which, as a novice conference-goer, I thoroughly enjoyed, as I had never seen a panel discussion about gaming at the time. Yes, Dr. Bill Eadington was well into his second decade running gaming conferences in Las Vegas and Reno, but I had never been able to afford to travel to them. So since IGWB was now aligned with WGC, Casino Journal became the somewhat official publication for IGBE. It was there I learned how to moderate a gaming panel and offer my rapidly expanding perspectives on the industry. There was a gentlemen’s agreement between the shows that one would be held in the spring (IGBE) and the other in the fall, both in Las Vegas, but in 1998, the owners of WGC bought what was left of IGBE and promptly folded it, becoming the singular show for the industry. When the American Gaming Association was formed in the mid ’90s, it negotiated with WGC to receive part of the profits from the show. When that initial agreement expired, the AGA came back to WGC, asking for a larger slice of the pie, and WGC balked. At that point, the AGA was determined to start their own show— Global Gaming Expo—put it out for bid, and were blown away by an offer from Reed Expositions, which today remains the AGA’s partner in G2E. The author’s recognition as a “faculty member” at IGBE in 1991

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

The WGC fought back, however. The parent company at the time—it had been bought and sold frequently—purchased the magazine I was working for, Casino Journal, to consolidate the only two trade publications, and refused to accept G2E advertising in either. I determined that I’d rather go out on my own and take my chances. That inspired me to start Global Gaming Business, and with support from the AGA, we became the official magazine of the AGA and G2E. It didn’t take long for WGC to go away. Two years later it ceased operations. A few years later, they folded IGWB. Now, there have been dozens of conferences and trade shows devoted to gaming over the past 20 years. The ICE show in London is the chief rival to G2E, however, and they are each very different events. Others are niche conferences like the show run by the National Indian Gaming Association. Still others are regional, and some are issue-oriented. For G2E, the biggest change has been the move from the Las Vegas Convention Center to the Sands Expo Center. For a show that is “of gaming, by gaming,” a casino location makes the most sense, and has received almost universal accolades. I’ve been fortunate to be the conference consultant to G2E for the past 15 years, and selfishly believe that the educational element of the show is as important as the exhibit floor, if not more so. But conferences are changing, and this year, that change will be reflected in the education sessions at G2E. We’re excited about the new direction of the conference, and hope you agree. But trade shows and conferences are changing and morphing in every industry. To stay ahead of the game, G2E needs to recognize the changes not only in the trade show business, but also in the gaming industry. What are the needs of the exhibitors and the attendees? How can G2E deliver that unforgettable and valuable experience that will enhance the professional life of every attendee? That’s the challenge, and the solution is to stay involved.

You’ve never experienced anything like this before, because there’s never been anything like this before. Visit us at G2E booth #3659.

© 2016 IGT. All other trademarks used herein are owned by IGT or its affiliates, may not be used without permission, and where indicated with a ®, are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. IGT is committed to socially responsible gaming. Our business solutions empower customers to choose parameters and practices that become the foundation of their Responsible Gaming programs.

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AGEMupdate AUGUST 2016 KEY BOARD OF DIRECTORS ACTIONS

AGEM MEMBER PROFILE Konami Gaming, Inc. is a Las Vegas-based subsidiary of Konami Holdings Corporation. The company is a leading designer and manufacturer of slot machines and casino management systems for the global gaming market. Konami is set to present a diverse line of new high-profile products at G2E 2016, including an expanded family of Concerto products, brand-new gaming concepts, and Synkros updates such as Synkros Dashboards. Building upon the success of the new Concerto upright cabinet and KP3+ platform, Konami will unveil all-new Concerto Slant, Concerto SeleXion, Concerto Stack and Concerto Crescent cabinets designed to offer customers the type of product diversity they need to get the most from their floors. These new Concerto family cabinets will possess all of the distinctive features that contribute to Concerto’s performance and allow operators to diversify their floors with the company’s expanded range of high-performance game themes. Every year, Konami’s award-winning Synkros casino management system expands to new properties and jurisdictions with competitive new tools and features to give casinos a unique market edge. Synkros is slated to debut a number of important new updates and tools at G2E this year, reinforcing the company’s commitment to sustained innovation in casino marketing and operations. Among which, Synkros Dashboards is sure to elicit praise because it was designed by operators to put real-time data and insights in the hands of seasoned casino professionals and executives. Guests at this year’s G2E show can also expect to discover several other innovative new products that leverage Konami’s rich entertainment heritage and are designed to empower operators to diversify their floor in order to attract and retain evolving customer segments. Recently, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings launched Konami’s Synkros gaming enterprise management system. The company has also announced the first arrival of its new Frogger-themed slot machines at casinos across the U.S. Konami received a Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) Silver Certification for the recently completed expansion of its Las Vegas headquarters. In addition to G2E in September, Konami will exhibit at the ICE Totally Gaming Show in London in February. For more information, visit gaming.konami.com. 16

• Building on American Gaming Association (AGA) President and CEO Geoff Freeman’s pledge to AGEM members last month to improve communications between the two organizations, AGA VP of Industry Services Andy Ortale provided an update at the August AGEM board meeting. With the AGA taking a more active role in the G2E shows, Ortale vowed to work more closely with show organizer and co-owner Reed Expositions to bring greater benefits to the exhibitors (suppliers), addressing areas that are important to them. • AGEM presented a document at a full-day public meeting that was held in Florida on July 26 regarding regulatory changes and future product introductions. AGEM’s input focused on skill-based gaming and variable payback on machines, similar to the regulations introduced for SB9 in Nevada. • Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett attended the August meeting along with colleagues Jim Barbee, Technology Division chief; Kelly Colvin, Audit Division chief; and Mike Somps from the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. Chairman Burnett made a short presentation to members highlighting that regulators want to work with manufacturers and operators to improve their businesses by reviewing and updating existing regulations. After the board meeting adjourned, a working session followed to identify and evaluate suggestions for specific changes. • AGEM members approved a $50,000 annual contribution to the Problem Gambling Center in Las Vegas. This important organization provides evaluation, individual and group counseling services to July 2016 by people who have gambling problems, as well as their family and friends who are adversely affected gambling.

ˇ ˇ

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

UPCOMING EVENTS • AGEM approved funding of $15,000 for Global Gaming Women’s “Kick Up Your Heels” reception being held on September 28 during G2E. Kick Up Your Heels is a fundraiser for the GGW’s Charitable Education Fund, a women’s scholarship program intended to help women in the industry enhance their skills and further their careers through continuing education.

AGEMindex

The AGEM Index posted an impressive increase in July 2016 after gaining 4.67 points in June 2016. The composite index stood at 294.68 at the close of the month, which represents an increase of 34.67 points, or 13.3 percent, when compared to June 2016. The AGEM Index reported a year-over-year increase for the ninth consecutive month, rising 92.78 points, or 46 percent, when compared to July 2015. During the latest period, eight of the 14 global gaming equipment manufacturers reported month-to-month increases in stock price, with four up by more than 10 percent. Five manufacturers reported decreases in stock price during the month, while Intralot remained flat. The broader stock markets reported positive results in July 2016 as well. The S&P 500 reported a month-to-month increase of 3.6 percent, rising to 2173.6. Additionally, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 2.8 percent to 18,432.24. NASDAQ increased 6.9 percent during the period, rising to 5,162.13.

AGEM

Exchange: Symbol (Currency)

Stock Price At Month End Percent Change Jul-16 Jun-16 Jul-15 Prior Period Prior Year

Index Contribution

Nasdaq: AGYS (US$)

11.42

10.47

8.47

9.07

34.83

Ainsworth Game Technology

ASX: AGI (AU$)

2.09

2.16

3.00

(3.24)

(30.33)

0.20

Aristocrat Technologies

ASX: ALL (AU$)

15.94

13.80

8.57

86.00

20.38

Agilysys

Astro Corp. Crane Co. Daktronics, Inc. Everi Holdings Inc. Galaxy Gaming Inc. Gaming Partners International International Game Technology PLC ? $ C

$F &C&

Konami Corp. Scientific Games Corporation Transact Technologies

15.51

0.25

Taiwan: 3064 (NT$)

36.45

37.30

28.35

(2.28)

28.57

(0.01)

NYSE: CR (US$)

62.30

56.72

53.20

9.84

17.11

3.86

Nasdaq: DAKT (US$)

6.47

6.25

11.43

3.52

(43.39)

0.11

NYSE: EVRI (US$)

1.90

1.15

5.05

65.22

(62.38)

0.88

OTCMKTS: GLXZ (US$)

0.29

0.31

0.18

(6.45)

61.11

(0.01)

(0.22)

Nasdaq: GPIC (US$)

9.28

9.30

10.00

NYSE: IGT (US$)

20.90

18.74

19.80

0.90

1.70

C$ A F?

, &# ,

(7.20)

(0.00)

11.53

5.56

5.23

(47.06)

0.01 2.18

TYO: 9766 (¥)

3,990

3,895

2,588

2.44

54.17

Nasdaq: SGMS (US$)

10.66

9.19

15.10

16.00

(29.40)

1.61

Nasdaq: TACT (US$)

7.66

8.02

7.41

(0.03)

(4.49)

3.37

Change in Index Value

34.67

AGEM Index Value: June 2016

260.01

AGEM Index Value: July 2016

294.68

AGEM is an international trade association representing manufacturers of electronic gaming devices, systems, lotteries and components for the gaming industry. The association works to further the interests of gaming equipment manufacturers throughout the world. Through political action, trade show partnerships, information dissemination and good corporate citizenship, the members of AGEM work together to create benefits for every company within the organization. Together, AGEM and its member organizations have assisted regulatory commissions and participated in the legislative process to solve problems and create a positive business environment.

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AMERICAN GAMING ASSOCIATION

Mississippi Miracle AGA highlights strong community partnerships in Biloxi

By Geoff Freeman, President & CEO, American Gaming Association

eading into its 25th year, gaming in Mississippi is a proven partner for the state, especially on the Gulf Coast. In the latest of our Get to Know Gaming events that bring together the gaming community in markets across the country, AGA organized a robust roundtable event in Biloxi. As the Sun Herald reported, “the tour brought more than 100 people to the presentation at IP Casino Resort… the largest attendance yet,” and included leaders from the Gulf Coast business, political, nonprofit and education communities, as well as property leaders from Boyd Gaming’s IP Casino Resort Spa, MGM Resorts International’s Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, Caesars Entertainment’s Harrah’s Gulf Coast, and Penn National Gaming’s Boomtown Casino.

Our message: it’s not enough to rest on the accomplishments of the past quarter-century— which include contributing nearly $6.5 billion in gaming taxes alone to state and local government coffers and driving the recovery of the region after Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill. Let’s figure out how to grow this industry even more. One opportunity for growth could be through sports betting. “It could add another level to this platform of revenue and bring even more income to the state and its economy,” said Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming & Hospitality Association. Conservatively, Americans bet $150 billion il18

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

legally on sports each year, meaning Mississippi could benefit from tax revenue were the federal government to remove the current ban. What was absolutely clear is that Mississippi is home to progressive policymakers who understand how gaming works. State Rep. Richard Bennett, chairman of the state legislature’s gaming committee, praised the industry. “I don’t know where the Coast would be without gaming—we’ve done it right here,” he said, adding, “We do not need to have a threat of a tax every year,” as such instability would deter reinvestment. Others in the community voiced their strong support for the industry. “Gaming is a consistent economic driver for people in a region that has endured natural disaster and turmoil,” said Ashley Edwards, president, Gulf Coast Business Council. “The progress and influence we continue to realize as ‘One Coast’ is due in large part to the deep commitment of our Gulf Coast casinos to promoting opportunity and collaboration.” Each panelist noted the many jobs created by the industry, the small businesses and local vendors that work with casinos and the strong community partnerships that have formed over the years, including with the United Way of South Mississippi, which has received nearly $1 million in donations from the industry. On employment, Harrah’s Senior Vice President and General Manager Jonathan Jones noted that the industry has provided lifelong jobs, adding that 170 of his employees have been employed 20 years or longer. “We just hired a fourth-generation table games employee,” he said. Like many gaming regions, the Gulf Coast has a great story to tell, and through the AGA’s Get to Know Gaming campaign, we will continue to educate the community, policymakers and the public about gaming’s role as a community partner. Follow Geoff Freeman on Twitter at @GeoffFreemanAGA.

More than a transaction. A connection. The real moment of truth on the casino floor is when a player gives you her money. Only she doesn’t actually hand it to you. She hands it to us. From the moment that currency touches our bill validator, we are responsible for providing an effortless, accurate transfer of cash into play. We accept your customer’s wager with reliable grace and efficiency, just the way you would personally. We are your representative on your casino floor. This philosophy has earned JCM its position as the industry leader, with more bill validators and printers in play than all other brands combined. And now we will show you how a simple buy-in can lead to a level of player engagement that goes beyond the transaction. We’ll help you make connections.

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FANTINI’S FINANCE

Cotai Questions With the opening of Wynn Palace, what’s in store for Asia’s most important gaming destination?

e are, to use that wonderful business cliche, at an inflection point. The opening of Wynn Palace last month and Las Vegas Sands’ Parisian on September 13 will be the two most closely watched casino openings in Macau’s history. Early success could drive up the price of both stocks and help lift those of other Macau casino operators, as well. Weak openings could drive those stocks down to the levels of the dark days of pessimism of several months ago, and maybe below that. To date, we’ve had few tea leaves to read, but one source of intelligence is the sound and body language of the two CEOs, Steve Wynn and LVS’ Sheldon Adelson, on their second-quarter investor conference calls. Adelson nearly pounded the table on Macau, saying the market had bottomed out or close to it. Further, Parisian will be an iconic must-see property and, with all the company’s hotels soon to be connected, the 13,000 rooms will be the largest such complex under one roof in the world. The next day, LVS stock shot up 6 percent. Steve Wynn got to report rising EBITDA. It was thanks to high table hold, but it was positive EBITDA, nonetheless. Then Wynn did what he does best. He spun a story. In this case, all about how the new property not getting the hoped-for allotment of table games is OK, because two-thirds of VIP tables lose money. Such rallying cries of great leaders can be critical to success on the battlefield or on the athletic field, but they won’t drive a middle-class Chinese family or VIP player to Macau, or change the fact that 15 percent more capacity is being added to what has been a contracting market and what might, even if it has bottomed, be a static or slowgrowth market. And we have something better than tea leaves to analyze when evaluating the impact of new capacity. We have a track record. Over the past year, that track record hasn’t been great. Galaxy Phase II and Studio City also were two ballyhooed, multibillion-dollar projects. Like 20

By Frank Fantini

Wynn and Parisian, they boasted of their nongaming amenities built to broaden the Macau market to be more like Las Vegas, and at least partly to placate the national Chinese and local Macau governments. The result: Macau gaming revenues continued their declines, and hotel rates and occupancy fell throughout the city since their openings last year. Now, we hear, perhaps more hopefully than with conviction, that Wynn Palace and Parisian will be different. That Wynn Palace will be so extraordinary that it will become the property of choice for high-end players. That Parisian will be so iconic, and affordably priced for the middle class, that people will flock to it. Those predictions could prove true, but will they be true at the expense of other properties, including Wynn Macau and LVS’ various resorts? And then, a few months later, MGM Cotai will open, adding yet more capacity to the market. We soon won’t need to speculate and debate growth vs. cannibalization. The facts will speak for themselves.

PERSONAL NOTES This is a personal note about two CEOs who operate in different parts of the gaming equipment world — Gavin Isaacs of Scientific Games and Bart Shuldman of TransAct Technologies. I first met Gavin Isaacs when he was fresh off the plane, having landed in Las Vegas to take over the American operations of Aristocrat, which had stumbled in counting its chickens before they hatched, or more accurately, counting the revenues of slot machine sales that didn’t materialize. Isaacs, in his inimitable combination of enthusiasm, common sense and common touch, righted the ship. He then became COO of rival Bally Technologies and then, after tiring of waiting for the top job to open up, became CEO of little Shuffle Master. As fate would have it, Bally bought SHFL, and there was Gavin Isaacs free to enjoy a year of noncompete. By then, Isaacs had become perhaps the most respected executive on the supplier side of the gaming industry. Everyone knew he would be back in

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

action at first opportunity. That didn’t take long. Scientific Games came calling. In quick succession, Sci Games bought No. 3 slot maker WMS, then swallowed Bally. Isaacs then began what might be one of the greatest achievements in the history of the modern gaming industry. He combined into an integrated whole what had been four companies with four separate cultures, with primary operations in three separate regions of the country. Now, Sci Games has brought on former Norwegian Cruise Lines CEO Kevin Sheehan as CEO, and Isaacs has moved to vice chairman of the board. The day of the announcement, Isaacs said he would work full-time through this year introducing Sheehan to customers, then work part-time after that. I don’t know Gavin’s intentions. Maybe he plans to kick back now that he’s accomplished so much. But I wouldn’t bet on it. TransAct CEO Bart Shuldman was waxing about this company’s 20 years as a public company during his second-quarter earnings call. He gave a bunch of thank-yous to people at TACT who had made a difference to the company and to him. Then, out of the blue, he thanked me, though I can’t imagine what the heck I’ve done to deserve notice. Nonetheless, the mention was flattering, and it got me to thinking about the enthusiasm that is Shuldman’s hallmark, and how TransAct has survived in a printer world dominated by giants like HP and Toshiba. The answer is by finding niches that giants don’t, like gaming, where the intrusive licensing process is not worth the bother to many big companies. Put another way, Shuldman has evolved TransAct into the Wee Willie Keeler of the printer industry—Hit ‘em where they ain’t. Frank Fantini is the editor and publisher of Fantini’s Gaming Report. A free 30-day trial subscription is available by calling toll free: 1-866-683-4357 or online at www.fantiniresearch.com.

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LEAVE NO SPACE UNPLAYED

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Raising

the

Bar

AGS carves its new identity as a full-service casino supplier By Frank Legato

few years ago, industry impressions of the company then still known by its formal moniker, American Gaming Systems, centered around a story that was very compelling at the time. It went something like this: San Francisco-based equity firm buys Class II slot supplier; employs gaming industry veteran to break the company out of its Oklahoma base and into traditional Class III markets. The AGS story of today is no less compelling. Two years ago, the company was acquired by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, LLC, and brought in a chief executive who, after several key acquisitions, established a Class III foothold with hits in a couple of genres, rebranded as AGS, and created a completely new identity for the company—that of a diversified North American supplier of slots, table game products and social casino offerings. AGS, to be sure, is just now hitting its stride. David Lopez, the president and CEO, has reinvented the company. Former CEO Bob Miodunski, a veteran who once headed Bally, had gotten the ball rolling by establishing licensing in key Class III jurisdictions, where AGS saw success with skill-based hits like Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! and Family Feud. But the move credited to Miodunski that is arguably the most important with respect to the new AGS was the slot-maker’s sale to the Apollo affiliate which brought in Lopez to replace the retiring chief executive. 24

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

Lopez, who formerly was CEO of Global Cash Access (now Everi), quickly formed a vision for the new AGS. It was similar to his original vision for GCA: “We wanted to turn it into more of a diversified gaming supplier,” he says. “We had a Class II distributor-sales infrastructure, with some R&D, but we wanted to expand into a global, diversified gaming supplier.” After two years, that vision has come to fruition, mainly because Lopez saw immediately what was needed—a core platform that would translate seamlessly between Class II and Class III markets, followed by creation of a table games division and enrty into the social casino space. Under Miodunski, the company had established a foothold with what was called the Roadrunner platform, a technology largely inherited through the acquisition of Canadian supplier Gametronics. “Before I started, the company really didn’t have a true platform that was their own,” Lopez says. “But Roadrunner put people on notice that AGS was going to become a Class III supplier.” Roadrunner, however, was essentially a premium platform, with large cabinets topped by bonus wheels and elaborate, entertainment-style bonus events. Lopez knew that for long-term success in Class III, the company needed a workhorse core platform. He initiated a methodical approach to make that happen.

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Back row from left to right: John Hemberger, senior VP, table products; Robert Perry, senior VP of sales; David Lopez, president and chief executive officer; Drew Pawlak, vice president and general manager, Latin America. Front row from left to right: Julia Boguslawski, chief marketing officer; Mani Honigstein, general manager, AGS Interactive.

Colossal Start A preliminary move was the acquisition of Colossal Gaming, a company founded by industry veteran Stephen Weiss that specialized in one type of slot: big. Big, as in Colossal Diamonds, a giant-sized slot that has been one of the most successful Bertha-style offerings in the industry since AGS purchased the company. The distinctive, huge scarlet cabinet, commonly referenced by its nickname “Big Red,” has logged roughly 250 placements across 23 states—most recently gaining approvals in Mississippi and Nevada, where Colossal Diamonds was the beta-test game. “When we projected what Colossal would be worth to us even in the first year or two, we justified the price we paid for it,” Lopez says. “Even forgetting about the rest of the Colossal business, the roughly 250 Big Reds we have in place now put us in a great position to justify that purchase.” According to Lopez, the Colossal purchase was completed because AGS needed “something to bang doors down” to open all its products to new markets. He says the Colossal purchase was made after witnessing the success of Colossal Diamonds when AGS distributed the giant slot for Colossal. “What we saw in Big Red was a way to get the attention of Class III casinos,” Lopez says. “It gave us the clout to go in and say, ‘Hey, we’re here.’” Actually, Big Red said it for them, instantaneously multiplying the number of operators familiar with the name AGS. Lopez says unfamiliarity is an occupational hazard for Class II suppliers making the transition to Class III. “The difference between operators in Florida and Oklahoma and the rest of the world was that in Florida and Oklahoma, they said, ‘Yeah, AGS. Dia-

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mond Lotto, Royal Reels,’ or another of our iconic games. Everyone else would say, ‘Diamond Lotto? Royal Reels? What are those?’ “Colossal really gave us the opportunity to get a foot in the door with that one product.” Just in the nick of time, as it happened, because the next move on the AGS agenda under Lopez and executives like Andrew Burke, vice president of slot products, may have been the most important. The company acquired Atlanta-based supplier Cadillac Jack from Amaya Gaming for roughly $370 million. Cadillac Jack mirrored AGS in many ways—a well-established Class II slot supplier earning a foothold in Class III markets with a popular library of games. Moreover, as it happens, there was little overlap in the Class II markets of each legacy company. Cadillac Jack was a leader in markets like Wisconsin, Alabama and Mexico. AGS was a leader in Oklahoma and Florida, among other markets. And perhaps most importantly, Cadillac Jack brought with it a crucial piece for the emerging AGS—a core slot platform, one that was brand-new at the time of the acquisition. AGS engineers spent the first year after the merger marshaling the strengths of the R&D talent of both legacy companies, and molding that core slot platform into what is now called the Atlas platform, which runs on the company’s new dual-monitor core cabinet Icon. The Icon game library, introduced at last year’s G2E, incorporates the best game mechanics of Cadillac Jack—from the PowerXStream ways-to-win reel format to Fierce Factor, which returns higher wins for higher line bets. AGS is following up with a groundbreaking new premium format at this year’s G2E—again, combining the best of the legacy companies. Lopez says he couldn’t have found a more perfect fit than Cadillac Jack to move the company forward. “All the things we had, they really didn’t have, and vice versa,” he says. “It was almost like we were meant to dock with one another, that these companies were meant to be together.” Burke, who has been with AGS since before Lopez came on board and has been VP of slot products for two years, says the company added some of the best engineering talent in the business with the Cadillac Jack acquisition. “The combination of our R&D teams has been fantastic,” he says. The core product AGS will bring to the Global Gaming Expo is the re-

“We have a really great story to tell on the slot side because we’ve got a proven performer in Big Red, and now, we have a core product in Icon that gives us the six-pack on the floor, or 12 games.” —Andrew Burke, VP of Slot Products, AGS

SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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Side bets are joined by proprietary games like Chase the Flush, in which players and dealers compete head-to-head using three hole cards and four community cards to create the longest possible flush.

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sult of the strength of that combined team. “Performance has been amazing, pretty much everywhere we’ve gone,” Burke says. “We have a really great story to tell on the slot side because we’ve got a proven performer in Big Red, and now, we have a core product in Icon that gives us the six-pack on the floor, or 12 games.” Games like Golden Wins, Gold Dragon Red Dragon and Queen of Wonderland Fierce Factor are among the early hits on the Icon cabinet. (More details on new AGS slot games for G2E can be found in the “Global Games” section.) The next part of the slot puzzle for AGS is its new premium cabinet to be unveiled at G2E. Called Orion, it features a striking 42-inch flat-screen monitor, on which both dedicated games and games shared with Icon take on a new, cinematic feel. “There’s really nothing like Orion on the market today,” says Lopez. “Visually, it captures immediate attention with this really unique emotive lighting design and sleek footprint. When you see Orion in a bank of three or more, it creates a billboard-like experience on the casino floor.” AGS first displayed the cabinet to select customers at a June event (the first GameON customer summit), and according to Burke, initial feedback indicates big things to come. “When we first unveiled it,” he says, “the response we received was, ‘That’s a winner. That’s a winner.’ It’s not even out yet, and it is generating excitement.”

Setting the Table As Lopez was putting the pieces together that led to the reinvention and resurgence of the AGS slot library, a parallel evolution was taking place that would provide another piece of the puzzle transforming the company into a diversified gaming supplier—the table game business. Lopez says the plan to move into the table game space was there when he arrived in 2014. “When I first started with AGS, we made a list of things we wanted to do—businesses we wanted to get into,” he recalls. “We knew we wanted to enhance the slot business, expand into Class III and secure more licenses. We also wanted to start a table games business. Whether it was traditional felt table games, equipment, electronic table games … We knew we wanted to be in that space.” AGS would move into table games through a combination of acquisitions and inventions, but first things first. Before the product came the people who would run the new division. Right around the time Lopez started, a perfect opportunity arose to kick-start the new table business, in the form of John 26

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

Hemberger, a table game expert who ran the proprietary games division at SHFL entertainment for about seven years. Hemberger, senior vice president of table products, was brought in to oversee the new business. “John had been running the largest table game division in the world, so he couldn’t have been a better fit,” says Lopez. Hemberger wasted no time building up an impressive collection of intellectual property to jump-start the table division. First, the company acquired the assets of Casino War Blackjack, Inc., producer of the award-winning War Blackjack table game, a popular blackjack derivative based on the classic War card game many remember from childhood. The new division inherited a ready-made installed base for that game, and soon introduced War Baccarat to expand on the concept. Next came the acquisition of three titles from In Bet Gaming—In Bet, Criss Cross Poker and Hot Roller Craps. In Bet is a blackjack side bet—similar to the classic Acey Deucey game—with more than 350 installations. Criss Cross Poker is another classic poker derivative many remember playing at the kitchen table, and Hot Roller Craps is a side bet for dice games. Those were just the beginning. In just two years, Hemberger has built the new table game division of AGS into one of the most extensive collections of table game side bets, progressive jackpots, poker derivatives and new original games you’ll find anywhere in the industry, with more than 1,100 table product installations across the country. Hemberger says the table offerings—both those acquired and new proprietary inventions—all must have certain qualities to succeed. The best, he says, promote a community feeling among players against the house. He says he uses the game of craps as an example of the elements vital for any new banked table game or side bet to succeed. “Craps involves a united goal for players against the house,” he says. “We try to take this element to the banked card games.” Unlike craps, though, new banked card games or bets must be simple to understand immediately. A perfect example of a new game that “checks all the boxes,” as Hemberger says, is a game acquired a year ago called Buster Blackjack. It is a side bet that, simply, pays off when the dealer busts. The more cards it takes the dealer to bust, the higher the payoff. “It’s the perfect side bet,” says Hemberger. “If the dealer busts, the table wins. It has a community feel, and a common goal against the house.”

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Since acquiring Buster Blackjack in September 2015, AGS has more than doubled the installed base from 250 to more than 600 across 106 casinos in 10 different states.

“There’s really nothing like Orion on the market today. Visually, it captures immediate attention with this really unique emotive lighting design and sleek footprint. When you see Orion in a bank of three or more, it creates a billboard-like experience on the casino floor.” —David Lopez, President & Chief Executive Officer, AGS Another 2015 acquisition that has shown promise is Bonus Spin Blackjack, a side bet that pays off in two ways: If one of the player’s first two cards is an Ace, the bet pays even money. However, if dealt a blackjack, the player presses a button to spin a virtual wheel for various money denominations or a progressive jackpot. A poker version of the side bet awards a wheel spin to players dealt three of a kind or better. AGS is making Bonus Spin available as a white-label offering for blackjack or poker as well. “On slot games like Wheel of Fortune, you’re playing to spin that wheel,” Hemberger says. “It’s the same on a table game.” Side bets are joined by proprietary games like Chase the Flush, in which players and dealers compete head-to-head using three hole cards and four community cards to create the longest possible flush; and 2 Card Poker, in which the best two-card poker hand out of four dealt cards wins. “Flush games have some real appeal, because they’re simple, and you don’t have to have a table game background to play,” Hemberger says. “You just need to be able to look for suited cards. It’s a visual game.” And the 2 Card Poker game? “Again, very fast-paced, very simple to understand, and an intense gambling experience for players.” Hemberger adds that the Bonus Spin product fits well on a game like Chase the Flush, where normally, the progressive side bet would pay off on a seven-card straight flush. Here, players have at least a shot at the progressive 28

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

by spinning the wheel every time they get a much-more-attainable three-of-akind. The list goes on: Double Draw Poker gives players a second draw of one card, for a second bet. Tornado is a roulette utility device that allows players to initiate each spin of the wheel through a “remote ball activation device.” Double Ball Roulette has players spinning two roulette balls at a time. Finally, at G2E, the AGS table division will roll out its first card shuffler, called Dex S. “It’s a poker-room shuffler, one deck being shuffled while one deck is in play,” explains Hemberger. “It can be used on single-deck blackjack as well. The randomness and shuffle time we’re getting on all the early tests are fantastic.” By all accounts, the AGS table division is off and running. “Fifty percent of our content has been acquired, and 50 percent has been developed inhouse, and that’s a healthy ratio for us,” Hemberger says. “It’s been just about two years since we created AGS’ table games division, and we’re thrilled to already have more than 1,100 table products in the field.”

Primed for the Future In addition to the portfolio of slot and table games, AGS is preparing for the future, getting its ever-growing list of proven titles into the social arena, with the Lucky Play Casino and Vegas Fever apps that can be downloaded from the Apple or Google stores.

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AGS inaugurated the GameON customer conference in June. The conference intermingled presentations on AGS products with presentations on the industry at large, and an industry overview by American Gaming Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman (l.).

➤

“GameON gives us an opportunity to say, ‘This is the new AGS; we’re here to listen; we’re here to provide value for you.’ We get to really spend time working on our relationship with customers over three days. We want to be open with our customers, and we want it to be a two-way street.”

analysts Todd Eilers and Adam Krejcik of “There are a lot of R&D efforts that go into Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, LLC, a lively creating those games for the land-based environdiscussion on eSports by Fifth Street Gamment, and they also work very well online,” says ing CEO Seth Schorr, a look at the SemiJulia Boguslawski, chief marketing officer for nole Tribe’s history by Seminole Gaming AGS. “We’re committed to taking our great liCEO and Hard Rock International Chairbrary of proven games and offering them on our man James Allen, and an industry social platforms in a way that really recreates the overview by American Gaming Association land-based game experience. I think we do a rePresident and CEO Geoff Freeman. ally good job of that.” But the key focus of the conference was For now, though, the corporate focus is still on the supplier’s customers. “GameON on creating that library on both the slot and gives us an opportunity to say, ‘This is the table sides, and spreading the word of AGS to the few remaining North American markets that —Julia Boguslawski, Chief Marketing Officer, AGS new AGS; we’re here to listen; we’re here to provide value for you,’” Boguslawski may be unfamiliar with the surging company. says. “We get to really spend time working With Mississippi, Florida and Nevada apon our relationship with customers over provals in hand, AGS will continue to use its three days. We want to be open with our customers, and we want it to be a combined forces—the corporate Las Vegas office coordinates with productwo-way street.” tion facilities in Oklahoma City and an R&D center in Atlanta, the former “We don’t want them to just listen to our sales pitch, which is why we home of Cadillac Jack—to move forward in all markets. enriched the agenda with so many peer and industry speakers,” Lopez “Outside of the U.S., one of our main focuses is the Latin American adds. “We get paid to generate EBITDA for our customers.” market,” says Lopez. “We brought in Drew Pawlak earlier this year to lead The information gleaned from GameON, and from constant contact our sales and business development efforts in that region because there is so with customers in general, is now feeding information on those customers’ much more potential. Cadillac Jack had a really strong presence in Mexico, needs back to an R&D team in Atlanta that stacks up to any in the busiand it’s important for us to maintain and grow our market share there. We’re ness. also closely watching Brazil.” “We have phenomenal talent, because of all the different resources in Another way AGS is moving forward in its target markets is through the Atlanta,” says Boguslawski. “That’s given us an edge.” GameON customer conference the company inaugurated in June. It is an in“The thing that separates us culturally from other companies is the timate affair—fewer than 80 senior-level casino operators attended the first genuine support that everyone has for each other in our company, to make event, and Lopez says the company intends to keep the invitations under 100 sure we achieve our goals,” adds Hemberger. “We look at everything in key customers, invited for a private review of upcoming products and techterms of winning and losing. And no one wants to lose. We hate losing.” nology that is not possible amid the din of a huge event like G2E. Considering the new AGS, it’s a good bet it will be winning that domiThe conference intermingled presentations on AGS products with prenates the horizon for some time to come. sentations on the industry at large, including a workshop staged by respected SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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Global Games 2016 Our annual study of the best to come in the slot sector

By Frank Legato

elcome to our annual review of the new games that will be introduced over the coming year by the world’s slot manufacturers. The past few years have seen sweeping changes in the makeup of the slot sector of the gaming industry. Last year’s Global Gaming Expo served as the first official stage for a variety of recently merged suppliers, from the combination of GTECH, Lottomatica and the former IGT that created the current IGT to the merger of Bally, WMS Gaming and SHFL into the new Scientific Games. On a smaller scale, last year, we saw the incorporation of a Class II suppliers into an acquiring company that had no Class II presence in the form of Aristocrat’s integration of VGT, and the combination of two top traditional Class II suppliers, Class III slots and a table game division into what is the new AGS. Then there was the combination of cash-access company GCA and slotmaker Multimedia Games to form Everi Holdings. G2E last year offered what was mostly the first opportunity of all the merged suppliers to stake out their new identities—mostly with only a few jointly developed offerings accompanying the legacy products of each premerger company. This year can be called the coming-out party for all of those suppliers—the new IGT, the new Scientific Games, the new Aristocrat, the new Everi—with the product of more than a year of efforts to integrate the former companies into what is the new face of the slot business. The first way these combined efforts will appear at this year’s show is in new cabinets, form factors and game styles the suppliers have developed to house the content of their newly positioned companies. Konami is launching five new cabinet styles this year, including some developed in concert with its parent company, Konami Holdings Corporation. Scientific

Games and IGT are each launching three new cabinets, with games designed for the new platforms. Aristocrat, Ainsworth, AGS, Everi, Incredible Technologies, Novomatic, Casino Technology—it would be hard to find a manufacturer not launching one or more new form factors this year. The reason is that the flood of content pouring forth from the manufacturers strives to continue to redefine the nature of the slot machine. There are skill-based games in arcade style and in mobile-game style for the millennials. There are giant portrait-style monitors, immersive formats that create an intimate zone for the player, competitive bonus games, and a host of new brands to take players inside the worlds of popular films, TV shows and ancient stories. There is amazing 3D technology, holographic lighting and photo-realistic graphics. The world’s slot manufacturers continue to forge new ground in their quest to define what the slot floor will look like in the coming years, and G2E is their first opportunity to demonstrate how they intend to create it. On the following pages, in alphabetical order by manufacturer, are the new games that will define that slot floor of the future.

All articles written by Frank Legato unless otherwise indicated.

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Ainsworth GAme technoloGy

American Juggernaut Australia’s Ainsworth continues a lightning-fast march across America

lot-machine manufacturers are big on symbolism. Some build their manufacturing and business headquarters on a grand scale, with enormous logos on building sides—in the case of Las Vegas-based companies, some in brightly lit neon that can be seen as one flies into McCarran International Airport. One manufacturer relatively new to the North American market has made an unmistakable statement over the past year that it has arrived—in a big way. Flying into Las Vegas from the west, you’ve probably seen an enormous, stylized “A” emblazoned in bright red across the roof of a sprawling industrial complex. You can see that same crimson “A” on the building’s side if you drive west on county highway 215. It is the logo of Ainsworth Game Technology, and it marks the Australian company’s uber-successful entry into the North American market. Never mind the logo. The entire 291,000square-foot North American headquarters, opened early this year, communicates one thing: This company’s products are in American casinos to stay. The manufacturer founded in 1995 by slotindustry legend and Aristocrat founder Len Ainsworth, having already conquered substantial share in its home market of Australia as well as Asia and elsewhere, has spent the past two years zeroing in on the Americas, with results that have made operators—particularly in the U.S. and Canada—stand up and take notice. If you doubt that, look again at the complex sporting the stylish “A.” “The facility is state-of-the-art, but most importantly, it allows us to service our customers better,” says Mike Dreitzer, Ainsworth’s president-North America. “With the size and the space, it has enabled us to reduce turnaround time and lead time, so we can get product to market quicker, which is most important for customers. “Obviously, the building itself makes a statement, and it shows our commitment to the market. We’re here to stay, and that’s what this shows.” Few would argue the point. Ainsworth has been in the North American market in some form since 2008, but in the two years since Ainsworth broke ground on its Las Vegas headquarters, the company has gained market share 34

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upwards of 5 percent or more in most North American jurisdictions—and that number is still growing. “We’re at 5 percent market share in California,” says Mike Trask, Ainsworth director of marketing. “We’re strong in Nebraska, Texas, Florida—we feel our growth is starting to hit that cusp.” Leading the way has been the company’s rapidly growing game library on the A560 upright cabinet, which features a 32-inch, high-definition display, attract lighting styled to each game, premium sound and graphics, and an optional dynamic 19-inch LCD topper. Ainsworth followed that up with the A560SL, a premium format with a 32-inch vertical monitor that has become the company’s top-performing cabinet. The company has released a flood of titles on these and other legacy platforms, building a game library numbering more than 200 distinct titles. Adding to these will be two new cabinets the company is launching at Global Gaming Expo. The A600 and A640 cabinets, which Trask says will be

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I’m very excited about “ the speed with which we were able to bring some quality Class II product to market.

”

—Mike Dreitzer, president-North America, Ainsworth

among the highlights of the company’s G2E display, represent an evolution from A560. The A600 cabinet uses dual 24-inch monitors, compared to the 22-inch displays of A560. The monitors are framed by a matte black finish that makes the graphics pop with a cinematic feel—the graphics themselves improved because of an upgraded CPU. An LCD button panel is dynamic—changeable for different games and denominations—yet maintains the feel of classic buttons, and includes a “bash button” for quick play. Dreitzer notes that the two new cabinets being launched this year in North America (they were previewed last year at G2E) are already field-tested. “We launched them in Australia about a year ago,” he explains, “so we have a lot of data to know what works and why. And as you know, there’s a strong correlation between the Australian market and the U.S. market, in terms of market acceptance, game acceptance and performance. “So, we have now a year’s worth of data or more, to be able to put our best foot forward. That’s another reason we’re excited about the A600 and A640 launch.” According to Trask, A600 will be launched with six dedicated themes and more than 50 legacy titles. “There will be an enormous library available on this cabinet right out the door,” he says. That’s not to say anyone is abandoning the A560 format, originally launched in 2010. “Our product roadmap for A560 and A600 lasts seven years,” Trask says. “We’re not releasing new cabinets every two years; we’re supporting the cabinets a long time, proving they can be sustained. Customers are still seeing value in these cabinets on their floor.” In fact, the A560 cabinet is serving as a workhorse in an entirely new product space for Ainsworth—Class II.

Super Nova With the construction of the new Las Vegas facility has come marked improvement of Ainsworth’s R&D capabilities, including the company’s first U.S.based game design studio. However, one move last year doubles down on U.S.-based design by adding a ready-made team dedicated to accomplishing something that completes the manufacturer’s portfolio—Class II games for Native American markets. Early this year, the company closed on the $38 million acquisition of South Carolina-based Nova Technologies. The purchase gave Ainsworth an instant presence in a Class II market that is still seeing strong growth in Oklahoma, California and elsewhere. At the time of the January 18 closing of the acquisition, Nova had an installed base of 1,425 units in 11 states.

The purchase had other immediate benefits for the company. It doubled the number of units Ainsworth has placed under recurring-revenue agreements. It added systems expertise, as all Class II games are linked to a central server. But one of the most important perks of the deal is the Nova design team. “With the acquisition of Nova, we inherited a top-notch team, not only in Class II systems, but for Class II games as well,” says Dreitzer. “We like to say that now that we’re building a U.S. design team, but it actually will be our second U.S. design team, the first one being at Nova.” He says the company has completed its integration of the Nova business into Ainsworth’s North America operation. “I’m very excited about the speed with which we were able to bring some quality Class II product to market,” Dreitzer says, adding that the integration has included the incorporation of Nova content into the A560 cabinet. In fact, he says, the company now easily swaps content between the A560N dual-screen cabinet and the popular 32-inch Nova SL cabinet. Trask adds that Nova’s team has technically developed Class III games for more than a decade. “At Nova, the Class II games are actually developed first as Class III,” he says. Meanwhile, the company is busy building its Las Vegas-based R&D studio, as well as legal, executive and game design staff. Since the fiscal year began, the company brought in Daron Dorsey, previously of William Hill, as general counsel; Dave Waters of Nova Technologies as director of technical compliance; multimedia artist Lori Jo Ross, who spent years with Aristocrat; and Trask, formerly a longtime marketing executive with Bally Technologies and Scientific Games. Dreitzer says Trask and his staff are directing a marketing initiative that is unprecedented for the company. “Historically, Ainsworth has been limited in its SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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Our roots are still very much that “ Australian math model. That’s what brought us to the dance, and it will continue to be a very important part of what we do here.

”

—Mike Trask, director of marketing, Ainsworth

marketing approach,” he says, “but we’ve really done a lot more aggressive marketing, so people understand who we are, where we’re going and what our products are. Add to that more salespeople, greater marketing presence, and a greater reach within all the markets in North America.” In late July, Ainsworth announced the final piece of the staffing puzzle for Ainsworth’s North American operations, with the addition of Kelcey Allison, formerly CEO of slot-maker Aruze Gaming America, as senior vice president of sales for North America. “We are excited to welcome Kelcey to our team,” said Dreitzer in announcing the addition of Allison. “Kelcey brings more great experience, strong customer relationships and further leadership capabilities to our already top-notch sales team. His addition will allow us to continue our momentum and position us even better moving forward in this very competitive marketplace.” As the U.S. team comes together, Trask says other top game designers will be added by the end of the year. The U.S.-based design team, says Dreitzer, will hit the ground running. “Up until this point, all the original game design had been out of the Sydney office, and we have made it a core priority to do game design out of the U.S. office. And we’re very much under way. By the end of this calendar year, we will be up and running with unique U.S.-based game design.” Trask adds that the U.S. development studio will work with and benefit from the strong studio that remains in Sydney. “Australian development continues as great as ever,” he says. “But creating the Las Vegas studio expands the options available—math models, game play features—to customers. “Our roots are still very much that Australian math model. That’s what brought us to the dance, and it will continue to be a very important part of what we do here.” 36

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Debut Performance This year’s G2E will serve as the first grand stage for the new Ainsworth, and the fruits of the company’s new U.S.-based operations. The 120-plus games on display at Ainsworth’s booth will include between 60 and 70 new titles, in all the company’s various cabinets and form factors. The new A600 cabinet debuts at the show with “Cash Odyssey,” a series of three games based on literary classics— Gulliver’s Travels, Huckleberry Finn and Robinson Crusoe. All games in the Cash Odyssey series feature base games on two separate reel sets, on each of the cabinet’s dual 24-inch monitors. Each monitor has a “Blue Zone” and “Red Zone,” on which a credit prize is awarded every time a Cash Odyssey symbol lands. During free spins, appearance of the symbol on the second or fourth reel triggers a re-spin feature. Other A600 launches include two series of multiple-progressive video slots, under the themes “Quackpot” and “Thunder Hits.” (The latter includes base games Thunder Gold and Thunder Money.) Both series use stacking symbols in line combinations to award progressives. The games exclusive to the new format will be joined by successful A560 titles on the new cabinet, as well as a complete lineup of games on the legacy cabinet, including Gold Awards, which brings six proven A560 titles to the tall-screen A560SL. Popular games Dragon Lines, Mustang Money, Roaming Reels, Twice the Money, Glitter Diamonds and Dolphin will be presented on the premium A560SL. The company also will display A560SL hits, including Eagle Mountain and the Sky High Stacks series, on both A560SL and the new A560 WideBoy. G2E will also provide the first showcase for the fruits of the Nova acquisition, in the form of a series of titles available on either the A560 variations or the Atlas 100, Nova’s core cabinet for Class II. “Within eight weeks of closing the Nova deal, we had Ainsworth titles on their box and Nova titles on ours,” says Trask, “which was quite an engineering feat.” According to Trask, 12 new Nova Class II titles per year will be added to the 30-plus now available. Additionally, he says, two new Ainsworth Class III titles are being made available in the Class II library every month. The first three titles available on both platforms are Dragons Heat 2, the

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follow-up to a high-performing Nova title offering a three-level progressive jackpot and up to 40 free games with a 4X multiplier; Mustang Fortune, a classic Ainsworth 40-line title featuring re-triggering free games with locking wilds and multipliers; and Wheel Time, a game developed at the Nova studio featuring high-frequency wild symbols and a bonus involving three virtual spinning wheels. “Mustang Fortune was the cream of the crop as far as Ainsworth core products, doing well above house average everywhere, even seven years after its release,” Trask says. “It is the same game going into Class II; the math created for the Class II version is identical to the Class III game. I would challenge anyone to be able to sit down and tell me which is which.” Other games available in both legacy cabinets introduce features new to the Class II world—the multiple wheel-spinning bonus in Wheel Time, in which the player advances through levels to achieve higher wins, is new to Class II, as are wheel bonuses in general. By the end of the year, the company will release win-at-any-bet progressive games, and in the first quarter of 2017, “hit-before” progressives, in which progressive jackpots must hit before a predetermined threshold. “That is very difficult to do with bingo math, but we’ll be the first to do it in Class II,” says Trask. Finally, Ainsworth will be releasing premium titles based on licensed brands, a type of game which has grown for the company over the past few years with releases including The Three Amigos, King Kong, Showgirls and The Sound of Music. The new licensed brands are being kept secret until show time, but Dreitzer says Ainsworth is in the branded space to stay. “We’re going to have some very exciting announcements in the near future (on licensed brands),” Dreitzer says. “We do believe that the branded segment is a segment where you have to go in full-throated, and give everything you have. That is a segment where we’re not the leaders, but we are making a concerted effort to do more in the licensed space, and over the next 12 months, you’ll see evidence of that.”

New Horizons While Ainsworth maintains its market strength in Australasia and builds it stronger in North America, the new combined R&D team will continue to feed new games into a growing portfolio. “What it comes down to in Australasia, North America or anywhere n the world is the quality of game content, and the games in the pipeline,” says Dreitzer. “All across the world for Ainsworth, you’re going to see tremendous steps forward with game content and the game library, and that’s going to be really displayed at G2E.” “We feel we have the momentum,” adds Trask, “and this show is a nice place for us to showcase and continue that.” The momentum stands to go to more new markets after regulatory approval of the pending purchase of a majority of Ainsworth shares by Austria’s Novomatic Group. In July, Ainsworth shareholders approved the purchase by Novomatic of the 53 percent share of founder Len Ainsworth. The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approvals—a process that will take around 12 38

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months—will benefit both companies without slowing Ainsworth’s momentum, says Dreitzer. “We anticipate a lot of benefits of the two companies working together,” Dreitzer says. One of those benefits is the opening of new markets for Ainsworth in Europe, where Novomatic dominates the machine space. Novomatic has committed to place 2,000 Ainsworth games or game kits immediately in casinos with which Novomatic works and casinos that the Austrian company owns and operates. “We’re also looking to evaluate ways we can work together better in North America as well,” Dreitzer adds. That will all take time, but for the surging Ainsworth, the Novomatic acquisition will not interfere with the emerging slot-maker’s march across the Americas. “They have committed to keep Ainsworth as Ainsworth,” Dreitzer says. “We’ve had great success in North America. The numbers don’t lie, and we continue to grow in market share. “So, the commitment from Novomatic is business as usual. Ainsworth keeps going.” And going, with plenty of room to grow in the massive new Las Vegas facility. “When you build a business this big, the customers will take it seriously that you’re here to stay,” Dreitzer says. “So, this is an enormous flag-plant for Ainsworth in all of the Americas. It says we’re here to stay, and we are a major player in market share moving forward.”

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AGS

Orion Rising AGS debuts a premium cabinet and top content from a reborn development team

he new AGS under President and CEO David Lopez is only two years old, but those two years have transformed the slot manufacturer from a Class II supplier with a few Class III hits into a viable contender for huge additional market share in the slot sector. One of Lopez’s first moves as CEO was to promote Andrew Burke from senior director of product management to vice president of slot products. Since Burke assumed control of the slot division, acquisitions have completely changed the face of the AGS product portfolio, and increased the options open to its customers. After the company acquired Atlanta-based supplier Cadillac Jack—like AGS, a successful Class II company with some Class III hits—work began on a new platform that would combine the best of the former Atlas platform, Cadillac Jack’s workhorse format in Class II, with AGS technology to offer a totally new core platform. It debuted last year rebranded as the AGS Atlas Platform on the Icon cabinet, a dual-monitor format with state-of-the-art lighting and sound. The Icon cabinet was developed using the basic technology of the former Cadillac Jack cabinet. It is the company’s core cabinet and platform going forward. “Icon’s become a staple of our business,” says Burke. “It’s been awesome. It’s the core driving our growth and success right now.” AGS launched Icon with 50 titles at G2E 2015, and the first titles appeared in the field by early May this year. At G2E 2016, AGS will display 36 titles on Icon, part of a pipeline of 40-45 new launch titles. Another 10-12 new titles will be launched on the new AGS premium cabinet making its debut at G2E, called Orion. Its prominent feature is a striking 42-inch flat-screen, high-definition monitor, which provides a huge, continuous screen for expanding reels, bonus features and any manner of interactive 40

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

features on a touch-sensitive surface. The monitor is set in portrait mode and enveloped in a ring of 498 game-controlled, full-color, emotive LED lights reflecting against a clean, chrome base material to visually enlarge the cabinet. When placed in bank configurations, Orion’s design creates a virtual billboard. While AGS previewed the new cabinet at its June GameON customer summit and in private demonstrations for customers, G2E will mark the first glimpse of Orion by the industry at large. Burke says Orion, like Icon before it, is a completely home-grown product. “It’s our first premium product developed internally,” he says. “We’ve had some other premium products, but we worked with third-party manufacturers to design those cabinets. Everything about Orion was designed internally, from our hardware development team. That’s really exciting.” Burke says the goal in creating Orion was “to build something that was unique, and was ours. “After we start to get it in the field, you’ll look at it and say, ‘That’s AGS’ cabinet.’ We needed it to have that distinctive feel, so Sigmund Lee, our chief technology officer, challenged the hardware team more than a year ago to come up with that design.” The other requirement was that it could be used in the premium business, on a lease or daily-fee basis. It could. “We’ve achieved all those goals,” says Burke. “The team we have in Atlanta has a great background in both gaming and non-gaming, and that cross-functional talent put together a great product.” Burke says Orion creates a “truly beautiful and interactive experience for the player,” with aesthetics superior to any previous AGS cabinet. “I think Orion is a cabinet that you can place next to any premium game in the market and it will still stand out,” he says. “It really has to do with the lighting.” He says Lee directed a number of studies on how lighting attracts players and draws them into an immersive experience. “We’ve dialed in the lighting on Orion to meet those psychological factors of the player,” he says. “It not only catches your attention, but it also draws you in. Then, when you’re playing the game and hit various sequences, the lighting really creates a zone for you.” Burke says AGS will be taking orders for slots on the Orion cabinet at Global Gaming Expo. “The content we’re coming out with on this is going to be consistent,” he says. “You’re going to get 12 titles this year, some based on what we already know is working.”

Coming-Out Party That’s why the launch of Orion at G2E will be headed by games based on proven past hits—games like FireWolf II, one of the games available out of

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I think Orion is a cabinet that you can place next to any premium “game in the market and it will still stand out. We’ve dialed in the lighting on Orion to meet those psychological factors of the player. It not only catches your attention, but it also draws you in. —Andrew Burke, VP of slot products, AGS the chute on both the Icon and Orion cabinets. The FireWolf series was originally a hit for the former Cadillac Jack. It is a PowerXStream game, a popular format originated by Cadillac Jack that uses a 3-4-4-4-3 reel setup (three rows of symbols on the outer reels; four rows on the inner reels) for 576 possible ways to win on each spin. Wins for adjacent symbols register both left-to-right and right-to-left. FireWolf II adds dual “Must-Hit-By” progressives—each meter plainly states the level at which the progressive must hit by, injecting a kind of jackpot fever into the game. It also features Reel Surge, a random expanding reel feature that is particularly suited to the big 42-inch vertical monitor on Orion. The game yields more ways to win depending on how high the reels go in the random expansion. (On Icon, the Reel Surge animation combines the dual monitors into one.) The graphics on Orion also bring out the beautiful artwork in the game— particularly the two FireWolf characters, one blue and one fire-red, which animate during Reel Surge events. A clone of the FireWolf program is used on another new game, exclusive to

”

Orion, called River Dragons. This game adds interactive animated features like fish that react at the touch of the screen. Another launch game for Orion that also is available on the Icon cabinet is a new version of the popular Gold Dragon Red Dragon game, which combines the PowerXStream format with another popular AGS game mechanic, Fierce Factor. This raises the wins on certain combinations according to the level of the player’s bet. On Orion, the new version will be called Gold Dragon Red Dragon Extreme Jackpots. Other games available on both cabinets include Fire Bull, Fu Panda and Wolf Queen. The Icon cabinet also is being used as an upgrade path for previous formats. Queen of Wonderland Fierce Factor uses the program math of Gold Dragon Red Dragon, offering the AGS legacy Genesis game on Icon. It also uses both Fierce Factor and PowerXStream. Other new Icon games that will be on display include Shadow Sirens, another PowerXStream/Fierce Factor game—this one featuring Streaming Stacks. Prior to each spin, a random symbol is selected to appear in a stack each time it lands on a SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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We’re attacking that “ penny video space,

reel. This applies to wild symbols as well as game symbols. Many of this year’s new AGS video slots feature some combination of these game mechanics. The game Great Gorilla is centered around a feature AGS calls Dynamic Streaming Stacks. In this format, multiple large stacks of symbols are randomly inserted from spin to spin. “We’re taking what we know works, and adding something to it,” says Kevin Reilly, director of slot products for AGS. “We’re tweaking it, going for that medium-to-high volatility. We have some that are very high volatility, but some that are entertainment-style games as well. We have a good variety.” Burke says AGS games in its core categories are, in the end, gamblers’ games. “We’ve taken that time-on-device concept and really cranked up the volatility level, and the bet level,” he says. “There are a lot of different elements in the base game, so we don’t have to split up the RTP.” Adds Reilly, “We’re attacking that penny video space, which is the vast majority on the slot floor, but our internal development team here and in Atlanta is very cognizant of the fact we’re still going after that high-limit player. At G2E, we will show three or four specific highlimit games coming out of the Vegas office.” Burke says AGS uses customer feedback to revisit the product roadmap regularly. One issue he says comes up regularly is the subject of licensed brands, which are relatively new to AGS, limited to the few years the company was producing the It Pays to Know series including the Ripley’s game, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and Family Feud. With those licenses set to expire, Burke says, there is ongoing discussion on possible new branding deals. “We have that debate once a quarter,” he says. “First, we need to launch our premium platform, and have that conversation again after building that footprint.” As Orion joins the other cabinets in the AGS portfolio, the company continues to merge prior technologies into the Atlas platform. “We’re still merging technologies,” Burke says, “but Atlas is going to be the one platform. Even Colossal Diamonds is moving over to the Atlas platform, and it’s going to get a facelift.” Colossal Diamonds, on the cabinet commonly called Big Red, is the Bertha-style giant slot inherited when the company acquired Colossal Gaming. It has been one of the most consistent success stories in the AGS portfolio, with roughly 250 placements in the U.S. The Atlas version “looks even better,” says Reilly. “It’s the same game, the same math, but they’ve enhanced the graphics and colors.” Adds Burke, “And, the Atlas platform has so much more horsepower that it can drive much clearer images when the reels are spinning, with a much more robust graphics package.” 42

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which is the vast majority on the slot floor, but we’re still going after that high-limit player. At G2E, we will show three or four specific high-limit games.

”

—Kevin Reilly, director of slot products, AGS

Of course, the company’s variety of slot machines is accompanied by the other half of the new AGS, the table games division. Under John Hemberger, the senior vice president of table products who was hired after running the proprietary games division at SHFL entertainment, the AGS table game division has grown to more than 1,100 tables installed across the country. At G2E, the table game division will display its array of blackjack side bets, progressives, original poker derivative games, and Dex, the company’s first shuffler. The company got its first preview of customer reaction to the table games, Orion and the other new products in June at GameON, a three-day conference held for key, senior-level customers in Miami. The conference intermingled industry updates from AGA President Geoff Freeman and industry analysts with talks by AGS officials on new slot and table game technology— and the first look at Orion. Julia Boguslawski, AGS’ chief marketing officer, says the GameON event was designed to represent the new AGS. “Our focus from the get-go was to make GameON a unique experience for our customers by providing exceptional learning opportunities, extending far beyond just product-focused sales pitches,” she says. “We offered a high-quality agenda with presentations not only from AGS executives, but from other suppliers, casino operators and renowned industry experts. By focusing fully on the customer experience, and not on ourselves, we were able to create a one-of-a-kind event that reflected what the new AGS is all about.” “We’ve been really riding high since GameON happened,” Burke says. “Our customers enjoyed the event so much that the word has kind of spread. I think the folks that were there had a really great experience, and we’ve seen those customers wanting to engage with us on all kinds of levels. “And everyone’s asking about Orion, which we finally have in our showroom. Everyone’s excited about the momentum that came out of that event— which is perfect timing ahead of G2E. “I think this year’s G2E will be the best and most important for AGS in its history.”

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AristocrAt technologies

Changing the Floor Aristocrat launches cabinets to house strong new licensed brands, steppers and more

his year, Aristocrat Technologies Inc. takes another step forward in its continuing march to gain market share at the top of the slot market. The company and its parent, Australia’s Aristocrat Leisure Limited, sit near the top of that market, with surging sales, high-profile brands, and analyst recognition of its slot games as outperforming all others in the market. However, Matt Wilson, the company’s senior vice president of global gaming operations, says this only means there’s more work to do. “We’re still No. 3 in the North American gaming operations market,” he says, “and we aspire to be much bigger than that.” This continuing march has been led by a variety of new cabinets and form factors—from the sleek Helix to the imposing Arc Single and Arc Double and giant Behemoth—used by Aristocrat’s R&D team to create completely new play experiences. This year will be no different, with Aristocrat displaying two completely new cabinet styles and the modification of a third into a completely new form factor as part of its G2E display. “Our customers are probably expecting us to come with more of the same, but we’re dialing it up,” says Wilson. “In the gaming operations space, we’ll have three new pieces of hardware to demonstrate at the show.” As important for Aristocrat’s expanding library is the fact that these new cabinets are usually linked to games designed specifically to take advantage of the new hardware features. “In terms of industrial design, for us, there is a symbiotic relationship between the cabinets and the games,” says Brooks Pierce, Aristocrat’s managing director for the Americas. Rich Schneider, Aristocrat’s chief product officer, says the company’s engineers and game designers typically have created cabinet designs and simultaneously developed the games that will best fit those form factors. “We thought about what the player experiences are that we need to fill, by talking with our customers,” he says. “Then, we formulated product strategy, and the cabinets they need to be on. They came at about the same time.” “Our recent success has really been this equation of content plus hardware equals great performance,” adds Wilson. “We introduced Helix two years ago. Then, we brought in Wonder Wheels, Behemoth, Arc Single, Arc Double… We felt like those cabinets were amplifiers for our great content.” This year, Aristocrat looks to repeat that success by once again marrying innovative content to new cabinets. “The Arc Double showed that the cabinet is really important,” says Schneider. At this year’s G2E, the company will launch two new cabinet styles to complement the now-iconic Arc Double, which, with its two 42-inch monitors curved toward the player, has come to be a dominant presence on casino floors. 44

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

Flaming Form “The success we’ve had with the Arc Double has been amazing—it really revolutionized gaming floors,” says Wilson. “When you walk on the floor now, it’s the first thing that jumps out at you, because it looks so vastly different. We wanted to continue that feeling with two new design concepts that would really stand out.” The first, called “The Flame,” is a completely new take on the curvedmonitor cabinet. There actually are two curves in this format, on which the vertical LCD monitor is formed in the shape of an “S,” with the bottom and top of the monitor both tilted toward the player. “It’s about creating different sight lines, different visuals and a very different form factor for our game designers to build games around,” Wilson says. The second new cabinet, unnamed at press time, is a shorter and wider version of the Arc Double. While it is optimized for a single player, it is also designed to cater to two players at once. “Walking the floor, our team saw lots of husbands and wives playing to-

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“We seek to create different experiences on the floor, to keep players engaged, and keep them coming back.” —Matt Wilson, senior VP of global gaming operations, Aristocrat Technologies

Branding Bonanza

gether, lots of friends playing together,” Wilson says. “We wanted to create a concept that would be a great experience if you play on your own, but also is large enough that two players could play at once.” The new cabinet—which comes equipped with a “sound bench” and an optional setup with two spin buttons—will be launched at the show housing the new version of Game of Thrones and a game featuring Mariah Carey and her music. “It’s all about creating the best hardware with the best licenses, and the best game design talent, and giving our customers access to all these elements,” Wilson says. “We seek to create different experiences on the floor, to keep players engaged and entertained.”

The new cabinets—as well as the Arc Double, Behemoth, Helix and other form factors that have boosted Aristocrat over the past few years—will serve as the vehicles to bring an entirely new group of brands to the slot floor. Those will include both internal Aristocrat brands—one of the company’s strengths over the years—and a bevy of new games based on films, music, television and other popular culture. “We are very fortunate to have amazing brands that resonate with our customers,” says Schneider. “Most people know Buffalo, Five Dragons and other proprietary brands. We’re very fortunate to have that library. As long as we remain true to the customer and true to the brand, we don’t disappoint the player.” However, entertainment-branded games have surged since Aristocrat CEO Jamie Odell announced a new commitment to gaming operations some six years ago. “We broke the mold by taking on The Walking Dead,” says Wilson. “That game was a trend-setter, and it opened up the entire industry to a whole new group of licensed brands.” “We have learned from watching competitors acquire licenses not to take brands for granted,” adds Pierce. “You would think a big, popular license should, naturally, do well; but, the brand is only one part of the equation, along with the cabinet and the game design talent, that can make a great game out of it. The landscape is littered with brands that should have done better but didn’t.” Pierce cites Buffalo Grand and Game of Thrones—both launched at last year’s G2E on the Arc Double—as good examples of how Aristocrat has excelled at both proprietary and outside licensed brands. “Buffalo Grand has done phenomenally well,” he says. “Game of Thrones has done phenomenally well. We just rolled out The Walking Dead II, and that is beating all of them.” There are several branded games already in the product pipeline, with more to be announced at G2E. Aristocrat, in fact, is still seeing spectacular success with the big brands launched at last year’s show. In-house brands like Buffalo will be joined in Aristocrat’s G2E lineup by a remarkable ensemble of licensed brands, as the company seeks to extend its gaming operations winning streak. One of the strongest out of the gate is sure to be My Cousin Vinny, based on SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016 Fast Cash has an “average jackpot of $40,000, and we’re looking to have it hit every two or three days. It’s a very different concept than most MSP games in the marketplace.

”

—Matt Wilson, senior VP of global gaming operations, Aristocrat Technologies

the 1992 comedy starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in which a Brooklyn ambulance-chaser ends up defending his cousin against murder charges in Alabama. The film My Cousin Vinny has a cult following; its fans know every scene inside out. According to Wilson, so do the game designers who created the slot. “They watched the movie a hundred times!” says Wilson. The game will include numerous clips of the movie’s funniest moments, woven into bonus events on the Arc Double cabinet, with a base game in the Extra Reel Power ways-to-win format. “(The base game is) based on classic Aristocrat math models,” Wilson says. The game was designed by Aristocrat’s internal Studio 54, which also was responsible for Tarzan, The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy. “The success we’ve had with Studio 54 is that they take the core gambler math that Aristocrat is known for and infuse it with licenses,” says Schneider. “That’s why the games generally last longer on gaming floors, and players are interested in playing them.” Another popular film being brought to life on the Arc Double is The Big Lebowski, the 1998 comedy starring Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, a laid-back, aging L.A. hippie and avid bowler who is assaulted when he is mistaken for a millionaire who shares his name. Like Vinny, the Lebowski film has garnered a cult following, which has been used in creating the bonus sequences. Other big branded games include Sharknado, based on the TV disaster film series about sharks set loose across flooded streets in Los Angeles; Downton Abby, based on the British period TV hit (previewed last year but refined and ready to release); and Tim McGraw, placing the songs and performances of the country star up on the Arc Double. Wilson says McGraw himself contributed to the game with the Aristocrat development team. One of the proprietary-brand highlights this year is Fast Cash, a quick-hitting multi-site progressive. “We took a proprietary brand and created a multisite progressive that hits very frequently,” explains Wilson. “Most MSPs have a 46

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

million-dollar jackpot that rarely hits. Fast Cash has an average jackpot of $40,000, and we’re looking to have it hit every two or three days. It’s a very different concept than most MSP games in the marketplace.”

Video and Reels The company’s line of core video games is joined this year by Aristocrat’s first line of stepper slots, made possible thanks to the company’s acquisition of Tennessee-based Class II supplier Video Gaming Technologies (VGT). On the video side, the company will display new entries in all of its game groups. For-sale offerings include Wonder 4 Wonder Wheel, the new multiplay product Quick Fire Flaming Jackpots, and the new Spin It Grand, a fourlevel progressive family. The launch of Aristocrat’s first stepper line has been in preparation since the company closed the VGT acquisition near the end of 2014. As Wilson says, with the acquisition, Aristocrat inherited a ready-made team of specialists in the design of stepper games. “We feel we have the best stepper design talent in-house as a result of the acquisition of VGT,” says Wilson. He also notes that steppers represent a great new opportunity for Aristocrat in gaming operations. “We want to provide some competition in the stepper segment, and we want to apply the same rigor and design methodology we’ve applied to every other segment into which we’ve expanded—get the best talent in the segment, and give them the resources they need to be successful.” Gaming operations won’t be the only area to benefit, as Aristocrat launches what will be its core stepper cabinet going forward. “Design for the cabinet was a collaborative effort of an amazing team,” says Pierce, who notes that Aristocrat will start taking orders for the new stepper series at the G2E show. For Class II, the VGT division will show the new Ovation platform, which brings player-favorite Aristocrat content to the Class II space. VGT also will show high-denomination versions of its popular Mr. Moneybags, Hot Red

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

Ruby, Lucky Ducky and Polar High Roller games, along with new Red Spin Lock Zone and Newton the Nudger products.

Dragon Link Core video and stepper product will be strong, but Wilson predicts the “product of the show” will be Dragon Link—the next generation of Lightning Link, the linked multiple progressive product from Aristocrat’s Australian team that has been a major hit in North America this year. Lightning Link combines a highly innovative jackpot mechanic with a multiple progressive jackpot link that is triggered an average of every 100 spins, with the top Grand Jackpot hitting every 25 days on average. North American players have flocked to Lightning Link, which has generated earnings for Aristocrat’s customers and garnered notice from industry analysts. According to Wilson, Lightning Link recently was recognized as the No. 1 game in the marketplace in the quarterly Eilers-Fantini Slot Survey—the first time in six years of the survey that the top game was not IGT’s Wheel of Fortune. This year, the product evolves into Dragon Link, a multi-progressive link featured on a brightly lit carousel of games on the Arc Single cabinet, topped by a 360-degree, animated sign. The basic video slot uses a frequently hitting four-level progressive jackpot, with the addition of a new top denomination—dollars. One of the elements that made Lightning Link popular, Wilson says, was its multi-denomination configuration—penny, 2-cent, 5-cent and 10-cent denominations. He says operators are universally positive at the prospect of the dollar denomination being added. “Customers are recognizing that it really has some great potential,” he says. “We’ve created a whole new dollar game, with a completely new math package. The dollar video segment is really under-invested in the U.S. market.” Lightning Link will be launched at G2E with two dedicated base games. The new games and form factors, as always, will be accompanied by a 48

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

display of new system technology, featuring Aristocrat’s Oasis 360 Brand Connectivity Suite, which helps operators increase customer interaction with a range of integrated solutions and new marketing tools. “Beyond typical CMS and player tracking, it’s about connecting the brand to the patron,” says Angelo Palmisano, vice president of system product for Aristocrat. Other new systems launches, he says, will include mobile form tournaments and bonus modules as well as RTP that changes according to a player’s status within the enterprise. Schneider says this year’s G2E represents nothing less than the transformation of Aristocrat as a supplier. “We were a great company that produced 90 games a year in the same segment—the low-denomination, high-volatility gambler’s game,” he says. “When we diversified our game portfolio, operators really valued having a library with much bigger flexibility. “No matter where they go on their floor, Aristocrat is going to have a game in their portfolio to fit. Everything we do is for our customers. If they succeed, we succeed.”

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

Aruze GAminG AmericA

Vertical Movement The Cube-X Vertical cabinet leads a lineup of innovation in Aruze’s growing portfolio

ast year, Aruze Gaming America broadened its slot portfolio with the Cube-X cabinet, a millennial-friendly slot format designed with an ergonomic and aesthetic appeal to the younger demographic—and an ultra-fast processor driving intensified lighting, high-definition LCD touch-screen monitors and button panels, and customized LCD toppers. This year, the company is doubling down on the Cube-X in a new premium cabinet. Cube-X Vertical features a 42-inch vertical monitor in a brightly lit upright presentation. It is being launched with a pair of games, Tower Stack Lion and Tower Stack Dragon. Both games use the extra-long top monitor—a full 10 inches larger than standard vertical portrait monitors—to display three individual four-by-five reel sets, stacked vertically. The player can activate up to all three of the 50-line “frames,” for 150 paylines on every spin. Betting the “Plus Factor,” an ante wager, adds a selectable play area according to reel angle, and turns all symbols on the fifth reel wild. While the first two Tower Stack games will be available for purchase in the third quarter, five in the series will be shown at Global Gaming Expo—the other three are Tower Stack Feature Panda, Tower Stack Feature Rose and Tower Stack Bison. The company also will display half a dozen titles in the new Cube-X Ultimate cabinet, the slot-maker’s first stepper cabinet incorporating a mechanical bonus wheel. The base games incorporate Aruze’s “Radiant Reels,” with large reels dynamically illuminated by multi-colored LED lights within, spinning at variable speeds that build anticipation for winning combinations. A 24-inch LCD monitor sits over the base game for bonuses using “photo-realistic color,” 3D technology and customized sound with a built-in subwoofer. The company is showcasing the Cube-X Ultimate with six titles in the “999.9 Gold Wheel” series—Super Vault, Diamond Desire, Money Rush, Royal Crown, The Gold Legend and Bags of Cash. They are all equipped with roulette-style wheels and styled to closely resemble the most well-known wheel game in the business, but in a for-sale cabinet. All feature four levels of progressive jackpot that are included as slices on the big bonus wheel and won through the wheel-spin bonus. 50

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

Cube-X Innovator Aruze’s core reel and video slots are being displayed at G2E in a number of different form factors, including 15 titles on the Cube-X Innovator, a stepper platform utilizing a next-generation processor board and operating system, a 24-inch high-definition top monitor, and LCD toppers and button panels. As with Cube-X Ultimate, the platform features Radiant Reels. Highlighted Cube-X Innovator titles include Infinite 7 Diamond, a fivereel stepper with the top monitor and reel backtrop displaying a beautiful interstellar scene, behind a basic multiple-7 game in which 7 combinations initiate free spins. Other standouts are Beautiful Dancing Dragon Spirit, a five-reel slot with great artwork and up to 420 free games with all wins doubled; Gold on Gold, a three-reel game with an animated gold-bullion picking bonus; and the Burning Hot Jackpot series, in which the top monitor determines the number of free spins through a roulette display around a central character (there is Burning Hot Jackpot Apex Tiger, Howling Wolf, Aztec Sol and The Great Inca). There is no shortage of traditional reel-spinners in the Cube-X Innovator series, either. There are two Red Dice games—Red Dice Wild and Red

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1 9 0 0 AT T O R N E Y S | 3 8 L O C AT I O N S W O R L D W I D E˚

Dice Wild Deluxe. The latter is a three-reel, fiveline stepper with a wild die symbol multiplying up to 36X when substituting in a win.

Video and Stations Aruze’s core video series will also be on full display at G2E, including a total of 23 titles. Highlights include several Asian-themed games such as Fu Jin and Raijin, which feature beautiful artwork, high volatility and free-spin bonus events. The “Coat of Arms” series (Coat of Arms Griffin, Coat of Arms Pegasus, Coat of Arms Guardian) promotes high wagers through a “Feature Boost” ante bet that increases the number of free spins and adds more paying symbols to the reels. A group of four “Extreme” games (Extreme Dragon, Phoenix, Kylin or Tortoise) feature an “Extreme Level” with increased winning symbols on the reel field, and four progressive jackpots won through a picking bonus. Aruze’s display also will include games in the popular Ultra Stack series and the five-game “Happy Festival Chinese Gods” series. Finally, the “G-Station” series of multi-terminal e-table games grows this year with Big Wheel Premium. It is essentially an automated Big Six wheel linked to five electronic wagering stations. The game joins a new version of Aruze’s popular Shoot to Win Craps and other baccarat and roulette electronic tables. “Aruze’s motto, ‘Designed to Engage Players,’ is evident in every electronic table game in its portfolio,” says Michael Maley, product specialist at Aruze. “Our multi-terminal machines spice up casinos with their sophisticated designs and grandiose scale.” The e-tables will contribute to a total of 180 games at the Aruze Gaming America’s booth 2659 at G2E. “We are extremely excited for this year’s G2E,” says Maley. “With the Cube-X Vertical and the newest title on our popular G-Station platform, Big Wheel Premium, we are sure to amaze all of our customers.”

Experience The Global Gaming Practice at Greenberg Traurig is knowledgeable on virtually all matters concerning the casino industry The gaming universe is changing. New casino markets continue to open. Revised gaming regulations are adopted. Various forms of legal gaming, such as skill based slot machines, are being unveiled. New types of potential gaming related activities, including daily fantasy sports and eSports, are being created and debated on a daily basis. The Greenberg Traurig Global Gaming Practice stays abreast of this changing casino world. We rely on the experience of 40 attorneys with diverse backgrounds on virtually all aspects of gaming operations. We possess a unique understanding of gaming law that comes from hands on involvement in working with gaming regulators and government officials worldwide.

Global Gaming Practice Acquisitions | Financing | IP | Labor | Litigation | Operations | Real Estate | Regulatory Learn more at gtlaw.com/gaming GREENBERG TR AURIG, LLP | ATTORNEYS AT LAW | WWW.GTLAW.COM The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. Before you decide, ask us to send you free written information about our qualifications and our experience. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Greenberg Traurig is a service mark and trade name of Greenberg Traurig, LLP and Greenberg Traurig, P.A. ©2016 Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Attorneys at Law. All rights reserved. Contact: Martha A. Sabol in Chicago at 312.456.8400. °These numbers are subject to fluctuation. 27802

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

Casino TeChnology/alTo

gaming

The Race Is to the Swift Casino Technology and its U.S. partner Alto Gaming offer innovative technologies that help online and land-based operations collaborate

hat’s new in the gaming industry? A better question might be: What’s not new? In just a few years, revolutionary digital and mobile technologies have disrupted gaming in ways that are both promising and a little unsettling. How can operators harness these technologies to lure a new generation of customers, yet continue to support the existing infrastructure—the bricks-and-mortar operations that have flourished for generations? Casino Technology’s Big 5 suite of systems, back in the spotlight at

G2E, has become a cornerstone of many operations, offering a turn-key solution for land-based operators in the digital age, says Vice President Rossi McKee. “The Big 5 provides the backbone of a seamless, omni-channel operation and player experience,” says McKee. “During the past 12 months, we’ve completed successfully several installations of the full set of systems, so brick-and-mortar environments and online, virtual environments can work seamlessly using a common player’s wallet, common promotions system, common jackpots and common set of games.”

Play Nice Together With its U.S licensee, Alternative Gaming Solutions, Inc. (Alto Gaming), Casino Technology will demonstrate the next generation of the omni-channel solution. It includes Rhino casino management, which improves management and operational processes; the Leopard online gaming platform, which lets operators and players choose among multiple games and products and integrates into a single casino lobby and wallet; the Lion money management system, which enables cash-in/cashout transactions from physical cash to electronic money in a closed-loop environment; the Elephant remote game server, which can distribute content for video slots,

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

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“As online and land-based systems converge, we need state-of-the-art solutions that allow players to access their account from any place, anywhere, while the operators have the ability to monitor and make effective business analysis of players’ behavior and casino results.” —Rossi McKee, vice president, Casino Technology/Alto Gaming bingo and roulette plus virtual sports, sports betting, and live games to all channels; and the Buffalo universal jackpot server, which links online and land-based machines to the same jackpot. In 2015, the Big 5 “reached new levels of convergence,” McKee adds, “linking thousands of slot machines and multiple servers” in the Bulgarian company’s core markets in Europe, Eurasia and Latin America. In 2016, almost 5,000 slot machines are linked to the Rhino system in casino and gaming clubs in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. Multiple online operators across Europe are using the company’s games through the remote game server Elephant—that includes not only Casino Technology games but also a portfolio from other providers integrated via the Elephant system. Casino Technology has also deployed its games over several social gaming platforms, with more in the offing. “This complements the Big 5 concept, allowing players to play for fun and gain rewards to be used in the real casino,” McKee notes. “The demand has to be filled with compelling content and innovative solutions, offering all players an exciting and immersive gaming experience.” To address the rise in online and mobile players, the company will launch new games both in HTML5 and Flash, boosting its portfolio to more than 200 games for 2017. “Bearing in mind the global trends in mobile apps that influence customer behavior, we understand that user experience is king, and it needs to be constantly enriched and diversified,” says McKee. “At G2E, we will demonstrate new features and improvements on the interface and jackpot selection for online and mobile, and also improved usability, faster navigation and more fluent experience on the mobile gaming device.”

Start Your Engines Also at G2E, Casino Technology will present slot games for online and mobile users embedded in the unique cabinet presentation of its Arch slot machine. Visit Alto Gaming Booth No. 2046 for the Hot Rod slot machine and the Gamopolis Arch video slot products, specifically tailored for North America. Alto Gaming will showcase slot games already installed in North America Class III properties, including Wild Sunrise and Jungle Fortune, as well as other games selected from Casino Technology dedicated to the North American market. The slot titles will be certified for a number of tribal jurisdictions, allowing more positioning and placement in the coming year, says McKee. A showpiece at G2E will be the branded Hot Rod Slot machine in the Arch cabinet, with a 42-inch horizontally positioned, curved monitor and detachable customized seat and front that resemble hot rods of the 1960s.

The product was specifically designed to fit different footprints with multiple configurations, including the full-size car-like slot machine, a compact-car configuration, and a standalone version. Since its official launch in early 2016, the Arch slot machine has seen numerous installations with the specially developed multi-game suite Gamopolis Arch; the products will soon be available for South America, Asia and North America. A key part of the presentation at G2E will be the progressive four-level link Eight Peacocks, which will be offered as a multi-game link with five game titles: Peacock and Dragon, Great Warlord, Five Blessings, Magic Pearl and Peacock and Clover. The titles will be available for the North American market and for customers in Asia, including Korea, Cambodia, Macau and the Philippines. As the gaming landscape continues to shift, games are increasingly available in virtual formats, and traditional methods are reconfigured, one thing remains the same, says McKee—“the need for compelling content and innovative solutions that offer all players an exciting and immersive gaming experience. “As online and land-based systems converge, we need state-of-the-art solutions that allow players to access their account from any place, anywhere, while the operators have the ability to monitor and make effective business analysis of players’ behavior and casino results. “As part of our business philosophy, we strongly appreciate client feedback. And the message to us is more than encouraging, which makes us determined to walk on the road of converging to link the gaming world.” —Marjorie Preston

SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

EvErI HoldInGS

Growing Arsenal Everi adds licensed brands, new formats and improvements to its industry-topping tournaments

hen former suppliers Global Cash Access and Multimedia Games were officially christened at the New York Stock Exchange just over a year ago as Everi Holdings, one thing that was made clear by its executives was that GCA’s acquisition of Multimedia Games would do nothing to impede the operations of the fast-growing Austin, Texas-based slot supplier. Multimedia Games had already captured player attention with clever, engaging games in several different form factors, in addition to redefining the nature of slot tournaments with its universally regarded TournEvent system. The leaders of the new Everi knew enough not to interrupt success, but to support it with the resources needed to improve and expand the product portfolio. That plan also was a no-brainer for Michael D. Rumbolz, who took over as interim president and CEO of Everi with last February’s departure of former CEO Ram Chary. Rumbolz was confirmed in May as the company’s new president and CEO. Rumbolz is a seasoned veteran of the supply side of gaming, having served in top executive positions in all of the new Everi’s disciplines, from a stint as CEO of cash-access supplier Cash Systems, Inc. to vice-chairman of systems pioneer Casino Data Systems, to CEO of mid-1990s star slot supplier Anchor Gaming. In fact, few could imagine a better choice for the top spot at Everi than Rumbolz, whose experience in gaming supply is augmented by gaming regulation— he was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board in the late 1980s—and operations, as director of development for Circus Circus Enterprises, president of Casino Windsor and director of Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment. Rumbolz would use that experience to expand on the resources already in place—not the least of which was David Lucchese, who had been in charge of the slot division for several months when Rumbolz took the reins as CEO. Lucchese—formerly a longtime executive of Bally Technologies and, like Rumbolz, an alum of system company CDS—expanded slot development beyond its Austin base with new R&D stu54

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

dios in Chicago and Reno. Austin, long a key asset for Multimedia Games due to a steady flow of engineering talent from the University of Texas, would remain the hub of game design with the expansion to eight design studios. Once fully staffed, the Chicago and Reno studios stand to double the total number of studio content teams. “For decades, we’ve taken pride in developing original game titles, many that quickly became favorites with slot players at casinos across the country, and still remain popular today,” says Lucchese, who is executive vice president, games for Everi. “Everi continues to evolve, and has taken strategic steps over the past year to expand our game development strategy to incorporate licensed games into our already strong library of core titles.” The studios are managed by Allison Pope, executive producer in Austin; Bradley Rose, executive producer in Chicago; and Michael Conway, creative director. The three work together to collaborate the efforts of Everi’s studio content centers.

Tower 370 is Everi’s first leased wheel product on a video slot. It features frequent wheel spins on a portrait-style vertical top monitor using a Quixant processor to create a cinematic display. Three games on the Tower 370 will be on display at the G2E show, with the launch title, 7 Spins, to be available for sale.

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

We are so thrilled to be working with Everi’s creative, inventive team, “ who are adding their own special brand of magic to this game. We thought that having a theater named after us in Las Vegas was an honor, but it turns out that having our own slot machine is the ultimate honor. —Penn Jillette, comedian

Towering Additions New games for all the company’s existing platforms on the Core HDX, Platinum MPX, super-sized Texan HDX and other Everi cabinets are joined this year at Global Gaming Expo by launch games in two new premium top-box options, Tower 370 and Game Crown. Tower 370 is Everi’s first leased wheel product on a video slot. It features frequent wheel spins on a portrait-style vertical top monitor using a Quixant processor to create a cinematic display. Three games on the Tower 370 will be on display at the G2E show, with the launch title, 7 Spins, to be available for sale. Developed in the new Chicago studio, 7 Spins is everything its title implies: Players entering a bonus round can get up to seven spins on the big bonus wheel, with multipliers rising up to 7X by hitting a slice on the wheel. The wheel-spin bonus is very frequent, as Everi seeks to capitalize on the popularity of spinning bonus wheels with players. The Tower 370 top box is offered as an option for exclusive game themes on the company’s Player HD and Player SLX cabinets. It augments the High Rise series of games. The Game Crown top box was introduced earlier this year with the game Sushi Sushi Bang Bang. Designed for select entertainment games on the Player HD and Player SLX cabinets, Game Crown transforms the top monitor of a game into a back-lit display facing down at the player. According to the company, the series “will close the gap between High Rise Games premium top boxes and standard video titles.” At G2E, Everi will use Game Crown to launch the sequel to last year’s comical “Yardbirds” game. Yardbirds 2: Foxy’s Revenge uses the same funny music and animation as the original, in an entertaining bonus in which the player picks eggs to hatch over the backdrop of goofy barnyard music. Additionally, the company is unveiling a new line of premium linked progressive games with integrated signage that will be available in Q1 2017. The new games will leverage the popular “Jackpot Jump” feature Everi has used on other progressives, which locks in a progressive tier and awards the player a pick bonus for a chance to advance to a higher tier.

Completing the Library The dedicated games for the new formats will be only one of many highlights for the company at G2E. New games will include unprecedented offerings for Everi, in new and established cabinet styles. Heading up the portfolio of new games will be the first in what will be a library of licensed, branded premium games, in a variety of formats including current cabinet setups Skyline, High Rise Games and Player HD. Additionally, a new premium cabinet called Empire MPX was developed specifically for the game that kicks off the era of branded themes at Everi— 56

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”

Penn & Teller. The new game will showcase the legendary duo, Penn Jillette and Teller (he legally dropped his first name, Raymond), whose act combining comedy and magic has headlined at the Rio in Las Vegas for the past 15 years. In addition to the show in the Rio’s renamed Penn & Teller Theater, the duo has performed its award-winning combination of jokes, illusions and social commentary on Broadway, in arena shows throughout the country, on television specials, in their own movie, and even in video games. “We are so thrilled to be working with Everi’s creative, inventive team, who are adding their own special brand of magic to this game,” said Jillette when the game was announced. “We thought that having a theater named after us in Las Vegas was an honor, but it turns out that having our own slot machine is the ultimate honor.” The slot machine will capture many of Penn & Teller’s best illusions along with the pair’s special brand of comedy in a collection of video clips and voiceovers woven into bonus events on a wide-area progressive game utilizing the new premium cabinet. The stars themselves will be on hand at G2E, where they will participate in the charity slot tournament held in connection with Everi’s “TournEvent of Champions” finals. Another high-profile licensed brand to be launched at G2E is a nod to the current trend toward skill-based casino games. The company has licensed Fruit Ninja, the social and mobile game sensation. With more than 1 billion downloads to date, the game is the No. 2 top-selling paid iOS app of all time, and a top-five paid app in 147 countries. Around 70 million monthly active users slice fruit apart on their smartphones on the familiar game. The company is using the license for two separate games—an in-revenue video slot on the High Rise cabinet with a skill-based bonus round, and a fullblown skill tournament version that casinos can use for promotional tournaments and other events. “This is putting skill-based gaming where it belongs,” comments Conway. “With an out-of-revenue tournament, players will really be rewarded for having skill; you don’t have to water down the skill factor as you do with a slot machine.” “Our progression into licensed gaming is an exciting venture for us, as we will now have a comprehensive catalog of highly recognizable brands that will translate into engaging game play and deliver great returns for casino operators,” says Lucchese. “Penn & Teller and Fruit Ninja are just two of the licensed titles we are planning to showcase at G2E this year, and the initial buzz has been positive from customers and slot players alike.” The first two licensed titles will launch a completely new licensed game group for Everi. Just before press time, the company signed a licensing agreement with Dreamworks Classics, opening the door to video-slot treatment of

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016 This year, the release of TournEvent 5.0 features several enhancements, including the addition of an automated wild-card drawing.

several animated classics owned by the company, which include Casper the Friendly Ghost, Underdog and Hot Stuff. “We have several other licenses that are in the queue,” says Jim Palermo, vice president of game strategy and product management for Everi, who notes that the company will release at least seven different premium licensed games over the coming year.

Core Strength The licensed games will be accompanied by a complete lineup of new video slot games on all of Everi’s cabinet styles, from the popular Core HDX—which features custom, game-controlled bonus accent lighting on its marquee-style display—to the immersive-style Platinum MPX, complete with sound chair and 40-inch high-definition monitor. Palermo notes that the Core HDX, launched at G2E a year ago, has been recognized by the Eilers-Fantini Slot Survey for out-performing all other cabinets launched last year. “Operators are saying it’s bringing their whole floor up,” Palermo says. “It’s really a premium-feeling cabinet for a standard cabinet price. Also, it’s the first cabinet to offer Everi Bet, an operator-controllable minimum bet that can be adjusted without changing volatility. It gives operators a chance to bring back the nickel video product—creating a segment that currently doesn’t exist.” The Eilers-Fantini report showed that 60 percent of respondents reported Core HDX outperforming other cabinets this year, with 10 percent of those saying it was “significantly outperforming” other cabinets. The premium Platinum MPX, designed for non-licensed games, has consistently generated 2.1 times house average, Palermo says. 58

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Everi will launch a complete slate of new games on these and other formats, including the successful High Rise series of bonus slots and the Skyline Top Box series, which Palermo says is Everi’s top-performing product in the field. Rounding out the game collection will be new titles for the Player HD legacy cabinet and the Player Classic, the traditional stepper model. The games themselves reveal the same wave of creativity, signature humor and innovative game mechanics that have become Everi’s hallmark. Two new multiple-progressive games feature dynamic bonus wheels and extra features to make progressives more frequent. The new Tower 370 offers the 9 Diamonds bonus wheel that triggers spins for credits, or transforms the wheel to award free spins. In addition, nine or more diamond symbols scattered on the reels trigger a progressive win. In Snow Queen for the High Rise Games series, when a Golden Queen symbol lands on the fifth reel, all other queen symbols turn into progressive triggers in a feature called “Extra Strike.” The Platinum MPX series is as innovative as ever this year, as evidenced by twin releases called Earth Rainforest and Earth Oceans. Both employ beautiful nature photography in a unique way—high-definition still images comprise the artwork on and around the reels. The images themselves move in slow motion, with very little in the way of actual animated images. It creates a soothing, nature-like effect to surround game features like expanding reels— both games feature mystery events that expand the reels up to eight rows. The High Rise series game Blazin’ Double Jackpot employs a math model that has seen much success for Everi—the nine-reel format. Mapped out on a traditional-looking three-by-three reel grid, the nine-reel setup allows for many special features, not the least of which is a multiple progressive jackpot setup

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Lucky Pony, a collaboration between Everi’s Austin and Chicago studios, revolves around cute animated pony characters in different colors. You pick your pony at the beginning, and at various points, you get to accessorize the character with tiaras, jewelry and other costume pieces. with progressive wins for five or more jackpot symbols on the ninespace grid. The top prize is returned for covering all nine visible spots with the jackpot symbol (a result that would be practically unachievable if those nine spots represented results on only the three visible reels). Other Everi highlights this year include unique twists on reel setups, game mechanics and progressives. This includes the company’s first two “ways-to-win” games. Great Tiger is a six-reel waysto-win game. The six-by-four reel setup results in 4,096 ways to win on each spin. Sticking wilds on the free spins add to the effect. More Fire, from Australia’s Lightning Box Games, is a five-reel, 1,024ways-to-win game in which the player selects the volatility of the free-spin round. The Jackpot Boost series features progressive-jackpot reset levels that rise with higher bets, and a feature in which the player picks a jackpot trigger to “boost”—adding hundreds of that symbol to the reel map to boost the chance at a progressive. Adrenaline Rush includes a compelling “Hot Wire” feature that places dots around the reel set, and randomly runs what looks like an electrical wire to connect the dots and award extra wild symbols. Everi’s core video slots in the entertainment genre repeat what has made the company’s games popular—funny animation and sound effects, entertaining picking bonus sequences, and lots of time on device. Lucky Pony is a great example. The game, a collaboration between Everi’s Austin and Chicago studios, revolves around cute animated pony characters in different colors. You pick your pony at the beginning, and at various points, you get to accessorize the character with tiaras, jewelry and other costume pieces. There’s even an Easter egg in which you touch your pony on the screen and the character breaks wind—spewing a rainbow out of its backside in a hilarious break from game action. Conway notes that the music in Lucky Pony is a song composed—and performed—by some of the team members at the Chicago studio. “They’re musicians,” Conway says. “They wrote and performed the song. And it’s a great song—it stays with you after you leave the game.” Other core games continue what Everi does best. Honey Bear features irresistibly cute animation in a picking bonus that has the bear character searching for the beehive with honey revealing the best bonus. Bears and bees will actually foreshadow big wins by scampering across the screen at the beginning of a spin. Carnival in Rio Wild Match re-imagines one of Everi’s top historic games in a High Rise slot with two reel sets, one in the top monitor. Like the original, each reel set uses live-action video of Brazilian dancers as stacked symbols in the 60

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base game and as wild symbols in the bonus. The video offerings will be accompanied by a complete lineup of stepper products using the tall Skyline cabinet for bonus events, progressive ladders and oldfashioned pay table displays. Blazin’ Gems is a nine-line game with a classic look. High Voltage Electric Lines is a five-line game that changes the “electric line” with each spin. Hit a line combination on the electric line and win a progressive. Triple Threat is the first stepper game to feature Everi Bet, with denominations available from penny through $25 and bets ranging from a nine-coin minimum to a 480-coin maximum, with game volatility remaining constant.

TournEvent 5.0 The lineup of new games, of course, augments the product for which Everi is perhaps most well-known—the TournEvent instant tournament system. This year, the release of TournEvent 5.0 features several enhancements, including the addition of an automated wild-card drawing. This feature is perfect for the TournEvent of Champions, the annual event that sends winners of preliminary contests at casinos around the country to a final tournament held at Wynn Las Vegas’ XS lounge, with a top prize of $1 million. No finalist from satellite tournaments wins less than $500, and each finalist is awarded an all-expense-paid trip for two to Las Vegas for the finals. The new automated wild-card drawing offers losing participants a second shot at the prize. After the first round of a tournament, each subsequent round automatically picks a losing player from the previous round to advance to subsequent rounds. Alternatively, it randomly selects players for an automated “Wild Card Round” to potentially stay alive in the tournament. Other new features include automated VIP filtering to guarantee a property’s best players are registered for the TournEvent contest, a “Find Seat Helper” that assigns a bank and a seat color to each contestant during registration, and beginning next year, a skill-based option. The Everi game pipeline—for this year, 109 new Class III games, 115 in Class II and 100 for the Washington video lottery system—will be well-represented at the show, as will all the system advances. “We are continuing to enhance our original game content and expand our core product library with a variety of offerings,” says Lucchese. “These new products, along with our award-winning TournEvent slot tournament system, demonstrate our commitment to meeting the needs of our customers. We remain focused on developing the best products that casino operators can rely on to provide their patrons with a premier gaming experience.”

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InCredIble TeChnologIeS

Infinity and Beyond Incredible Technologies uses proven games to launch new game platforms

hicago-area manufacturer Incredible Technologies is one of the fastest-growing slot suppliers in the business, and its path from pure amusement-game manufacturer to slot manufacturer has been meteoric—and methodical. The latter point is more important, because it points directly to the reason the young slot-making division of this well-known amusement-game company has been able to quickly establish long-term relationships in a casino business that now extends to 23 states and numerous tribal jurisdictions. Most slot manufacturers bring new games directly from the R&D lab and/or state approval process to the floor of the Global Gaming Expo and other trade shows. Incredible Technologies makes their games prove their worth first.

Incredible Technologies had been in the business of amusement arcade games since 1985—it is the largest U.S. manufacturer of coin-operated amusement games, its most well-known being the legendary tavern and arcade game Golden Tee Golf. Its methodical approach to translating that expertise to the gaming market began well before the company logged its first display of products at Global Gaming Expo in 2012. By the time of that show, the company had already collected a dozen state gaming licenses, with hundreds of units in the field. The games it brought to its first G2E were already proven earners. It’s been that way ever since. The majority of games IT brings to the G2E show are already in the field, and when the company launches a new platform, new cabinet or new progressive, it is done with those proven titles as base games. “That’s something our company stands behind in a big way,” says Daniel Schrementi, vice president of gaming sales and marketing for Incredible Technologies. “Because we don’t have Wall Street to impress, we don’t need to frustrate our customers by showing them something they want only to find out it’s not any good. Everything has to go through the test bank, and then it’s brought to a show.” Games like Crazy Money, King of Bling, Money Rain, Big Prize Bubble Gum Deluxe and others have become sustaining brands in themselves, and in many respects, the models for subse-

As always, the games launching the new linked bonus game on Infinity Super Skybox will be from IT’s most popular game series, what’s known as the “Money Family” of games, all of which use the same reel icons— cash, in various denominations, with the presidential or Founding Father portrait from each denomination playing starring roles. Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

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quent games. They show how the company maximizes the return from the brands, play mechanics, bonus events and reel icons players have already embraced.

Beyond Infinity Last year, IT launched the Infinity Skybox cabinet package, the company’s first new premium product segment. It features a 55-inch vertical monitor in a modular package including IT’s patented Simple Sign Display Kit. Matching 55-inch displays on banks of Infinity Skybox titles form what looks like a giant billboard for that particular game. The Infinity Skybox went on to lead all suppliers in ranking by the Eilers Fantini Slot Survey, which reported that IT’s Infinity Skybox “performed at 2.3 times house average, leading all suppliers in the rankings.” “When we launched Infinity Skybox last year, we didn’t forecast the type of growth it ended up having,” Schrementi says. “It’s neck-and-neck for the No. 1 participation game on most operators’ floors; it’s quickly become a must-have product.” This year, the company makes that multi-game “billboard” into a single display tied to the base games in a bank. Infinity Super Skybox leverages four side-by-side 55-inch Infinity Skybox displays to create a single, 123-inch wide-screen display, linked via a controller to all the base games as a common bonus screen. Shrementi says the efficiency of the system saves customers money—no separate bonus screen or sign packages are needed. As always, the games launching the new linked bonus game on Infinity Super Skybox will be from IT’s most popular game series, what’s known as the “Money Family” of games, all of which use the same reel icons—cash, in various denominations, with the presidential or Founding Father portrait from each denomination playing starring roles. All of them also have the second-screen bonus event inspired by the original game in the brand, Crazy Money—the “Money Catch Bonus,” in which players touch the screen to “grab” flying dollar bills, revealing credit values behind each bill. The games and bonuses are fun and easy to understand, which has earned the brand an enthusiastic following. “We have capitalized on players understanding the original Crazy Money, and we utilize different twists on that brand as we launch new cabinets,” says Caitlin Harte, marketing manager for Incredible Technologies. “The base game play is recognizable. Players are comfortable sitting down.” The company launched the Infinity U23 cabinet with Crazy Money II. Last year, the company launched the original Infinity Skybox with Crazy Money Deluxe. This year, it launches Infinity Super Skybox with

two games from the “Money Family”—Crazy Money Super Sky Wheel and Money Rain Super Sky Wheel. You guessed it. The Super Sky Wheel spins across that big 123-inch display. The base games retain all the features of the originals, but during that trademark Money Catch Bonus, players can grab an icon that will win spins on the Super Sky Wheel, which is actually two concentric wheels—the outer awarding a credit award or one of five progressive jackpots, the inner awarding extra spins of the big wheel. “It’s possible to win two progressive jackpots on one wheel-spin bonus,” Harte says. The company also will launch new games for the surging Infinity Skybox platform, from the same familiar game family: Crazy Money Deluxe and Money Rain Deluxe, each with the original “Sky Wheel” display in the tall top box, yielding credit awards, re-spins or one of four stand-alone progres-

SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

sive jackpots. At G2E, IT also will debut two new dedicated game families for Infinity Skybox—“Sky Ball” and “Sky Reels” will be added to what is now the “Sky Wheel” group. Sky Ball uses the big display to show a pinball/pachinko-style bonus game. Pinballs drop through openings in concentric circles, dropping a ball into one of three prize pockets at the bottom of the screen. Each pocket represents a progressive jackpot, and the one that fills first with three balls awards the corresponding prize. Sky Reels transforms the monitor into a giant game-show-style prize wheel, which the player spins for credits, re-spins or a progressive. Each of the three game styles goes to G2E with dedicated base games— the Sky Wheel is a wheel bonus on Big Prize Bubblegum Deluxe, another adaptation of a successful IT title. Sky Ball launches with Big Heist Jackpot as a base game, and the dedicated game for the Sky Reels format is Heat ‘Em Up. Heat ‘Em Up uses the expanse of the 55-inch vertical monitor for an expanding-reels bonus. With the “Heat ‘Em Up” feature, the bonus trigger unlocks the “Sky Reels” to expand to up to six additional rows, doubling the number of paylines to 60. The horizontal wheel in the middle spins to credits or “Power Up” spots that increase the credit levels.

Building the Core The new game formats will be accompanied at G2E by dozens of high-performing titles in IT’s core Infinity U23 format, which raised the bar for the quality of all the company’s games when it was launched two years ago. Crazy Money II, Money Roll, Dinero Loco, Money Rain, Big Prize Bubblegum Deluxe and other popular U23 titles will be joined by the HighDenom versions of Crazy Money, Money Roll and Money Rain. “For high-limit games, we’ve got a good strategy of taking our proven stuff and graduating it up to other categories,” says Schrementi. “Crazy Money and Money Rain were pillars in the high-limit rooms with a program we started last year. We’ve now upgraded to a game called Money Roll. Those are purpose-built, high-limit math models. They’re not just restricted versions of the other titles.” Finally, the company this year expands its popular Infinity Link progressive product, with the new game Leonidas II. This sequel to the popular Leonidas linked progressive product features two-game banks under a common LCD “Epic Progressive” display. The brand has gained a lot of popular66

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ity with slot fans on YouTube, which has logged more than 500,000 views of the original Leonidas game. The three-level linked progressive is won through the “Epic Progressive Bonus,” a video-game-style bonus. (Think Medal of Honor with Roman soldiers.) This is added to the “Respin Battle with Locking Wilds” and the “Free Spins War with Locking Wilds.” Schrementi says the company produces around 24 new titles a year, and shows the highest proven earners among them at G2E. There will be at least six at G2E in the different form factors. “Everything we focus on will start with the best-earning titles,” he says. “Even though we like to show the new core games, our display is always based on what they need for their floor today.” For the future, new skill-based games are never out of the question, Schrementi says. “We are the pioneers of skill-based gaming with Golden Tee,” he

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The biggest transition that has occurred is that we are no “ longer a secret. It’s been an exciting time, because everybody has discovered that our products perform well, and the boxes are sturdy and technically strong. They’re getting to know our company, and because of it, we’ve had record growth. —Daniel Schrementi, VP of gaming sales and marketing, Incredible Technologies

says. “Online tournaments for Golden Tee have been running for over 20 years, where people can pay money to play Golden Tee in skill contests.” As far as skill based casino games, he says, “Our ownership has said we don’t want to be first ones in that (skill-based) space. The regulations are so undefined at the moment, it’s hard to jump into it. We’re going to wait until that market finds itself. Who knows what we’ll decide to do then? We do have the expertise, and we have some very famous titles.” One thing’s for sure, he adds: No one’s rushing into creating a game to answer the most-asked question Incredible Technologies receives from customers: Where’s the casino version of Golden Tee Golf? “That is our most precious piece of software. We built the whole company on that game.” If it’s done, it will be when conditions are perfect, he says. While that will come some day, Schrementi says the days are numbered in which IT is “the company that only some people knew about.”

”

“We were the best-kept secret in gaming for a while,” he says. “The biggest transition that has occurred is that we are no longer a secret. It’s been an exciting time, because everybody has discovered that our products perform well, and the boxes are sturdy and technically strong. They’re getting to know our company, and because of it, we’ve had record growth.” So much so, he says, that the company is racing to keep up on the operational end, orders coming as fast as they’re filled. It’s a good problem to have. “Last year was a record year for the company; we doubled our placements for the year,” Schrementi says. “This year we are looking to do even more. It’s been an exhilarating time, because we’ve all been a part of it since it was nothing but an idea here at IT. “G2E is great timing for us. We’re going in with good products, and a lot of good news.” That, he says, is how you seize momentum.

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InternatIonal Game technoloGy

New Horizons The new IGT capitalizes on the design talent of its legacy companies

nyone who has been attending the Global Gaming Expo regularly since the show’s debut in 2001 knows where to find the booth for leading slot manufacturer International Game Technology—and what it looks like. IGT’s massive front-and-center booth has been a fixture of G2E from the start. This year, though, will be different. IGT’s booth will be in a different location, and it will look different—shaped like an “L,” it will occupy a prominent corner of the Sands Expo Center. IGT’s display will look different for one reason: IGT is different. Last year’s trade show marked the end of one era and the beginning of another for IGT. The slot-maker’s merger with slot and lottery giant GTECH had closed in April 2015, which afforded time for a prototype or two that resulted from the combined work of the legacy companies. The rest of the display was the normal IGT booth, plus GTECH’s former Spielo International games. The new IGT has since matured, integrating the best of the legacy companies into a more diversified supplier—and a company ready to recapture market share. “This year, our integration is complete,” says Victor Duarte, IGT’s senior vice president and global chief product officer for gaming, “and you’re going to be able to see the combined power of the company. We’ve got great talent on the legacy IGT side, great talent on the legacy GTECH side, and we’ve brought in new talent from the industry. That combination is pretty powerful.” Truth be told, Duarte and his team can’t wait for the show. They all have an app on their smartphones telling them how many days there are to go until showtime. “I’ve had my team at that level of urgency, because this show is really going to be our show as a combined company,” he says. “I think we’re going to surprise a lot of peo68

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ple with the amount of innovation, the new product introductions and the quality content we’re going to bring to bear. We have new premium cabinets, neverbefore-seen licensed brands and updates of existing licensed brands, and some large-format form factors we’re bringing to the show. “I think it will be our best show in years.”

We know we have a “ point to prove, and we think G2E 2016 will allow our customers to see our turnaround firsthand.

”

—Dallas Orchard, senior VP of global premium products, IGT

Premium Punch Dallas Orchard certainly agrees. IGT’s senior vice president of global premium products, Orchard has been on a mission to catapult IGT’s premium product segment back to the top position it once enjoyed. “We’re working around the clock to change how we do business, to improve our games, our hardware, our technology,” Orchard says. “And we are well-positioned to be No. 1 again inside of the premium space. “We know we have a point to prove, and we think G2E 2016 will allow our customers to see our turnaround firsthand. This is a huge G2E for us, as we work to change the perception of IGT from a premium product standpoint.” Orchard says his team has been diligently working to improve the premium category ever since last year’s debut of the new IGT. “We have been directly responding to feedback from customers last year immediately following G2E,” he says. “We’re reinforcing to our customers that we’re fully committed to our premium business, concen-

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Already being implemented in Las Vegas, Detroit and Australia casinos, Cardless Connect replaces the mag-stripe loyalty card with a smartphone app. Everything from loading credits on a machine to earning loyalty points is handled via smartphone on the system.

trating specifically on upgrading our hardware, creating more innovative content, and displaying what we consider to be the industry’s best technology.” It all starts with the presentation, he says. “We needed to invest heavily in the way we display our games to create a much larger presence on floor. We will show what we believe will become best-in-class merchandising and packaging solutions, as well as continuing to support the legacy hardware pieces that we have in the field.” Each of IGT’s new cabinets and formats will be displayed with a game designed to bring out the cabinet’s best features. Heading the list is the CrystalCurve Ultra, featuring huge monitors in a unique configuration. The main screen is a 32-inch monitor—situated horizontally, rather than the usual vertical portrait-style orientation used with that size screen. On top of that is a super-size curved vertical monitor—a full 50-inch screen, ergonomically situated toward the player. “We are launching a new, dedicated library of games for CrystalCurve Ultra,” says Orchard. “We are extremely excited to bring that to market.” The G2E launch titles for the CrystalCurve Ultra format are a new game in the Ellen franchise—the series of slots based on the daytime talk show of Ellen DeGeneres that helped launch the CrystalCore 42 cabinet two years ago—and The Goonies, a new branded slot franchise based on the 1985 adventure comedy film starring Sean Astin and Josh Brolin. The new premium video cabinet will be accompanied by a new format for IGT’s industry-leading stepper slots. Called the CrystalDual+ Stepper, it is a top box housing the kind of mechanical bonus events that were a staple of IGT’s lineup before it sold its British subsidiary Barcrest in 2011. “It’s a mechanical top-box space that IGT dominated for years,” says Orchard, “and we’re looking to go back to our roots and bring forward what we consider to be the best modern solution within that portfolio.” The steppers in this former line of IGT were distinguished by arcadestyle top boxes with lights flashing behind the glass, bells and other mechanical amusement-style elements. The most popular by far was Top Dollar, featuring a simple bonus event in which lights flashed behind images of stacks of cash representing bonus awards. What’s fortuitous for the launch of the CrystalDual+ Stepper is that IGT held onto the Top Dollar brand when it sold Barcrest. A modernized version of the legendary game will be launched on the new cabinet at G2E. Other games to be launched on the new format include new titles How to Marry a Millionaire Starring Marilyn Monroe, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Starring Marilyn Monroe, and a new version of the Megabucks wide-area progressive.

Content is King IGT will arrive at G2E with fresh content for all of the new and proven cabinets and game styles, in a display company officials are saying will be a coming-out party for the new IGT. Leading the way will be a remarkable collection of premium games based on licensed brands, starting with the most legendary of the slot licenses, the venerable Wheel of Fortune. As it happens, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the introduction of Wheel of Fortune, a watershed event in the slot-machine industry that ushered in the era of themed games. IGT is honoring that milestone with a complete lineup of new entries in the Wheel of Fortune franchise. The first event of the celebration occurred a few months ago with the first placements of Wheel of Fortune Gold Spins, on the CrystalWheel+ Stepper cabinet. This latest in a long line of Wheel of Fortune steppers was released in July—along with Wheel of Fortune New Orleans, on the CrystalWheel Video cabinet. Gold Spins uses a three-reel base game in quarter or 50-cent denomination, but offers incentives for raising the bet beyond three credits. Betting five credits per spin or 10 credits per spin increases the frequency of the signature wheel spins, up to an average of a wheel bonus every 36 spins. The game also offers an extra way to win the wide-area progressive jackpot—a bonus spin on a video wheel with a jackpot slice. “We’ll be showing a more dedicated, deeper library for the CrystalWheel+ Stepper, including more innovative concepts in the Wheel of Fortune family,” Orchard says. IGT will celebrate the brand’s 20th anniversary with a booth visit from Wheel of Fortune TV co-host Vanna White. Other licensed themes will add to popular IGT franchises—in addition to the new Ellen game, the company will show Jurassic World 3D, a followup to last year’s Jurassic Park game on the CrystalCore cabinet. Also debuting at the show is a new premium game based on the film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and a few games that were previewed at last year’s show but have been modified and perfected after player research. One of these is TMZ, a hilarious video slot based on the entertainment-gossip TV series. The technology perfected on that one includes a camera that takes a picture of the player and actually places him or her in the bonus round— one of a head-bobbing clip-art TMZ crew that travels around Hollywood. Finally, at G2E, the company will launch a game themed around beloved comic TV star Betty White. “Our research shows that with players, she has scored through the roof in all manner of focus-group testing,” says Orchard. Adds Duarte, “She has tremendously broad appeal. We’ve done player reSEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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The new Zuma 3D game has a “Dynamic Attract” sequence that actually beckons passing players, inviting them to play.

search on positive impressions of Betty White, and it’s off the charts. We think that’s a premium license that will do well.” The new Jurassic World game, meanwhile, is part of one of the hottest product groups within the premium segment, True 3D. The technology, developed by the legacy GTECH team, produces a glasses-free 3D effect that has not been matched by any other slot-maker since its introduction three years ago with the game Sphinx 3D, which became one of the industry’s biggest hits. For the past year, the True 3D technology has been transformed into a flood of new games. “On our True 3D product line, we have a lot of successful titles that still haven’t enjoyed their full market penetration,” says Duarte. “Aladdin’s Fortune 3D is one example. However, we continue to develop games for that product line. We have over 2,000 machines in the marketplace today, and I honestly believe that with the content we’re bringing to that product line, the number could double.” In addition to Jurassic World, which will bring the sensation of being chased by a dinosaur to 3D life, IGT is launching a new version of Zuma 3D, based on the popular game licensed from PopCap Games; Baywatch, bringing the legendary beach series starring David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson to life; and Treasures of Olympus, with a volatile base game based on the former Spielo game Icarus: The Journey and a 3D bonus sequence taking you on a journey through ancient Athens. According to Michael Brennan, IGT’s senior director of product management, games like Treasures of Olympus feature a very volatile base game and a bonus event that is “more infrequent, but very rewarding when it happens.” In this instance, the mythical Icarus randomly flies onto the screen to shoot arrows at symbols turning them wild, and flies through the sky dodging meteors. 70

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The new Zuma 3D game has a “Dynamic Attract” sequence that actually beckons passing players, inviting them to play. This game follows the gameplay sequences familiar to players of the mobile version, including a bonus involving balls shot from the mechanical frog character in the game, the object being to match the colors for a bonus. “True 3D is about continuing to recapture market leadership from an innovation standpoint,” says Orchard. “It’s becoming much less of a niche product. We will display an enormous amount of 3D content.” Duarte adds that at G2E, the company is launching a new evolution of the True 3D line “that you will have to see to believe”—an immersive experience “unlike anything you’ve seen.” Details are being kept under wraps until the show, as are a few other surprises in the premium game group.

Core Strength As Orchard has worked since the merger to revitalize IGT’s premium products, a similar effort was under way in the core product division, which includes core video, steppers, video poker, electronic table games and specialty products including skill games. Managing it all is gaming veteran Ken Bossingham, who was appointed senior vice president of global core product in September 2015. The appointment reunited Bossingham with former colleagues and product professionals from the legacy GTECH company—he spent 12 years at the former company, serving as COO of Atronic when it merged with Spielo, and general manager of North American casino operations for Spielo until it was acquired by GTECH. He was chief operating officer of slot-maker AGS when IGT tapped him to head up core product in the newly merged supplier. “The last year has been quite the whirlwind, as we’ve introduced a new level of discipline to the core business,” Bossingham says. “G2E 2016 provides us with the opportunity to show our customers the great progress that has been made in achieving our objective of presenting the best-in-class core product portfolio.” He adds that the core group has made a concerted effort to divide the R&D efforts to match the markets for the games. “After the acquisition, we have game

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016 is going to be IGT’s best core video show. Over the last 18 months, “I wethinkhavethisbeen progressively implementing our player-centric approach to developing core video games. We do a ton of research on player needs and expectations at the front end to help shape our roadmap… We only bring successful games from field trial to market.

”

—Victor Duarte, senior VP and global chief product officer for gaming, IGT

studios on every continent, and a high level of diversity,” Bossingham says. “By examining content according to where it will work best, we’re able to leverage our R&D throughout the globe. We’re developing the right content for the right players.” Perhaps most importantly, says Bossingham, is a regimen of testing, focus groups and field trials to maximize the success of each game. “We feel the most responsible approach to business, as we build the product pipeline, is to bring each game out on test bank and make sure it’s sustainable before we roll those products out to our customers,” he says. “Our customers will be able to have a level of confidence that our games will perform close to floor level or above— if, not, we’ll put those products on the shelf and never release them to the public.” A different team focuses just on market analysis and player focus groups for titles still in development. “I think this is going to be IGT’s best core video show,” says Duarte. “Over the last 18 months, we have been progressively implementing our player-centric approach to developing core video games. We do a ton of research on player needs and expectations at the front end to help shape our roadmap… We only bring successful games from field trial to market.” At G2E, IGT will have a special section of games that are ready for placement after extremely successful field trials. Highlights among the core video offerings at G2E will include Valley of Gold, featuring a “must-hit-by” dual mystery progressive with a dynamic jackpot reset—the jackpot does not always reset at the minimum levels when hit. Ocean Magic, which Bossingham says is “arguably our top global game,” includes “Bubble Boost,” a feature activated with an ante wager in which random bubbles appear to add wild symbols. Then there is Keystone Kops, an entertainment-based video slot built around the famous silent-film slapstick police comedies of the 1920s. The main bonus is a hilarious sequence of cartoon cops clumsily chasing bad guys around the city. (There are Easter eggs added that have the cops giggle or otherwise react when you touch them on the screen.) There also is a free-game bonus on two reel sets, one on each monitor. Keystone Kops also includes a feature called “Shuffle Scuffle.” When major winning 72

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symbols stack on the middle reel, all symbols on the screen shuffle for additional wins. Featured on the Crystal Slant cabinet will be Elephant King, in which cash symbols atop each reel award random credits or free spins when matched on the reels—larger bets result in larger bonus wins. One unique game in the core video group, Kayo Dragon, combines spinning reels with cascading-symbol reels on a single game screen in a first-of-itskind game mechanic. Symbols on the second and fourth reels cascade and disappear when stacked, with additional symbols dropping into place for reevaluation of the win. In terms of core hardware, the company has used another new cabinet to re-launch its international hit multi-game product. Called the Axxis 23/23 (two 23-inch monitors), it is being launched primarily for markets outside the U.S. where the legacy GTECH, and its Spielo International subsidiary, had great success with the Oxygen cabinet and diversity multi-game in Latin America and Europe. “When we merged, we realized that format needed an update, so we launched the diversity HD multi-game,” says Duarte. “We put a lot of innovation into that product—we enhanced the screen technology to what we consider best-in-class, and we added high-resolution graphics into the package.” The diversity HD multi-game is being launched with game suites including both new titles and proven games from IGT’s library. The menu of 12 games is interactive in the style of a mobile phone, and the format offers full HD video and graphics and easy transition between games. To enhance the core video proposition across casino floors, IGT this year launches Spin Splosion, a video version of Spin Ferno, the premium tournament solution introduced last year in stepper version that allows multi-site instant tournaments.

Stepper Leadership For all the effort IGT has made to recapture its core video mojo, the company has paid no less attention to its core stepper product, which has long dominated the reel-spinning space. The segment has maintained its market leadership while getting a rejuvenation with the launch of the S3000 format two years ago—which retained the most loved features of the then-standard S2000 stepper product while modernizing the

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One standout in video poker this year is Ultimate X Poker, promoted in an optimal Ten Play Poker in a nickel denomination.

games with high-speed processors, high-definition bonus screens and different denominations and payline setups. “Without question, IGT has the best library of mechanical reel games in the industry,” says Duarte. “And what we have seen in the last couple of years since we introduced S3000 is that it is, most of the time, outperforming the product it’s replaced with the same title.” IGT has already shipped more than 10,000 stepper games in the S3000 format, but according to Duarte, the company is devoted to completing the library with both new titles and all the favorites from the former workhorse S2000 series. “We are hearing from our customers, and they remind us that we haven’t brought forward our entire library yet from the S2000 days,” Duarte says, “so we are going to bring more and more of those titles to the floor at G2E.” “We’ve gotten off to a great start with S3000; it’s a market-leading product,” adds Bossingham. “But we can’t be complacent. We have to continue to build upon that position of strength.” Brennan says the company’s stepper line comprises several categories, including three-reel and five-reel games in a variety of line setups, including nine-line steppers in the lower denominations. “S3000 appeals to a lot of different people,” he says, “and we’re doing a much better job of earmarking which titles fit into which player categories.” Among the highlights in the S3000 line this year is another game with an anniversary—next year marks the 25th anniversary of Double Diamond, a game that defined the stepper category for IGT. At G2E, the company will celebrate with the launch of Double Diamond Deluxe, a new version of the classic multiplying-wild three-reel game including a nudge feature to increase the overall hit frequency. Other S3000 highlights include the It’s Raining Cash series of three-reel, five-line games; Super Silver 7s, a three-reel, 27-line low-denomination game; and the stepper games associated with the Spin Ferno tournament system, which Bossingham says have been outperforming the house average when the reel-spinning games are in revenue mode. Additionally, IGT is launching a multi-level progressive product on the S3000 platform, Super Red Hot Jackpots.

Skill and Poker The core slots are accompanied this year by more games in IGT’s growing library of skill-based games, leading off with a new and improved version of Texas Tea Pinball, previewed last year. According to Jacob Lanning, IGT’s vice president of international market strategy, modifications since last year’s preview include the addition of a second flipper button for the skill-based pinball bonus—the bonus plays much more like a traditional pinball game. Also added to the game is “Wild Rush,” a mystery feature that multiplies wild symbols landing on the reels. A second pinball entry revives another classic IGT video title. In Cleopatra Pinball, the base game is exactly like the classic video slot, but a pinball

bonus is added in which the player aims at objects to add blocks to build a pyramid. “Pinball is a great way to introduce boomers to the next generation of games incorporating skill,” comments Lanning. Also on the skill-based side is Atari Centipede, a slot with a bonus recreating the famous arcade game with an integral joystick; and other skill bonuses in the Video Reel Edge series. As for the original skill-based casino game— video poker—IGT dominates the space as always. The company still collaborates with Action Gaming on new multi-hand games, as well as several clever new takes on traditional video poker games. One standout in video poker this year is Ultimate X Poker, promoted in an optimal Ten Play Poker in a nickel denomination. In Ultimate X, any three-of-a-kind or better is followed by random multipliers applied to the subsequent three hands. Another poker highlight is Super Triple Play Jackpots, in which a bet of seven credits activates a feature in which any four-of-a-kind hand triggers a wheel spin for extra credits. Other new video poker titles include Flip & Pay Poker, Powerhouse Poker and Pyramid Poker. IGT also is launching Ten Play Multi-Race Keno, a super-fast multi-card keno game with 10 different ball draws per play—the first game to apply the multi-hand, fast-play concept to the game of keno. IGT rounds out its G2E display with new system offerings that apply mobile technology both to functions of the operator—Mobile Host for front-line marketers; Mobile Notifier for real-time management alerts—and of players, with loyalty-club apps and On Premise, which allows players to take slot games and other features with them to any approved location within a casino property—and beyond, in approved jurisdictions. Cardless Connect is another emerging technology on the casino systems side. Already being implemented in Las Vegas, Detroit and Australia casinos, Cardless Connect replaces the mag-stripe loyalty card with a smartphone app. Everything from loading credits on a machine to earning loyalty points is handled via smartphone on the system. “We enter G2E with roadmaps that go out 12 months for every section of our portfolio,” says Orchard. “Our goal is to go into this trade show with no gaps. We have the industry’s biggest R&D budget, and we want that to be reflected in our product roadmap and our commitment to frequent releases.” Of course, there will be ample surprises among the IGT launches at the G2E show. “We’re going to announce some of the really exciting brands we’re bringing out, and there are a couple of secrets we’re going to announce at the show—really top-tier brands,” says Duarte. “We want to make a big splash. We deserve a big splash, because this team has been working really hard to show a new company with focus on content, and hardware, and the experience of the player.” “We’re hungry,” adds Orchard. “We’ve given up market share in past, but that’s over. We have a point to prove, and G2E 2016 provides our line in the sand.” “This is our first show where we can see the strength, innovation and power of our company,” says Duarte. “I look at it as a measuring stick for IGT.” SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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Konami GaminG, inC.

Concerto Coda Konami doubles down on the diversity of its portfolio

The curved monitor carries all the other vital features of Concerto— the dramatic black background to the reels, the holographic side lighting, the digital topper and dynamic buttons—with the curved portrait monitor used as the basis for launch games on the KP3+ platform that were specifically designed for the format.

ast year, the buzz surrounding Konami Gaming centered on the unveiling of its new Las Vegas corporate campus, with its 200,000 square feet of new space added to a renovated core of 160,000 square feet to complete what is now the U.S. arm of an integrated research, development and assembly operation. This year, the buzz around Konami continues as the company wraps up a year of innovation that maximizes the use of those resources in collaboration between the team in Las Vegas and the slot-maker’s formidable development teams in Australia and Japan (home of its parent company Konami Holdings Corporation, which built its own legend decades ago in the arcade and video-game business). The keyword in Konami’s efforts to sustain its fast rise in the slot market, particularly in North America, is diversity. The content of the company’s KP3+ and KP3 product portfolios will arrive at this year’s G2E dressed in a variety of new cabinets and form factors that maximize the power of the company’s video and stepper formats. Matt Reback, Konami’s vice president of marketing, says the company has made a concerted effort to multiply the game styles, cabinets and form factors for its games for a simple reason: Casinos are asking for more. “Our key strategy this year was derived from listening to our customers, and listening to the market,” Reback says. “As our customers continue to add more and more Konami across their floors, additional diversity will help them continue to find new product areas and new customers.” He says the diversity will come in the form of new hardware, new software and new product categories. “That’s why we’re so excited about G2E— it’s going to be like kids in a candy store at our booth,” says Reback. “We have an unprecedented release of new products this year.” “It’s not just our products that are diversifying; patrons of the venues are diversifying as well,” adds Steve Walther, Konami’s senior director of product 74

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The diversity of product we are offering at G2E “ shows how Konami is exploding with new content and new cabinets. This is the most new cabinets and form factors we’ve ever had, by a long shot.

”

—Steve Walther, senior director of product management, Konami Gaming

management. “So, to appeal to a broader sense of who’s coming to these venues, we have to widen our net.” The net’s actually been widening for some time. In the past 12 months, Konami has released a total of 70 new games, including progressives, new formats like Reeleven and Roku Reels, innovative bonus setups on the signature Rapid Revolver cabinet, new stepper games and more.

Concerto Rising It all starts with the high-performing Concerto cabinet launched at G2E last year, which Walther says is “hitting its stride.” Within months after last year’s show, Konami released no less than 10 new KP3+ themes on Concerto, but is also placing proven KP3 titles on the format. This year, the “Concerto family” will grow to five individual cabinet formats. Walther outlines five critical factors that have led to the success of Concerto—all of which are present in the new versions of Concerto being released at G2E. The first is the monitor setup—twin 27-inch, high-definition monitors, positioned edge to edge. “That’s the largest sized monitor available in a standard upright cabinet,” comments Walther. Second is the “Dynamic Button Deck with Touch Feedback,” a digital button panel that is customizable for different games, but maintains the traditional feel of slot play with actual physical buttons. Third is a unique holographic side lighting. Walther says Konami pioneered the use of edge lighting in its Podium cabinetry, and “now, you can’t see a game on the floor that doesn’t have LED lighting surrounding the screen. We are bringing that same leadership in design to the Concerto cabinet. “We decided to take it up a notch and add a holographic side lighting element that changes according to the circumstances of the game.” The fourth element is an optional digital topper with multiple display elements, and the fifth is the sleek black finish behind the screen, which dispenses with the usual chrome. “This allows the cabinet to disappear to give the content a starring role,” Walther says. These five elements are present in each of four new Concerto cabinets being introduced at G2E. The first

is the Concerto Slant, which features a “relaxed-angle posture” for the dual 27inch monitors to allow for player comfort. It also features improved sightlines to fit in seamlessly on the operator’s floor. “We’ve taken great care to make sure this is considerably shorter than the standard upright,” says Reback. The Concerto Slant is compatible with the full library of KP3 and KP3+ video slots—a ready-made library at launch—but will be featured at G2E with Jester’s Mirror, a new game in the Xtra Reward series centered around the company’s mirroring wild reels—any full-reel wilds appearing on any but the center reel are “mirrored” to replace symbols across the center axis. Konami also is bringing its popular multi-game product to Concerto. Concerto SeleXion features all the five Concerto strong points, as well as everything that has made the SeleXion product popular with operators—in particular, the near-instant transition between games on the multi-game menu. “Other multigames have had their problems, with either loading times or only having a limited number of games,” explains Walther. “We opened up SeleXion to be a-lacarte; the customers can pick whatever games they want and however many games they want.” According to Reback, Concerto SeleXion increases the number of games available on the multi-game unit from eight to 10, giving the operators the option to include or display as many as they like. It can additionally support a stand-alone progressive bonus, with the only limitation being that KP3 and KP3+ games cannot be mixed on the format. The Concerto treatment is applied to the curvedmonitor premium space with Concerto Crescent, featuring a curved 43-inch portrait monitor angled toward the player in an ergonomically friendly configuration. The curved monitor carries all the other vital features of Concerto—the dramatic black background to the reels, the holographic side lighting, the digital topper and dynamic buttons—with the curved portrait monitor used as the basis for launch games on the KP3+ platform that were specifically designed for the format. The first is Dragon Fury, which takes full advantage of the 43-inch portrait display with an expanding reel feature that takes the reels up to eight rows high, for spins on a 120-line reel grid. The base reel format is a 78-8-8-7 setup (seven symbols on the outer two rows; eight symbols on the middle rows), in a 120-line game. The number of high-paying dragon symbols increases SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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during free games. Pharaoh’s Fury applies the concept to an Egyptian theme, featuring extra wild symbols in the free-game feature. The same two launch games are featured on Concerto Stack, a flat-screen option employing the same game dimensions as the Crescent cabinet. The 43-inch flatscreen monitor offers operators a choice to tailor games to their specific space needs. Walther says the product roadmap for Concerto Crescent and Concerto Stack envisions progressive versions of the two launch games, which could be launched some time next year.

Bringing it Together All the new formats and cabinets will join an already-rich collection of cabinets, bonus hardware and core video and stepper slots in Konami’s “candy store” of a display at G2E. New games will be shown in formats from the unique Rapid Revolver to the giant Podium Goliath and everything in between. Among the highlights in the KP3+ core video category is Jackpot Ball, a unique four-level progressive game featuring a pinball/pachinko-style bonus game. “We’ve had success with a game called Jackpot Streams, featuring a coin pusher-style game,” says Walther. “We asked ourselves what else would give that midway arcade feel. We came up with a physical pinball-style game on a KP3+ base game.” The bonus features pinballs launching and falling through a pachinko-style board toward prize buckets at the bottom, which include the progressives. Along the way, it can drop into locking credit holes as in pinball. “It’s a hybrid of pinball and pachinko, and pachinko is in our heritage,” says Reback. “It is a digital presentation of an arcade-style game.” Walther says the pachinko ball-drop, a mystery event, uses true odds to determine the prize, with a one-in-seven chance at a progressive. New KP3 products include China Shores Jackpot, a four-level progressive version of China Shores, a popular game featuring free spins that can go into the hundreds. “We kept the free-spin feature in China Shores Jackpot, but added a stand-alone, four-level integrated progressive,” Walther says. The progressive trigger is three or more yin/yang symbols, each awarding a random number of spins for the progressive prize wheel. “Each spin is a guaranteed progressive award, so theoretically, you could get a string of Maxi progressives, or any combination of Mini, Major, Mega and Maxi jackpots,” says Walther. 76

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Another KP3 highlight is Moonlight Fox, designed for the Rapid Revolver format, which features a central bonus display of six stacked, horizontally spinning reels. It is a three-level stand-alone progressive product, with a base game in a 576-ways-to-win format. Also featured is the Brothers of Fortune linked progressive game, an Asianthemed game with four linked progressive jackpots triggered by a bonus wheel.

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016 “One of the things Konami does well is this physical, gravity-activated, arcade-style game that elicits a communal style of play you cannot get on a video game. True laws of physics will determine your fate, and that’s something you can’t replicate.” —Matt Reback, VP of marketing, Konami Gaming

Multi-Station Innovation Konami is launching innovative new games in similar grandeur for its Titan 360 series. Launched in 2013 with the game Rise to Wealth, the Titan 360 places eight individual slant-top slots around a central mechanical, arcadestyle bonus game. That original game features a large physical wheel. Balls are launched into the display, falling into one of several slots to award a bonus prize or progressive. Titan 360 continues to carry broad popularity, even launching its next new theme: Dragon’s Orb Jackpots. In the bonus of the new game, a dragon spins an orb, which ends up being a silver bar ball or a gold bar ball, which goes into one of the prize holes. In the same spirit as Titan 360, Konami is introducing another multi-station development called Crystal Cyclone that uses a mystery trigger to enact a bonus game on a center unit device shared by all the players. Several balls can be released from the stacker device at once, so several players can participate in the bonus game at the same time. Reback says the power of this format is demonstrated in how players react when the ball is spinning around the display searching for a prize spot. “There are players cheering, spectators cheering,” he says. “One of the things Konami does well is this physical, gravity-activated, arcade-style game that elicits a communal style of play you cannot get on a video game. True laws of physics will determine your fate, and that’s something you can’t replicate.” Another new multi-station game coming to G2E is Fortune Cup, a multi-station horse-racing game on a central miniature track that incorporates both the amusement-game and video-game skills of the parent company. Walther notes that much attention was given to detail in creating the arcade-style track. “Each horse is fully articulated—legs, rider—and they move around the track,” Walther says. “These horses can move in either direction, so we’ll be able to change up the way the races are run. And they move around the field. We can do different-sized races.” Walther says Fortune Cup can even be set up in a stadium configuration, with multiple betting terminals around the physical racetrack and video of the races shown on an overhead projection screen, utilizing Konami Digital Entertainment’s proprietary graphics engine, which is also used for Konami’s console video games, to create photo-realistic imagery. “It is a great example

of how we work with other divisions within Konami,” says Reback. The game also offers several different betting structures replicating trifectas, quenelles and other actual track and race-book wagers. Finally, Konami, as always, will offer complete demonstrations of improvements to its highly regarded Synkros casino management system, including use of the Acres Kai mobile alert system to improve customer service and enhance the personal marketing that can be offered by a casino. There also will be demonstrations of Konami’s progress on the interactive side, from online for-money to social gaming presentations of Konami titles, and use of mobile apps through the company’s remote game server. The highlighted products in the Konami lineup this year are only a slice of what is to be expected in a G2E display that will top all previous trade shows for the company. New games for the Podium Goliath, Podium Monument and other form factors will combine with multi-station, Concerto and the rest to offer the kind of diversity customers have been asking for. “The diversity of product we are offering at G2E shows how Konami is exploding with new content and new cabinets,” says Walther. “This is the most new cabinets and form factors we’ve ever had, by a long shot.” “This is all made possible by our newly expanded headquarters,” adds Reback. “This facility was built to increase the size of our R&D department so we could build these types of products. “Konami’s floor share has been soaring over this same time, reaching 15-20 percent share of casino floors across the U.S. Our customers are telling us, ‘You need to bring new product categories out, because your products continue to be the best-performing products on our floor.’ That’s what we’ve done.” “Konami has made strategic investments in our new state-of-the-art facility, our R&D department, and new partnerships designed to support existing business and fuel continued growth,” says Steve Sutherland, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Konami Gaming. “At G2E this year, the market will experience the results of these investments as we unveil our most diverse lineup of high-quality games and systems products ever.”

The highlighted products in the Konami lineup this year are only a slice of what is to be expected in a G2E display that will top all previous trade shows for the company. 78

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Novomatic americas

Planting the Flag With a U.S. design studio in full swing, Novomatic continues its push in the Americas

ith a dedicated U.S. design studio now firmly established and cranking out innovative new games and game concepts, Novomatic Americas is ready to take its place among the leading slot-makers in the massive North American market. “You will see some bold designs and premium content coming from us this G2E,” says Rick Meitzler, president and CEO, North America. Not that content has ever been in short supply for one of the industry’s great multinationals. Austria-based Novomatic Group generated more than €3.9 billion in revenue last year (US$4.32 billion) from what is, hands down, the most diverse collection of markets in the industry—everything from machine games and systems for casinos to VLTs and amusement games, from bingo and lottery solutions and online and remote gaming to land-based gaming and sports betting operations and management. Group companies can be found in more than 50 countries, sales and distribution in more than 80. The North American arm, in its current configuration as Novomatic Americas Sales, is a relative newcomer to the group, founded in 2012 and based in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, 20 miles from downtown Chicago. But it’s poised to hit its stride in time for the industry’s descent on the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas later this month for G2E 2016. “It’s an amazing time at Novomatic Americas,” says Kathleen McLaughlin, who heads North American marketing. “We have access to significant global resources with a wealth of development expertise. Leveraging our international success and understanding players, product and performance globally is integral to our growth. The U.S. development team has worked hard to create entertaining games with a U.S. player focus— this G2E will show the evolution of our North American product lines.” With innovative concepts like the World Championship of Slots, the centerpiece for Novomatic Americas at this year’s show, it’s clear they’re already there. The company has secured an Emmy-award-winning producer and director for 16 hour-long episodes of The World Championship of Slots Experience, as it’s titled, on the Game Show Network. Each episode will be shot at a host casino—where they will run qualifying tournaments for customers wanting to get on the show—and there will be a grand finale. “It’s a great opportunity for the casinos to market in a new way, and also a new entertainment experience for players around their favorite products that hasn’t been done,” says McLaughlin. “The marketing opportunities are significant. It really is a true entertainment event.” It’s not your grandmother’s slot tournament, that’s for sure. This takes 80

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skill in how you work a built-in “gamble” feature, which allows you to raise your stakes for a chance at the winning jackpot even if you’re far behind the other players. And you can actually get better at timing your move the more you play. “If there’s a high enough jackpot at the end you can bet up and try to unseat the winner, so there’s strategy involved,” McLaughlin explains. “There’s a special competitive thrill when even if you’re down 20,000 points at the end you can sit and wait and ‘gamble’ past the winner. So it’s not over till it’s over.” And in terms of the flexibility it offers casino operators—incentivizing them, really, to partner with Novomatic in the marketing of its games and platforms—it’s brilliant. They can select titles from a dedicated World Championship of Slots portfolio. They can customize a tournament by picking base games from among their top performers on the floor. For Novomatic, thinking outside the box extends also to the box itself, with dynamic platforms like the Dominator Curve and, more recently, the

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For Novomatic, thinking outside the box extends also to the box itself, with dynamic platforms like the Dominator Curve and, more recently, the Novostar V.I.P.—a play station that elevates the interaction between player and machine to the level of a sophisticated home theater experience. Novostar V.I.P.—a play station that elevates the interaction between player and machine to the level of a sophisticated home theater experience. Novomatic Americas is eager for the opportunity at G2E 2016 to pull back the curtain on the V.I.P. Lounge. This is a slimmed-down version of the V.I.P. II and III and the V.I.P. Royal, designed to ensure that all the comfort and exclusivity provided by its super-widescreen cousins is available to operators large and not so large. Judging from the buzz McLaughlin says it’s generating already, look for it to draw crowds on the floor of the Sands Expo. “We’ve had significant interest,” she says. “It’s one of those products that takes off just from people seeing it.” The V.I.P. Lounge envelops the player in a plush, lounge-style seating environment, ergonomically designed for comfort and adjustable for optimal reach and leg room, and the perfect viewing angle vis a vis the two 32-inch full-HD LED screens. Features include a 12-inch TouchDeck player interface that’s customizable for different button-panel layouts and a high-performance sound system to keep you locked in to the action. “You don’t have to lean up; the buttons are in the chair,” McLaughlin explains. “You can lean back, have a drink, and you’re sitting at a great angle. It’s almost as if you’re at home in your gamer chair. It’s like getting into your own pod, your lounge, if you will.” There’s more, too. The V.I.P. Lounge is coming to North America with new game content. The V.I.P. Lounge and Dominator can utilize all software platforms. The cabinet choices provide extreme flexibility for operators to create great gaming spaces. A colorful, graphically rich “vampire”-themed suite on the Novo Line Game Studio 2 platform called “Tales of Darkness” is graphically stunning and highly entertaining. Two of these games were unveiled at the ICE show in London earlier this year: Full Moon and Eclipse. The former is a five-reel, 50-line, medium- to high-volatility play with a top prize of 250 times bet per line. A wild “Wolf” substitutes for all symbols except the “Moon” scatter symbol, which can trigger up to 20 free games. In the feature, “Wild Extra Wolves” can appear on reels 1, 3 and 4. Eclipse is a six-reel, 50-line game set for high volatility with payouts up to 1,000 times bet on a single line. The “Moon” substitutes for all symbols in the SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

We have grown at a steady and “ deliberate pace, and this G2E you will really start to see the results of that effort. We’re a team with tremendous data and development resources.

”

—Rick Meitzler, president and CEO, North America, Novomatic

base game, with three or more of them scattered triggering 10 free games. Prior to the start of the bonus, one symbol is randomly chosen as a special “expanding” symbol that grows horizontally to adjacent reels and pays both left to right and right to left. Free games can be retriggered. “We spend a lot of time researching players and applying our insights from our customers in North America, as well as from our extensive international operations,” says Matt Ward, who heads the new U.S. design studio as vice president, product, North America. “Our goal for G2E is to let operators see a new focus on content designed expressly for the North American players.” This new focus will be evident at G2E in the form of some 20 new game titles in all. They’ll include Jackpot Edition, an innovative stand-alone progressive that runs off a variety of proven Novomatic titles in a highly animated setting where players collect “coins” in the base game that pile into a “tray” in the top screen. When enough coins are collected—and you can up your bet to increase them—they spill out from the tray and tip it over. This triggers the “Jackpot Chance” feature, where players get to pick from five “treasure chests.” If they pick one that has a “Jackpot Wheel” hidden inside they win a spin for a progressive prize. The team is duly excited as well about a new series called “Four Seasons,” and attendees at G2E will soon know why. Each is a five-reel, 40-line title themed around a beguiling “Queen” (for each of the seasons, of course), and each offers a distinct play experience. So, whether you’re a serious gambler or a more casual player after 82

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entertainment and time on device, there’s a season and a lady for you. In Winter, a low-volatility game, the “Winter Queen,” “Polar Bear,” “Husky” and “Ice Bird” may appear in blocks on reels one-three, two-four and three-five, and free games are played at the existing bet and can be retriggered. Summer, which features the highest volatility of the set, has a special stacked symbol that appears during the bonus and before each game. If the symbol covers two non-adjacent reels, it expands horizontally to cover all the positions in between and pay adjacently for each line played. Free games also can be won again. “The development team’s focus is clear,” McLaughlin says of the U.S. operation. “They’re taking the right steps so the player gets the most immersive, entertaining games and the benefit of our global expertise.” Meitzler says, “We have grown at a steady and deliberate pace, and this G2E you will really start to see the results of that effort. We’re a team with tremendous data and development resources.” It’s about laying “a solid foundation for the future,” says Ward. The goal, as he neatly sums it up— “more selections for our customers, more innovation on the gaming floor.” —James Rutherford

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

ORTIZ GAMING

Beyond Bingo Ortiz Gaming takes electronic bingo and machine gaming in general to the next level

ideo bingo giant Ortiz Gaming is coming to Las Vegas for this month’s Global Gaming Expo armed with an array of new games and systems aimed at growing the solid presence the company enjoys in its land-based markets and extending it deep into the online and remote gaming space. On exhibit will be new Class II and Class III slots, new keno and lottery games, new bonus concepts for bingo and newer and more interesting ways of reimagining machine gaming as a compelling entertainment proposition on whatever device the player chooses to engage with it. “We sat down with Maurilio Silva, our president, earlier this year to talk about the theme for G2E. He said it in three words: ‘New, new, new,’” says Gary Green, a veteran of the operations side of the industry who advises Ortiz on strategy from the company’s U.S. headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida. “The core has always been bingo, and always will be bingo,” he explains. “What changes are the different ways of taking that bingo to the next level. It’s an emphasis on core products with new elements of excitement, taking that Ortiz core and pushing it to the next level.” Silva himself says it best: “Innovation is our priority as the gaming industry continues to evolve. It is essential for us to continue to stay ahead of the curve.” Speaking of curves, you’d be hard-pressed to find a bingo cabinet like the O-Circle’s 42-inch HD concave touch-screen and the O-Future’s twin HD monitors, both ergonomically designed for comfort and fitted with intuitive 84

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five-button play panels and packing 5.1 surround sound. Both the O-Circle and O-Future will be on display at G2E together with their newest cousin, the O-Evolution, which takes the rich graphics of its predecessors to a new level with 4K screen resolution, the state of the art in digital cinema and home theater. This is a level of forward-thinking one doesn’t naturally associate with bingo—which is precisely what sets Ortiz apart. It’s apparent in concepts like Bingotronic, a variation on the conventional bingo hall space that moves the traditional game onto individual player terminals. Leaping ahead along similar lines in a casino-style space, there’s OrtiZone, a server-based lounge environment that’s fully customizable for choice of games and cabinets—and now it’s being customized for device in the form of an on-site mobile platform that lets you carry the OrtiZone with you anywhere on the floor. Players will have not only bingo but keno, lotto and reel slots at their fingertips on a network that’s browser-based, so there’s no need to download an app. Through a division called Ortiz Interactive, the entire game library is being repurposed for mobile and online as a turn-key solution or as an individual white-label solution. The games are available in both social and realmoney gaming formats. They’re also adaptable for government lotteries. A redoubtable game library it is, too, and it keeps getting larger as it leverages one of the most innovative approaches to game math in the bingo sector. The Extra Bonus Ball is its main feature. It allows players to purchase

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is our priority “asInnovation the gaming industry continues to evolve. It is essential for us to continue to stay ahead of the curve.

”

—Maurilio Silva, president, Ortiz Gaming

additional balls after their initial bet and drawing has been completed, increasing the odds for the player and generating, according to Ortiz, nine times the initial bet in coin-in on average. Says Green, “A lot of manufacturers keep bonus math separate from game math, so the main math is not impacted by bonus rounds. But Ortiz did it completely different. The bonus round actually increases the payout by a seriously measurable percentage.” It’s a consumer-centric philosophy that guided Alejandro Ortiz in founding the company back in 1995, and management credits it for the company’s success to this day. “Alejandro has always had the idea that the business should be fun and exciting, but also more profitable for the player, which means more profitable for the operator,” Green says. As if to emphasize that commitment, all Ortiz games are now being fitted with extra bonus features, which Green characterizes as “unique, flashier, a step beyond slot-type bonuses.” They include: “Ortiz Celebration,” a random bonus tied to a networked bank of games; “Sir Prize,” a drawing whose key selling point is that awards are distributed several times a day and everyone active on an Ortiz machine is eligible; and “Magic Pot,” a surprise community bonus featuring a magician who appears on the screens of all the networked machines each time someone wins the jackpot, and takes a prize out of his hat—and everybody wins. Systems are another focus. New for G2E 2016 is a complete data management solution called OrtizNet. It allows employees and operators to access all the elements of game performance in real time and to create customizable reports and graphics. It’s also web-accessible for partners. There is also Ortiz Cash, a highly flexible platform for managing all monetary activity in the property. Tools include complete financial inputs and outputs, report-generation and automatic closings. —James Rutherford

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

SCIENTIFIC GAMES

Global Reach Scientific Games marshals the resources of game development studios across the world to power its G2E lineup

year ago, slot manufacturer Scientific Games arrived at the Global Gaming Expo with a mind-boggling collection of games reflecting the diversity of the legacy companies which, through mergers, had created the new version of the company—a worldwide end-to-end gaming and lottery supplier—while remaining devoted to all its iconic brands—Bally, WMS, Shuffle Master and Barcrest. This year, while the collection of games will be no less mind-boggling, the products reflect the efforts of a fully integrated R&D team. While each of the legacy brands retains its special look, game mechanics and signature features, a collection of new cabinets and platforms reflects the joint efforts of the new Scientific Games. “Last year, we were still combining the legacy companies,” says Allon Englman, senior vice president and chief design officer of Scientific Games. “What you’ll see at G2E this year is where we’re taking the company next. We’ve been merged a year and a half, so in the new platforms we’re showing, you’ll see the combined strength of Scientific Games.” That strength lies in more than 40 game design studios across the world—more than 700 game development specialists in all. “Not only do we have development teams across the world,” says Greg Colella, vice president of product marketing, “but they are all contributing with very significant products. New Quick Hit games from the Las Vegas team. Games like Vegas 7s and Venice 7s from the Reno development team. The Chicago teams with new versions of Crystal Forest and Black Knight; the teams from Asia delivering Dancing Drum and Tree of Wealth; and teams in Australia developing the Lock It Link product, which will be featured prominently on our TwinStar cabinet.” Colella notes that this enables an unmatched variety in the Scientific Games portfolio. “The Quick Hit games look like the Bally Quick Hit games that have always done so well; the Lock It Link product looks like a natively designed Australian product, because it is.” This variety of games is being presented this year most prominently on

three new platforms featuring unique cabinets that augment the groundbreaking form factors produced by Bally, WMS and the other legacy Scientific Games companies over the years.

The Js Have It One of the most enduring—and most copied— of those form factors, of course, has been the curved vertical LCD monitor, pioneered by Bally three years ago with the Alpha 2 Pro Wave. While other manufacturers are still scrambling to release their own versions of the curved-monitor form factor, Scientific Games is launching the next-generation of the concept—the TwinStar J43. The heart of the new cabinet is the 43-inch vertical high-resolution LCD monitor, which features a

“It’s a fantastic-looking piece of hardware, and will house the best brands of Bally, WMS and Shuffle Master. It’s going to be second to none, and we’re leading off with the strongest intellectual property we have.” —Allon Englman, senior VP and chief design officer, Scientific Games 86

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GLOBAL GAMES 2016

The heart of the Scientific Games G2E lineup will be a group of the strongest licensed brands of any slot manufacturer in the business.

curve toward the player at the bottom—it looks like the letter “J;” hence the name. Added to the unique shape is a higher resolution, improved processing power, and millennial-friendly features such as a USB port for smartphone charging. “When you talk about the strength of the company, this is the epitome of it,” says Englman. “It’s a fantastic-looking piece of hardware, and will house the best brands of Bally, WMS and Shuffle Master. It’s going to be second to none, and we’re leading off with the strongest intellectual property we have.” That strong IP, as usual, will include an extension of the uber-successful Bally Quick Hit franchise. Another popular format that has been much copied by competitors, Quick Hit pioneered the scatter-symbol-based multiple progressive, in which the range of progressives is tied to the number of jackpot symbols scattered on the reels. On the J43, Scientific Games will launch Quick Hit Ultra Pays, a non-payline video slot with a reel configuration resulting in 776 ways to win on each spin. Other exclusive games for the J43 include the WMS title Bier Haus: Heidi’s Haus, a new version of a longtime WMS hit with fun animation centered around a German tavern. Dancing Drums from the Shuffle Master team also will make its debut on the J43. A Chinesethemed game featuring intricate artwork and graphics, it includes a free games feature where you can choose your reel array, and a five-level progressive jackpot. Also on the J43 is Tetris, a 1,024-ways-to-win game with a bonus based on the arcade classic and mobile hit puzzle game; plus multi-line video entries Sword of Destiny and Angel Blade. The J43 is one of three new form factors for TwinStar, which was launched at G2E 2015 as the first Scientific Games cabinet to house Bally, Shuffle Master and WMS content. That original TwinStar uses twin 24-inch displays and a 22-inch virtual topper, along with the iDeck 2, a new ver-

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

sion of the Bally interactive touchpad, 40 percent larger and substantially brighter than the original. Those features are retained by J43 and the other two new TwinStar cabinets, TwinStar Slant and TwinStar 3RM. The TwinStar Slant is similar to the original Bally V27 slant, updated with the TwinStar technology and the Scientific Games branding. The TwinStar 3RM cabinet (for three-reel mechanical) brings the TwinStar features and operating system to the stepper category. “Bally had a long history of vertical screen content,” says Englman, “and now the other game studios come aboard on these new vertical form factors. They are going to be very, very strong products for us.”

Expanding the Library Scientific Games arrives at G2E with new titles for all the variations of the TwinStar format—as well as the Bally Pro Wave and Pro Theater, and the WMS Blade, GameField and GameScape cabinets. For the TwinStar and TwinStar Slant video formats, highlights include Lock It Link, a two-level progressive system that has been one of the company’s big hits in Australia over the past year. It was introduced at G2E Asia in May with base games Bright Lights and Girl’s Best Friend. According to Colella, base games launched with it at G2E will be Night Life and Diamonds. The base games feature the “Lock It Link Heart” re-spin feature. If fewer than three triggering symbols for the progressive bonus feature land, they lock in place and the reels re-spin for a second chance to trigger the bonus. “This is an extremely popular Australian product that we are now introducing to North America, and we feel it will be the star of our G2E lineup this year,” says Colella. Other highlights on the video side include a new series of games from the company’s Asian design studios, called Tree of Wealth. Games in-

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National Lampoon’s Vacation uses a version of the premium WMS wheel cabinet to tell the hilarious story of the Griswolds, and patriarch Clark Griswold’s struggles to get his family across the country for a vacation at Walley World in the iconic 1983 comedy starring Chevy Chase. cluding the launch title, Jade Eternity, are in a 243-ways-to-win format, with a four-level progressive jackpot triggered through a picking bonus. Other G2E video highlights are Asian games Little Dragons and Dragons of the Four Seas, Golden Wheels, Sun Warrior, and a pair of new Quick Hit titles with wheel bonuses—Quick Hit Wild Red Super Wheel and Wild Blue Super Wheel. The company also will show titles from third-party design studio High 5 Games—Shadow Diamond Eve and Shadow Diamond Dawn—on the TwinStar format. The new TwinStar 3RM is being launched with a collection of classic steppers based on tried-and-true Bally and WMS game brands. Front and center is Blazing 7s Gold, a beautiful new version of the classic Bally game with a free-spin feature added. Wild Times Rising is a classic stepper with free games and multipliers. TwinStar 3RM also provides new versions of Bally classics Black Gold and Hot Triple 7s, the WMS game Life of Luxury, and the first stepper versions of the hit Bally video multi-progressive Fu Dao Le and WMS’ 88 Fortunes. “We took two of our best-performing video products and made them part of our portfolio of 3RM games,” Colella says. “It’s another example of the company flexing its muscles with all the proven stepper brands we have on the Bally side, and adding top WMS titles.” The inaugural TwinStar portfolio will be accompanied at G2E by a wealth of content on all of Scientific Games’ other popular formats. On the Alpha Pro Wave, the company will feature both new titles and perfected versions of games initially previewed last year. One of the highlighted new Pro Wave games is Blazing Dice, featuring an interactive video bonus in which the player “throws” dice across an arcadestyle board, aiming at credit awards on a prize board. “This is an intricate second-screen bonus, included with mystery stacks and free games,” says Colella. “We’re excited about this game.” Other new Pro Wave games at G2E will include titles Gold Slinger, Hot 90

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

Hands, Tumblin’ Dice, Power Gems Egyptian Realm and Power Gems Indian Realm. Among games being brought forward from initial preview at last year’s show are two hilarious games based on the legendary comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Space Invaders, on the Blade S32 cabinet, with a skill bonus based on the famous arcade game. Scientific Games is not forgetting its other legacy brand, Barcrest. The line of games, distinguished by carnival-style mechanical top-box bonus events, will be highlighted with new high-denomination titles Flipping Out! and Psycho Cashbeast.

Brand Power As strong as the new content is in proprietary titles across all platforms, the heart of the Scientific Games G2E lineup will be a group of the strongest licensed brands of any slot manufacturer in the business. It has been a particularly strong 2016 for the company’s branded licenses, with

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On the Pro Theater cabinet is Wacky Races, based on the 1968-71 cartoon series. Characters from the Saturday morning mainstay appear in reel symbols and wild reels, with audio and clips from the cartoon featured in bonuses, the main one a bonus race on an overhead display that fronts two individual machines. titles launched at last year’s show now reaching the market. In addition to Space Invaders and Monty Python, the company recently rolled out Kooza, the first slot machine ever to carry the theme of a famous Cirque du Soleil production, in this case the touring show Kooza, which premiered in 2007. Kooza, the slot machine, recreates all the characters from the circusthemed road show, including “The Trickster,” who reprises the role of central character in the slot theme. It is on the Pro Wave 360 cabinet, which includes a circular bonus display atop a carousel of Pro Wave cabinets. Other branded licenses launched last year and now entering into the marketplace are Michael Jackson Icon, the third game in the series celebrating the career of the late pop king; Monopoly Money, a high-denomination, wide-area progressive addition to the Monopoly franchise; and Cher Live!, featuring the pop star’s music on the Alpha Pro V22/32 cabinet.

One new version of a previous title being launched at the show is The Godfather, a five-level progressive slot based on the iconic 1971 mob film, including a bonus in which the player spins the “Character Wheel.” One branded game previewed last year that has since been perfected is The Simpsons, on the unique GameScape cabinet. GameScape uses triple LCD panels to create what is almost a private theater for the highly entertaining game, which uses a wealth of the funniest clips from the long-running animated comedy woven into bonuses. It will be the second game launched on the GameScape format—the first was the wide-area progressive Willy Wonka-World of Wonka, launched at last year’s G2E on the GameScape with an integral bonus wheel. These improved current brands will be joined this year by a strong lineup of branded premium games. Leading the way will be Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, which wraps the best of the popular 2004 comedy film starring Will Ferrell into a customized top-box version of the TwinStar cabinet, the TwinStar 24/43. The central feature takes the player up a film ladder display in the vertical top-box monitor, randomly landing on clips involving all the main characters in the film, which spoofed local news anchors. The other big movie-themed premium slot this year is National Lampoon’s Vacation, which uses a version of the premium WMS wheel cabinet to tell the hilarious story of the Griswolds, and patriarch Clark Griswold’s struggles to get his family across the country for a vacation at Walley World in the iconic 1983 com-

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edy directed by Harold Ramus and starring Chevy Chase. All the high points in the movie are wrapped around bonus events—from Clark’s highway encounter with Christie Brinkley in the convertible to his encounter with the Walley World guard played by John Candy at the amusement park. On the TV brand side is The Bachelor, a wide-area progressive with a mystery bonus featuring clips from the popular dating reality show. On the music side, Cash, featuring the music of country legend Johnny Cash, will be a major release on the Blade Stepper with Mechanical Wheel. Footage and audio of all of Cash’s most famous songs are woven into bonuses in a stepper game with a video top box and a wheel bonus that can lead to one of four levels of progressive jackpots. In a clever touch, the four levels of the jackpots are marked by images of Cash at different stages of his career, from his early days at Sun Records until his time as the elder statesman of American roots music. On the Pro Theater cabinet is Wacky Races, based on the 1968-71 cartoon series. Characters from the Saturday morning mainstay appear in reel symbols and wild reels, with audio and clips from the cartoon featured in bonuses, the main one a bonus race on an overhead display that fronts two individual machines. Finally, the Scientific Games lineup this year will include unique hardware offerings being seen by the industry at large for the first time, headed up by the Prizm multi-player game. Prizm

integrates four game terminals on a 65-inch, high-definition touch table surface, with a community bonus in the middle of the table. Lightning Launch Roulette, with a virtual roulette wheel, will be displayed on the format at the show. On the Pro Wave 360 will be another new Willy Wonka game. Of course, all the new slot games will be accompanied by offerings from the table games, lottery and interactive divisions of the company, plus a portfolio of industry-leading Bally Systems products and peeks at future technology inside the “Innovation Lounge.” Also on display will be the latest generation of “SG Universe,” a package of solutions designed to connect the player to the casino regardless of the channel being used. The SG Universe is offered as an omni-channel gaming experience, centered on players’ mobile devices. It also includes Play4Fun, the company’s white-label social casino offering. But as usual, the heart of the massive Scientific Games booth will be the games themselves—214 slot machines, 11 table games, eight electronic table games, in new formats and new uses of existing formats. “Last year was a big coming-out for us, because it was our first showing as an integrated company,” says Dan Savage, chief administrative officer of Scientific Games. “This second year is all about the products—how the teams are working together, how we have a ton of variety, and how deep and wide our portfolio is. “There’s a lot to be excited about.”

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CUSTOMER SERVICE

Follow the Customer Next-gen technology for the millennial guest experience By Kevin Hibbs

or millennials like me, the smartphone is not just a device, but an appendage through which we experience and interact with the rest of the world. Look at your last phone bill. How many minutes did you use talking? I bet not a lot. But you’re on your phone constantly—texting, surfing the web to check sports scores or to see what your friends are up to on Facebook. You are actually communicating on your phone; you’re just not doing much talking. Millennials prefer this mobile connectivity. We prefer to send a text, tweet or snap instead of calling. For casino hotels and resorts, mobile devices are also key to the millennial guest experience— MGE. Such mobility offers the essential connection we desire, and savvy operators are leveraging it at these five phases during the MGE. 1. Pre-engagement is arguably the most important phase of the MGE. It’s your first point of contact and the prime reason to have an app for mobile devices. Enabling guests to connect to their social media networks improves the likelihood that they will select your property for their stay. It also speeds up the booking process. Leveraging links— for example, “Click here to log in with Facebook”—is more likely to get a click from a millennial than a form, even a web form. 2. Arrivals is where we see a lot of emerging technology, from geolocation enabling you to know when the guest has set foot on property to wireless door locks that allow guests to bypass the front desk and head straight to their room. Being connected provides the opportunity to upsell guests to a suite or a room with a view. Just imagine as the guest, stepping off the plane and getting a welcome message with an enticing offer to upgrade your hotel room, or a special offer on a show—an offer that’s tailored just for you. Once on property, guests are alerted about the status of their room, bing—“Mr. Andrews, we see you’re early and we don’t have your room quite ready yet. Please enjoy this promo code for $5 slots, or use it toward drinks at our lounge while you wait. We’ll text you once your room is ready.” Knowing your guest has arrived also allows you 94

to optimize the housekeeping staff, ensuring the guest waiting on the casino floor gets his or her room in a timely manner. 3. During the guest stay, mobile connectivity provides a number of new opportunities to gain guest wallet share. A match-play offer can increase guest spend. So can pushing notifications about show promotions or spa offerings, or providing a digital coupon for a free pastry with every coffee purchase. Millennial guests remain connected at a techsavvy property… Need a cocktail at the cabana? It’s just a text away. Don’t want to leave your slot while it’s hot, but you really need a beverage? It’s just a text away. Is it an unusually slow day at the spa? Why not blast out a promotion? Guests can simply click the link and select their spa treatment and time. When something goes wrong, a millennial is more likely to post about it on social media, rather than going through the effort of actually talking to someone to make it right. It’s just the way the millennial guest thinks and acts. When you’re connected to your guests, and you show it by pushing

Leveraging links— for example, “Click here to log in with Facebook”—is more likely to get a click from a millennial than a form, even a web form. alerts and proactively communicating via mobile technology, it provides the guest a chance to send a quick text to your concierge, giving you the opportunity to make it right before it blows up on social media. 4. Upon departure—bing, “We hope you enjoyed your stay. Would you like to have our bellmen hold your bags while you enjoy breakfast at our café?” As a guest, imagine receiving this text note on your day of departure. Imagine also checking out

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

of your hotel via your mobile device. This is the level of service expected—this is what keeps millennials coming back. As an operator, imagine your housekeeping team knowing immediately when a guest has departed so they can optimize their workflow. 5. Post-departure is the ideal time to persuade millennial guests to return. However, what influenced previous generations won’t work the same for millennials. No longer will reward points be enough to keep them coming back, and bombarding them with too many promotions results in a negative impression. You want to make sure your property is topof-mind for the future. Following the previously discussed steps 1-4, that is, leveraging mobile communications and better connecting to your guests—even anticipating their needs during their stay—creates a lasting impression. This is a new era. The new way of managing the guest experience. As a millennial, I believe I speak for other, like-minded guests in my generation when I say these mobile technology-driven scenarios are my dream when it comes to booking my next stay at a casino hotel or resort. Enabling mobile devices to provide the communication and simplicity we millennials so desperately desire will set your property apart. The good news is that today’s technology leaders are engineering solutions with the MGE in mind. Moving forward, serving this generation of guests who have entirely new expectations, you’ll need a system that can connect all these services, including SMS, online check-in, remote keys/entry and remote check-out. Mobile, next-gen technology is essential to attracting new business and gaining guest loyalty. This is hospitality reimagined. Kevin Hibbs is a senior program manager at Agilysys, a leading technology company providing innovative software solutions for property management, analytics, point-of-sale (POS) and mobile solutions and services to the hospitality industry. Hibbs has served in hospitality and the hospitality technology space for 15 years.

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RiskyBusiness

Regulatory reform is a priority of operators, vendors and regulators themselves. So, why is it taking so long? BY MARK BALESTRA

on’t think for a second that the gambling industry’s “millennial” conundrum is a discussion reserved for marketing strategists and product developers. It is also a matter for regulators to tackle. A decade removed from the heyday of Texas Hold’emania, the casino industry needs to engage the millennial market just as the horse-racing industry needed—and incidentally failed—to capture Gen Xers a few decades ago. The name of the game, of course, is adaptation, and regulatory reform will play as big a role in the transition as anything else. Most importantly, regulators must keep pace with the ever-changing focuses of the millennials’ fancy. Generally speaking, traditional casino games—especially slots—have little appeal to the under-40 market. Millennials want games requiring skill; they seek challenges that involve multi-tasking; and they are attracted to games that offer a social experience. They are tech-savvy and eager to try new, innovative games. To satisfy this insatiable thirst for things new and exciting, the casino industry needs the regulatory process to move swiftly and efficiently. And businesses that operate at the intersection of technology and entertainment— along with the investors who underwrite them—simply cannot pour resources into bringing products to market in slow-moving, overly restrictive regulatory environments. Regulatory reform would seem to be the cut-and-dry solution, but it is not as easy as simply shedding layers of regulatory control for the sake of removing hoops and speeding up the process. Deeply embedded in the culture of regulated gambling in the United States is the notion that all conceivable measures must be taken to assure the safest, fairest possible consumer experience and to keep organized crime out of the gambling industry. Casino gambling took hold across the United States only after regulators in Nevada and New Jersey established themselves as global standard-bearers for stringent gambling regulation.

AMERICAN FRUSTRATION The challenge for U.S. regulators, then, is adapting to the changing world while maintaining the level of integrity that has been necessary for gambling to thrive in the states. The American Gaming Association addressed the challenge in 2011 with a white paper covering 10 recommendations for streamlining gambling regulation:

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

• License terms should be indeterminate or, alternatively, extended for at least five years. (The renewal process drains resources, takes time and in most cases is unnecessary.) • Extend the use of uniform license applications (avoiding multiple applications for what is essentially the same game, product or technology). • Allow a waiver from licensing and/or registration requirements for institutional investors holding less than a 25 percent ownership of a licensee. (There is no need to license or register investors without a controlling interest.) • Extend the use of “shelf approvals” for debt transactions and public offerings. (Licensees would be able to execute debt transactions for up to five years after getting approved.) • Require no more than registration of outside directors. (Removing the licensing requirement for outside directors will make it easier for licensees to recruit top-notch talent.) • Eliminate unnecessary regulatory filings. (Materials provided in certain quarterly and annual reports are already available to regulators online or through other licensee submissions.) • Update licensing procedures and practices (in an effort to reduce costs and burdens for applicants as well as regulators). • Eliminate prescribed minimum internal control standards (MICS).

“The heavily regulated model ended up being terrible for innovation. You need to be able to get out there and cast new things, and if it gets hung up on the lab, you’re never going to see it in time.” —Richard Schuetz, executive director, Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission

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(The AGA sees these as “exhaustive documents that represent an unnecessary level of regulatory micro-management.”) • Eliminate prior-notice or pre-approval of the shipment of electronic gaming machines. (These requirements create confusion and delay in getting games to the floor and can be replaced with post-delivery notice.) • Reduce the number of pre-approvals for electronic gaming machines. (Rather than requiring pre-approval for every modification, regulators would require manufacturers to certify compliance with at least some of the regulatory requirements, which would also be subject to random regulatory confirmation.) Following the release its white paper, the AGA announced it was making regulatory reform a priority and launched a new section of its website dedicated to the topic. Then-AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf explained in an article written for Global Gaming Business, “Changes in the way games are played, advancing technologies and new communications will continue to require new or updated regulations. New types of gamingcompany ownerships and board structures, as well as federal oversight over many industry activities, present regulators with a new paradigm. This—combined with gaming’s rapid expansion throughout the country—makes it essential for both licensees and regulators to make the rapid adjustments necessary for our industry’s continued success.” From a broader perspective, the way forward in the 2010s is twofold: Streamline administrative processes—both internally and externally—and expand to allow new forms of gambling that attract younger gamblers. It’s easier said than done, however, because streamlining translates to downsizing, and government agencies are reluctant to abandon their bureaucratic ways.

the lab, you’re never going to see it in time.” For smaller jurisdictions, outsourcing is a necessary part of the solution. The Bermuda Gaming Commission, for example, relies on the big-four accounting firms to handle administrative tasks, such as background checks. Likewise, they use third-party testing labs rather than staffing and maintaining in-house labs.

RED STICKY TAPE Richard Schuetz, a former member of the California Gambling Control Commission and current executive director of the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission, believes that the bureaucratic nature of regulatory agencies is one of the biggest obstacles. “The heavily regulated model ended up being terrible for innovation,” Schuetz explains. “You need to be able to get out there and cast new things, and if it gets hung up on

SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com

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“We should always be evaluating regulatory policy and make sure it’s keeping up with the regulatory risks, but you should also be constantly be saying, ‘How can I do this more efficiently?’ ” —Kevin Mullally, general counsel and director of government affairs, Gaming Laboratories International

Beyond that, Schuetz advocates the following practices: Establish compliance committees in lieu of having regulators scrutinizing each licensee’s every move. The committees would assume many of the regulatory tasks, understanding that they will be audited by the regulatory agency. They would have an absolute commitment to self-disclosure; when they find something wrong it is their duty to report it to the regulators. Shift from mandated internal controls to operator-defined internal controls. Operators would define their internal controls having to do with their culture and their level of technological sophistication. The regulators would approve the controls, and the operators would be held to maintaining them. Achieve cooperation and sharing among jurisdictions. If the regulators in one jurisdiction have confidence in the regulatory controls of another jurisdiction, why not have a memorandum of understanding through which licensees don’t have to jump through the same hoops in each jurisdiction? Bermuda, for example, has been working with New Jersey; if an application comes to the commission from an entity already licensed in New Jersey, the commission could base its approval on New Jersey regulators’ investigative file on the applicant. Jurisdictional uniformity is perhaps the biggest component of streamlining, although Schuetz cautions that a blanket, one-size-fits-all approach would never work. The reality, says Kevin Mullally, general counsel and director of government affairs for Gaming Laboratories International, is that each jurisdiction has specific needs to be met. “The sociopolitical and economic environment in each jurisdiction is a relevant factor,” Mullally says, “and some in the industry have tried to say, ‘OK, we’ve looked around the world and here’s what we think is best. You guys all go and adopt it,’ without any jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction strategy. However, this isn’t realistic, since regulators need to consider their unique needs.” Mullally says the first decision is to determine the public policy objective. “What specific risk are you trying to mitigate?” he asks. “What public benefit are you trying to promote? “You should be able to clearly answer those questions. Then you work through a process of how we most efficiently go about doing that by using a minimum amount of state resources, a minimum amount of industry resources, and the minimum amount of state authority needed to achieve our objective. 98

Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

“Jurisdictions are going to have lot of the same answers, but they’re not all going to have all the same answers. What’s important from a public policy perspective in one jurisdiction is going to be less important to another, or it’s going to be different. So when you have a different public policy objective in a state like Florida or Arizona than you do in Nevada or New Jersey, you’re going to have a different regulation.”

SETTING THE BAR Mullally adds that forgoing jurisdictional uniformity, at least for GLI, doesn’t necessarily slow the approval process. For example, GLI has test scripts approved by individual jurisdictions so that when a manufacturer submits a game for testing, the lab tests for multiple jurisdictions in a single pass. Its testing times are as short as they’ve ever been: 13 days for a game program, with more complex submissions taking slightly longer. “Our ability to produce really fast certifications is in spite of an enormous increase in the complexity of the games and communication protocols that are producing a significant increase in the discovery of first-pass defects,” Mullally says. “We are finding defects, and manufacturers are fixing them. Thus, getting through the lab is not the bottleneck, but a policy allowing devices on the floor without testing will lead to customers being exposed to non-compliant defects.” It would seem, then, that a balance could be struck between achieving the efficiencies necessary for staying afloat in the “millennial” age and doing what’s best for the individual agency and, more importantly, the community that it serves. This approach is emerging throughout the United States, where states are tailoring their regulatory frameworks with community interests in mind. New to casino gambling, Massachusetts has the advantage of working with a clean slate. The licensing model is geared toward assuring benefits to the communities surrounding casinos and entails a three-step process: (1) approval by local government; (2) voter referendum; and (3) approval by the gaming commission. The state has placed a limit on the number of licensees, with geographic exclusivity going to applicants who show that they are willing to invest heavily in their communities. New Jersey, meanwhile, virtually overhauled its system of regulatory procedures around the same time the AGA developed its white paper. SB-12, a law passed in 2011, removed the duplication of tasks shared by the commission and the gaming division.

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ONLINE DIFFERENCES Will iGaming walk a different regulatory path? eliant on technology and interactivity, online gambling has undoubtedly been a catalyst for the broader regulatory reform movement in the United States. The relatively new sector resides at the intersection of electronic games and the “social” casino experience and commands a swiftly evolving regulatory approach. The urgency of keeping pace with technology has been a constant since day one. If you could point to one area where there is a demand for reform in the United States, it is perhaps jurisdictional cooperation. The intrastate model used in U.S. is somewhat counter-intuitive to the iGaming experience. Outside the United States, the industry has thrived on its ability to simultaneously tap markets all over the world and even bring gamblers together in a virtual setting. Online poker survives only with a critical mass of players, which is impossible to achieve in all but a handful of highly populated states. The natural progression, seen through the proliferation of multistate lotteries, is compacts between jurisdictions. A major step in this direction took place in 2015 with the launch of an online poker network pooling players based in Delaware and Nevada, two of three states where online poker is regulated. The only way for online poker to succeed in these two states, given their small populations, is through agreements like this. It is all but certain that the adoption of online poker in additional states will lead to more multi-jurisdictional agreements. What isn’t clear, however, is whether such a movement would be hampered by inconsistences in the way different states regulate. The proliferation of tribal-regulated online gambling also will add to the complexities. A second area of online gambling regulatory reform is the loosening of “bad-actor” restrictions. The initial approach among U.S. online gambling jurisdictions was to preclude licensure for businesses that have profited from online gambling offered illegally to U.S. consumers. This arguably eliminated the contribution of the operators who are best equipped to assure the success of online gambling in the United States. It had long been held by many that it was only a matter of time before the so-called bad actors found there way into the market, and the prediction materialized last year with approval of PokerStars in New Jersey.

It also replaced the requirement of licensing casino employees and nongaming vendors with less arduous registration processes, eliminated the commission’s gaming inspectors, eliminated hearings for matters not involving casino licensure, replaced costly periodic casino license renewals with requiring licensees to submit documents every five years (with hearing held if there is believed to be an issue), eliminated lengthy disclosure forms for parties holding less than a 25 percent interest in licensees (raised from 15 percent prior to SB-12), and accelerated the debt approval process. The state also launched the New Jersey First program, whereby any new gaming equipment submitted to the division’s lab for approval before (or simultaneously with) its submission to any other jurisdiction can be put on 100 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

the casino floor within 14 days (unless found to be non-compliant). New York is likewise looking at streamlining administrative procedures. Consistent with the AGA’s model for reform, the New York State Gaming Commission has issued its own white paper. Suggested changes include include lightening the administrative workload by expanding the term of license renewal; cutting costs by standardizing applications, reducing duplication by creating single occupational licensees applicable for working in multiple industries; attracting institutional investors by waiving licensure for stakeholders with passive roles in the business; and giving licensees opportunities for financing through pre-approval of debt transactions. Washington appears to have taken the AGA model to heart as well. The gambling commission there conducted “an honest and open-minded review of each of the three divisions’ regulatory programs and implemented changes where appropriate.” Many of the changes are of a technical nature, including the implementation of e-learning software already used for employee training by other state agencies; creation of a database that makes it easier to obtain, update and share tribal information with agency staff; a new system for processing applications online through which licensees can submit and amend applications online; an automated annual tribal review program (saving time and reducing duplicate entries); and improvements to accounting software and billing systems. One of the most significant adaptations among U.S. jurisdictions to the evolving consumer market of late has been regulations dealing with skill-based electronic games. Whereas slot machines previously had very little appeal to younger gamblers, a new wave of machines could look more like arcade games with multiple tasks and levels. Nevada and New Jersey already have laws and regulations in place. Massachusetts has approved skill games through its 2011 casino law, but has not yet developed regulations. Policymakers in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland have considered skill games as well. Looking at the big picture, it is evident that the so-called reform movement is hardly a revolution that will produce sea change. Rather, it is a gradual, deliberate process on which the gambling industry is banking for continued prosperity. In that sense, Mullally isn’t even convinced that labeling progress as “reform” is entirely accurate, at least from the perspective of GLI. “We should always be evaluating regulatory policy to make sure it’s keeping up with the regulatory risks,” he says, “but you should also be constantly be saying, ‘How can I do this more efficiently?’” Fortunately for the gaming industry, it appears that regulatory agencies are gradually embracing this mindset.

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Evaluating eSports Why casino marketers will be missing the boat if they don’t examine how this can impact their operation and attract new, younger customers By Robert Rippee

he headline read, “Why eSports Is The Next Big Thing In Marketing.” The source: Forbes Magazine. The article was by Baldwin Cunningham from February 2016. Yes, it was in that Forbes. Are you still not getting it? Apparently, it has taken a while to sink in. In the casino and gaming sector, it perhaps has yet to fully sink in. eSports is the next big thing—in fact, it is the major big thing in casinos for the foreseeable future. Why?

Facing Facts Here are some facts: • Millennials are now the casino’s most important customer. The millennial cohort group is now the largest demographic group in the United States, surpassing both baby boomers like me and the Gen X in between. How obvious can this be to the casino operators? The millennial is the primary customer segment now and for the next 20 years. There are more of them than any other customer segment a casino has, and as nature dictates, the number of other demographic group customers will continue to shrink. So much so that within a short period, the rate of decline will increase dramatically. • Millennials are the most unique generational cohort group since the 1930s. I’ve used the following example a few times recently with my baby boomer colleagues. I ask them the ages of their children. In one example, he had a 20-year-old daughter. I asked him at what age the daughter first attended formal schooling. He replied about 4 years old. I asked what was in that classroom. He looked at me with an odd sort of expression, so I prompted him with the answer: a computer. What did your 4-year-old daughter do on that computer in the classroom, I asked. Answer: She played games. She played games structured around learning, but nonetheless, she played games. Fast-forward 16 years and put that fact into perspective. His daughter has never lived in a world without a computer; she has never lived without the internet, and

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“We (millennials) see slot machines, no matter the skin they’ve draped on it, as nails on chalkboard. With the lack of interactivity, the shallowness of the game and the lack of social reward, it doesn’t hold our attention.” —Levi Larkin, eSports expert and millennial

for all practical purposes, social media have always been a part of her personal communication ecosystem. His daughter is a digital native. The technology is embedded in the fabric of her life. That fact does not apply to the behavior of the baby boomers or their parents (the silent generation). No other generation has ever been like them. Secondly, consider their assured sense of self-confidence. I asked if his daughter played any sports as a child. Of course, he said; she played soccer from an early age. So, at the end of the season what happened? Answer: everyone got a trophy. Her generation has been coddled, supported and encouraged as no prior generation experienced. They’ve also been referred to as the nanny generation. We have taught them that they are protected, smart, capable and can take on challenges. That they are all equal and that collaboration and cooperation with your cohorts is what matters. There were no “Baby on Board” stickers when I was a child. I remember riding in the front seat of my parents’ car without a seat belt. So, is it any surprise that the millennials are so incredibly different? The implications are obvious. No enterprise—casino, retail store, restaurant or whatever—can use the same values and processes that worked on the baby boomer. And many are already facing that harsh reality on the bottom line. • eSports is about much more than video games. If you think it’s only about the games, then you are wrong. The games represent a form of media to the millennial, and as such fulfill certain uses and gratifications within each one. That validated theory is called Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT). UGT suggests that “media use is motivated by needs and goals that are defined by audience members themselves, and that active participation in the communication process may facilitate, limit or otherwise influence the gratifications and effects associated with exposure.” Among the assumptions of UGT is one very relevant point about eSports: “The audience is active, and its media use is goal-oriented.” Millennials play eSports because the media form satisfies psychological needs within them—goals. Get it? There are underlying psychological needs that are satisfied by playing, watching and participating in the eSports media experience that are unique to the millennial. It is not just about a video game.

Dissonant Disruption eSports and its media are disruptive to the current casino model. In my innovation class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, we discuss the concept of disruptive innovation in great detail. One of the elements of disruptive innovation postulated by famed Harvard innovator Clayton Christensen in his monumental book on innovation, The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business, was that the incumbent enterprise has little motivation to disrupt its business for several reasons. First, for most successful businesses, sustained growth comes from a sustained improvement for your most profitable customer. In the casino, the evolution of the slot machine validates this very theory. Slot machines are enormously profitable from the silent generation and baby boomer customer. Innovation in slot machines is what Christensen describes as sustained innovation; it provides incremental improvements targeted at the most the profitable customer. Second, in actuality, there is little immediate financial incentive or return for investing in disruptive innovation for the enterprise. What is the current profit from the millennial in the casino of today? It is negligible. So, why would a casino focus resources away from their most profitable customer (baby boomer and silent generation) toward a far less profitable one, the millennial? That would be very difficult to rationalize and contrary to most business logic. However, as Christensen explains, the failure to do so will eventually lead to disruption of the industry. I believe we have a hint to that in the daily fantasy sports situation of the last year. Putting aside the many controversial issues about DFS, one fact is indisputable: The DFS enterprises were able to motivate millions of millennials to play their game. Virtually none of that happened in a casino. Whether it will ultimately return or in what form is not the point. The point is that it was disruptive innovation. It focused on a customer perceived to be unprofitable by the casino. There is a lesson in that example that can be applied to eSports.

Look Outside the Box One of the most important lessons in disruptive innovation is that attempting to pursue this with internal teams usually leads to failure. In a Harvard Business Review article, Christensen and Michael Overdorf stated, “The reason that innovation often seems to be so difficult for established companies is that they employ highly capable people and then set them to work within organizational structures whose processes and values weren’t designed for the task at hand.” SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com 103

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There are underlying psychological needs that are satisfied by playing, watching and participating in the eSports media experience that are unique to the millennial. It is not just about a video game. They assert that attempting to innovate with eSports within the existing organizational structure of the casino company is a high-risk bet. Imagine the operating executives at ExxonMobil with a strategic initiative to build a Tesla. Disruptive innovation in eSports will succeed if it is built on the values, processes and resources of experts in the field, and most importantly, with and by millennials. So, what exactly is an eSports experience in a casino? Fundamentally, that is probably one of the first questions to answer. With all due credit to the first iterations by experts like Sam McMullen V, Levi Larkin and Joseph Bennecke at locations like the Downtown Grand in Las Vegas and with Gameworks, the question remains largely unanswered. But these millennials are among the brilliant minds considering it. In today’s casino model, does it make sense to change the highly profitable slot floor and table games to eSports? From a financial perspective for the next quarter, the next year, the answer is probably no. From an experience perspective, what would you actually put there? An Xbox One in a kiosk? An alienware gaming computer in a fast-food setting? A giant LED screen to watch Twitch streams like a sports book? But alas, danger also lurks in these murky waters of innovation. The flood of eSports discussions has inundated the industry. Suddenly, the market has begun to become filled with so-called experts on the millennials and eSports. Fortunately, part of the knowledge will come from the place it should, UNLV. And the second will come from the gamers, the developers and other millennials themselves. Today at the International Gaming Institute, we are beginning to explore ideas around curricula and research specifically tailored toward eSports in the integrated resort. While we may not find all of the answers, one thing is for certain: We will be exploring the right questions. And with the assistance, guidance and expertise of the millennial experts, we may in fact help guide the discussion. As an industry, the casino industry is hardly at timeline zero. But in terms of eSports, it is just getting started. A couple of quotes sum it up: 104 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

“For eSports to thrive, three key aspects must be addressed—social experience, authenticity and inclusion. I believe developing an ultimate social experience for all, from competitive gamers to spectators, to enjoy together is vital for success. Millennials are looking for authenticity in their experiences, and when they find that, they become one of the most loyal communities. Gamers are the most inclusive in their culture, and giving them the ability to get together and share their passion is such an awarding experience for all to reap the benefits.” —Professional gamer, eSports expert and millennial Joseph Bennecke “Millennials and gamers are all about the experience. Experience is defined by our presence, and augmented by our perception. If our perception is focused on the past or the future, then we aren’t in the present, and we usually escape into our phones to create our own experience. Casinos of the future will need to cultivate a powerful presence in the experiences they provide, so that engagement isn’t lost by a similar shift in perception.” —Futurist, technologist, eSports expert and millennial Sam McMullen V The answer to eSports for the casino begins and ends…. with a millennial, the next big thing.

Robert Rippee is director of the Innovation Lab for Hospitality at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Innovation Lab develops and commercializes innovative applications and ideas for global service industries including hospitality, restaurants, retail and entertainment. Rippee also actively researches millennial ethnography, behavior and eSports gaming. He is a director of consulting firm Elysian LLC and the former senior vice president of marketing for Las Vegas Sands Corporation.

ExCeL, London 7-9 February 2017

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To join the world at ICE visit icetotallygaming.com

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POKER Prosperity

Is poker poised for a return to prominence?

oker has been the proverbial redheaded stepchild of the casino industry. The house collection in peer-to-peer games is incapable of generating the type of revenue the house edge in slots and table games brings in, not to mention the cost of staffing a poker room compared to a bank of slot machines. Throughout most of its history, poker has been viewed as more of a necessary nuisance than a revenue stream. In the few casinos that even offered poker tables, poker rooms were often relegated to small, out-of-the-way corners of the casino floor, with many casinos choosing to replace them with a few rows of slot machines—an all-too-common occurrence throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. By 2003, poker rooms in casinos appeared to be on life support. The number of poker tables in Nevada had dropped to 383, the fewest since the UNLV Center for Gaming Research began tracking the number of tables in 1992, and a 35 percent drop since 1994, when there were 586 poker tables in Nevada. But by the end of 2003, casino attitudes toward poker underwent a paradigm shift. A perfect storm of events occurred, culminating with the aptly named Chris Moneymaker winning the 2003 World Series of Poker Main

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The World Series of Poker became the property of Caesars Entertainment just before the poker boom exploded

By Steve Ruddock

Event, which just happened to be broadcast on ESPN with a relatively new technology called the hole-card camera. The public became enamored with the game, and the poker boom was born.

Opportunity Knocked; Online Poker Answered A big part of the Moneymaker narrative was the online component. Having won his way into the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament through a $40 online satellite gave ESPN, and the poker industry writ large, the chance to sell Moneymaker’s rags-to-riches story as an everyman’s tale, not just something people with an extra $10,000 to waste on a poker tournament could achieve. Because of the online element, the public was not only introduced to the World Series of Poker, but the cost to enter wasn’t seen as prohibitive. Everyone who’d ever shuffled a deck of cards suddenly envisioned themselves as a future poker champion holding bundles of $100 bills. Online poker had been around for five years when Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event, but until Moneymaker, few people had any idea you could play poker, for money, online. And then suddenly, people were

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Chris Moneymaker’s victory in the 2003 WSOP coincided with the introduction of the rail-cam and the growth of online poker, spurring the initial poker boom

heading to online poker tables in droves. It turned out to be the perfect outlet for wannabe poker players to make their dreams come true. Players no longer had to drive (or depending on where you live, fly) to a casino to play poker, or have a minimum of several hundred dollars in their wallet to sit in a game. Online poker was available to anyone with an internet connection, and allowed people to buy in for just a few dollars.

Poker’s Attention Surplus Because of its exposure, when most people are asked to conjure up an image of online gambling, the first thing that pops into their mind is online poker. This shouldn’t be too surprising. Online poker was one of, if not the key driver of the poker boom, and as poker became a staple on TV and in pop culture, online poker sites were advertising much like the daily fantasy sports companies of today. In the mid 2000s, you couldn’t turn on the TV without coming across a poker program or seeing poker advertising, and everyone from college kids in their dorms to 9-to-5-ers in their cubicles had caught the poker bug. But with the poker boom having come to a close, and the online gaming

industry having been consolidated by dozens of mergers and acquisitions that have seen the hodgepodge of independent, privately owned online poker sites come under the umbrella of publicly traded multibillion-dollar companies that offer every form of online gaming under the sun, poker’s star is fading. In 2016, online poker is a lot like poker in brick-and-mortar card rooms—it’s a nice little product to offer and helps bring in customers, but the real money is in the other online gambling verticals. Even PokerStars, which had stayed true to its poker roots until it was bought by Amaya in 2014, now offers casino games, sports betting and even daily fantasy sports, and it’s these verticals that PokerStars’ new owner, Amaya, seems focused on, and for good reason. Online poker’s resonance with the general public belies its current place in the online gaming pantheon, as it pales in comparison to the other online gaming verticals when it comes to the amount of revenue it generates. In New Jersey, online casino revenue outpaces online poker by a 6-to-1 margin. And New Jersey isn’t an outlier. The European online gaming market is estimated to be worth €14.3

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“On a broader cultural level, the popularity of poker seems to be somewhat cyclical.” —OnlinePokerReport.com’s Chris Grove

billion, according to industry analyst Eilers and Krejcik Gaming. Online poker accounts for less than €1 billion of the market, about 6 percent. The ratio of casino revenue to poker is close to New Jersey, about 7-to-1. Sports betting—€5.8 billion Casino—€6.5 billion Poker—€900 million Bingo/Other—€1.1 billion Even under the best-case scenario, online poker is outpaced by all other verticals. H2 Gambling Capital reached a similar conclusion for the total European online gaming market (€14.2 billion), but their breakdowns are a bit different, and poker accounts for about 14 percent of all online gaming revenue: Sports betting—€5.9 billion Casino—€3.9 billion Poker—€2 billion Bingo/Other—€2.3 billion In addition to being a smaller market, online poker has smaller profit margins than online casino, and now that the vast majority of poker sites are part of publicly traded multibillion-dollar entities, they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to invest capital where it will have the best returns. The result is less focus on online poker.

Taking Online Poker Global What makes poker such a frustrating product for casinos and online gaming operators is the game’s many limitations. Brick-and-mortar poker rooms require a lot of space and a lot of employees to run properly. Furthermore, poker players by nature are always looking for edges, and are among a casino’s most discerning customers, constantly looking for deals and rewards, which have dried up in recent years. Online poker may not have the same space and payroll concerns as its brick-and-mortar counterpart, but there is another aspect of the game that makes it more difficult on operators: liquidity. Legalization and regulation efforts have permeated the online gambling industry, and while this is good from a consumer protection point of view, it’s balkanized the industry. Instead of poker sites being able draw from a global player pool, they’re now constrained by the size of the regulated market they’re operating in. Because online casino and sports betting aren’t restricted by liquidity, these industries have had an easier time adapting to and thriving in regulated markets. Add to this the increased overhead and operating expenses that stem 108 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

from licensing and regulation in multiple locales, and it becomes impossible for poker operators to engage in the massive marketing campaigns or offer the types of incentives that attracted so many players to the game a decade ago. One solution to regulated poker’s liquidity problem is to re-create the global market of 2005 through interstate and international agreements, such as the one New Jersey and the United Kingdom are trying to hash out. The two locales are currently working with common operators to see if liquidity sharing is feasible and how it would be implemented, which, in the words of New Jersey Division of Gaming Director David Rebuck, would radically alter the struggling New Jersey online poker market. “With 9 million people in New Jersey, and more than 63 million in the United Kingdom, this would mean a massive increase in liquidity for New Jersey operators,” Rebuck told Global Gaming Business in June. Agreements of this sort are the only way online poker can put the infrastructure in place, like they had in 2003, if a second perfect storm occurs. If the markets remain balkanized, a second poker boom (likely to be more of an aftershock) is unlikely.

Making Poker Fun Again Poker, in its traditional form, doesn’t have the same appeal it had back in the early and mid 2000s, and online poker sites are scurrying to come up with a way to make the game more appealing. For a variety of reasons, poker is no longer the millennial magnet it once was. One reason for this, but certainly not the only one, is that the pendulum of skill vs. luck has tilted too far in the skill direction. The internet may have brought poker to all corners of the globe, but along with the games, it also brought knowledge and advice. Because of this, the games are tougher, and upward mobility in poker has been stunted. The quality of play has improved exponentially, and filtered down into even the lowest-stakes games, which used to be fun, action-packed rollercoaster rides of all-in bets. In addition to being tougher, solid players are also boring players, and their patient, disciplined play tends to sap the fun out of poker. This lack of fun, and how online poker companies first tried to deal with it, is a major problem, according to Scientific Games Senior Vice President Roger Snow, who recently told Bloomberg, “People say, ‘Oh, just give players a game that’s really close to no house advantage, and they’ll love it.’ They don’t.” Snow went on to talk about the lack of fast upward mobility. “I think what players like is what I call volatility, which is very loosely the ability to win money quickly,” Snow said. “I’ve met other game inventors, and they have different philosophies. I like games that are very aggressive. If you’re behind, you can catch up, and if you’re ahead, you can press your advantage.” Snow isn’t the only person who has come to the conclusion that volatility is important. So, if you’re confused by the popularity of Spin & Go’s and the other fast-paced lottery-style games that have taken online poker by storm, you shouldn’t be, because these games offer the volatility Snow is talking about.

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“I like games that are very aggressive. If you’re behind, you can catch up, and if you’re ahead, you can press your advantage.” —Scientific Games Senior VP Roger Snow on how poker can be made more popular

The Changing Face Of Poker Ever since the rollout of lottery-style Sit & Go tournaments (PokerStars Spin & Go’s being the most well-known of these) these less skillful poker variants have received a tremendous amount of scorn from the professional poker community. The general consensus in the poker world is that online poker sites are moving casual poker players into other, more profitable verticals such as casino. There is certainly some truth to this, but as already noted, companies, especially publicly traded companies, must maximize profits. But to Snow’s point, if people have stopped participating in traditional poker games, the way to bring them into the mix is by offering them products, such as Spin & Go’s, that they’re interested in. Hopefully, these new products, that combine the skillful elements of poker with more traditional, volatile forms of gambling, will pique their interest, and lead some of them to the traditional poker tables. The chance for a big score is how you get average players to compete against great players.

Poker’s Future Looks A Lot Like Its Past In 2003, it was the hole card camera that had people salivating to play poker, and

the existence of online poker provided them with unfettered access. In 2016, innovations such as lottery-style games (or some wholly unknown technological advancement or event) could rekindle the public’s interest in poker, but it will take further regulation in the U.S. coupled with interstate and international agreements to put the necessary framework in place to accommodate these players if a second poker boom hits. And as Chris Grove, publisher of OnlinePokerReport.com and a partner with Narus Advisors, indicates, poker isn’t going to simply disappear from the scene. “On a broader cultural level, the popularity of poker seems to be somewhat cyclical,” Grove says. “You could argue that the cycle is due to start swinging back around after a half-decade where poker has been relegated to something of an afterthought. “That momentum combined with the apparent propensity for millennial gamblers to prefer games with a skill element could set the stage for a rekindling of interest in poker, although it’s likely to pale in comparison to what we saw in the mid-2000s.”

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Caesars Sheds Playtika

he $4.4 billion sale by Caesars Entertainment Corp. of its lucrative Playtika social gaming platform is already paying dividends for the beleaguered parent of debt-laden casino giant Caesars Entertainment Operating Company. CEC shares rose the most in five months in August—18 percent in trading in New York—despite posting a $2 billion second quarter loss incurred mainly as a result of the protracted Chapter 11 restructuring of CEOC, which has been operating under U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection since January of last year. Also, the company’s $3.6 billion of 10 percent second-lien notes surged 8.5 cents to 51.5 cents on the dollar. The reason for the increases was a sudden shaft of light in CEOC’s seemingly endless bankruptcy tunnel. It came in the form of CEC upping its offer to recalcitrant holders of CEOC’s subordinate debt, agreeing to pay these junior creditors as much as 55 cents on the dollar in notes and stock, provided two-thirds of them agree. As of press time, slightly more than one-third had. The sale of Playtika appears to have been the key. Chinese investors led by Shanghai Giant Network Technology are paying cash for the Israeli company, which will remain independently managed, as it was under Caesars, news reports said. The consortium includes Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma and his private equity firm Yunfeng Capital. Playtika, which Caesars acquired in 2011 for $170 million, offers a selection of free games— Bingo Blitz and Slotomania are among the bestknown—that contain in-app purchasing opportunities. Users play with virtual currency but they do spend real money by purchasing items in the games. The deal does not include the World Series of Poker or Caesars iGaming real-money operations. Playtika had $725 million in revenue last year and is on pace in 2016 to grow that to $900 million. For the three months ended June 30, CEC reported a 7.8 percent increase in revenue to $1.2 bil-

lion, which the company credited to another stellar performance by its Caesars Interactive Entertainment division, which includes Playtika. Playtika’s Slotomania

William Hill Rejects 888/Rank Group Acquisition Bid

illiam Hill has turned down a $4.2 billion bid from 888 Holdings and the Rank Group to acquire the U.K. bookmaker. The bid offered 364 pence a share, with 45 percent of that being shares in a new company formed to make the acquisition, William Hill said in a press statement. The stock bid was 16 percent lower than William Hill’s stock price before news of the acquisition leaked, the statement said. The bid was essentially $1.7 billion in cash plus 45 percent of the newly created company. “This conditional proposal substantially undervalues William Hill, is highly opportunistic and does not reflect the inherent value of the business,” William Hill Chairman Gareth Davis said in the statement. The “highly complicated” proposal involves “substantial risk” for shareholders, as the merged company would be saddled with $2.2 billion of debt to fund the cash part of the deal, it said. William Hill’s statement on the rejected bid, however, did not say the idea of the merger was unacceptable, leaving open the possibility that it would consider a higher bid. 888 Holdings and the Rank Group are expected to make another offer, according to analysts, but it is unclear if the two companies have the cash needed to close a deal.

Golden Nugget Launches Live-Dealer Online Casino

he online casino of the Golden Nugget Atlantic City last month became the first U.S. online site to initiate live-dealer online table games. Led by Tillman Fertitta, chairman and CEO of Golden Nugget parent company Landry’s, Inc., the casino officially cut the ribbon on its exclusive On-

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line Live Dealer studio, which is now sending livedealer games of blackjack, American roulette and Dragon Bonus Baccarat through cyberspace to laptops or smartphones via GoldenNuggetCasino.com, which is New Jersey’s leading online casino. The state-of-the-art video studio is located along the walkway from the casino’s parking garage to the main atrium, with floor-to-ceiling windows giving passersby a view of the games as they are broadcasted. The live-dealer games are active online from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. daily. Providing the online digital gaming platform for the operation was Ezugi NJ. The games are run in real time so players can place real-money bets and interact with real dealers from the Golden Nugget Atlantic City, as well as other players at the table— as if they are all on the casino floor. The wagering, playability and payout are all calculated in microseconds and displayed in real time on the players’ screens. Fertitta said the games will “absolutely” be expanded at some point beyond the initial three offerings. Live-dealer games have been offered by European online casinos for some time, and are a staple in stadium-style setups in Asia, where real-time video is streamed to individual game terminals. The Golden Nugget is the first to apply the technology to one of the newly regulated U.S. internet casinos.

Ignition Casino Buys Bovada Poker

ovada has sold its online poker services to littleknown Ignition Casino. According to an email sent to Bovada customers, poker accounts will have to be transferred to Ignition by September 30, but Bovada’s sports book, casino and race book products will be unaffected. It’s unclear if Ignition will continue to offer poker to U.S. players, and it’s also unclear who owns or controls Ignition. The move came as a surprise to many analysts, but Ignition Casino uses the same software platform as Bovada, and Bovada promised that there will be no change to the features offered at the site. Ignition is owned by Lynton Limited. Both Ignition and Bovada are licensed by the Kahnawake

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Gaming Commission, and both sites currently share poker player pools. Lynton Limited has three gambling domains that are licensed by the KGC: IgnitionCasino.eu, CafeCasino.lv, and Slots.lv. Bovada Poker is third-largest international online poker room in terms of cash game traffic, according to PokerScout.com. The company is a spinoff of the Bodog brand founded by Calvin Ayre, and began operating and accepting U.S. players after the U.S. Department of Justice moved to shut down U.S. play on offshore sites in 2011—otherwise known as Black Friday.

Penn Pushes Deeper Into Social Gaming

enn National Gaming Inc. has acquired social media gaming developer Rocket Games for about $60 million in cash. The purchase “highlights our ongoing strategic initiative to acquire emerging growth platforms that complement, and allow us to leverage, our core regional gaming operations and database of over 3 million active customers,” said Penn President and CEO Timothy Wilmott. He said publicly traded Penn, which operates 27 casinos nationwide, has been “highly focused” on growth and diversification since it separated its gaming assets from its real estate assets in 2013 and created a new company, Gaming and Leisure Properties. It launched two social casino sites, Hollywoodcasino.com and Hollywoodslots.com, in 2015. Wilmott said the games have drawn in customers to its other operations.

“Based on our internal analysis, a significant segment of Penn National’s database customers actively participate in social and online gaming, and we believe there are meaningful operating and revenue synergies between Penn National’s operations and Rocket’s operations.” Founded in 2013, Rocket grew revenue by 500 percent last year and earned about $5.6 million in revenue before taxes for the first six months of 2016, according to a news release. The company’s flagship game, Viva Slots Vegas, attracts about 200,000 active players per day, according to Chris Sheffield, managing director of iGaming for Penn. Rocket and its 30 employees will remain at their San Francisco base of operations, the company said.

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Showdown OKCORRAL at the

Oklahoma tribal casino talks getting tense By Dave Palermo

hen Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin is termed out of office in 2018, she might well leave the state with a budget shortfall that this summer reached $450 million—a monetary crisis largely blamed on the failing oil and gas industries. Schools have been particularly hard-hit, with the state legislature slashing the education budget by $106 million, a cutback that threatens implementation of a four-day school week. “I’m hoping the legislature knows the decisions they’re making will affect future generations,” Sand Springs Superintendent Lloyd Snow told the Leader newspaper in outlining anticipated cuts in education programs. The Sooner State’s financial pains could be lessened if Fallin manages to renegotiate tribal-state agreements, or compacts, with 33 American Indian tribes operating some 124 gambling operations ranging from travel plazas to upscale casino resorts. Tribes under current compacts pay the state 4 percent to 6 percent of the Class III slot machine win and 10 percent of table game revenues, or roughly $128 million a year, according to state regulators. Education is the primary recipient of Indian casino money.

Eye on Revenue

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin may leave office in 2018 without new tribal gaming compacts

Cash-strapped states often turn to Indian casinos to ease budget woes. And Fallin would like to see Oklahoma get a bigger share of its robust $4.2 billion tribal government gambling industry. But the state has virtually no leverage when it comes to getting tribes to renegotiate compacts set to expire in 2020, but

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with a renewal clause that could extend agreements another 15 years. Tribes are pleased with revenue sharing, and slot machines and table games provisions in the existing agreements. Moreover, unlike many of the 28 states with Indian casinos, Oklahoma compacts do not cap the number of slots, allowing tribes to adjust inventory to market demands. “I believe tribes are satisfied with the gaming they have on the floor,” says Sheila Morago, executive director of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association (OIGA), a lobby and trade group. “I’ve not heard” of any desire by the tribes to renegotiate compacts, she says. Moreover, relations between Fallin and Oklahoma tribes regarding gambling and other Indian matters—tobacco and sales tax compacts, for instance—are strained, making it highly unlikely Indian leaders will talk casino compacts with Fallin before she leaves office in 2018. Tribes also are angry that state regulators late last year wrote the U.S. Department of the Interior, questioning whether slot machines at a halfdozen tribal casinos violated the compacts, an apparently brazen, though illconceived, effort to force tribes to redo the agreements. Interior refused to get involved in the dispute. “Fallin approached things ass-backward,” says a tribal official who requested anonymity. “Instead of going to the tribes and saying, ‘We’d like to renegotiate compacts early,’ the governor’s people tried to issue notices of violation regarding the machines,” regulatory authority the state does not have under the compact. “Instead of offering the tribes a carrot, the state tried to whack the mule with a stick,” the official says. “That didn’t go over too well.” “It was very evident they were trying to pick a fight,” Comanche Wallace Coffey said before resigning in February as tribal chairman. Fallin’s office refused to respond to interview requests. The governor’s hard line on negotiating tobacco compacts and her decision to pursue litigation on reservation sales taxes angered tribes. And it didn’t help that her rock singer daughter, Christina, donned a

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“I believe tribes are satisfied with the gaming they have on the floor.” —Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Executive Director Sheila Morago, on why tribes aren’t interested in renegotiating compacts

traditional native headdress in a promotional photo for the band Pink Pony. “Things have really deteriorated into an acrimonious relationship,” says Indian law attorney Michael McBride of the Tulsa office of Crowe & Dunlevy. Rather than discussing new and potentially more generous compacts with the state, tribal leaders and operators of government gambling enterprises are increasing their inventory of Class II, bingo-style devices that, under federal law, are exempt from state taxes and regulations. (See page 116.) Technological advances to Class II machines have greatly increased their player appeal and profitability, allowing the devices to become powerful tools for tribes seeking to avoid onerous compact demands. Already the nation’s strongest Class II gambling market with some 30,000 bingo-style machines, Oklahoma will likely grow its Class II inventory even more before the time comes to negotiate new compacts.

And it’s not likely Fallin will be occupying the governor’s mansion when the talks begin. “Not only is she anti-tribe, she’s anti-gaming,” says Jamie Hummingbird, gaming commissioner for the Cherokee Nation Enterprise.

No Talks In The Works As is the case nationwide with Indian casinos, double-digit gambling growth in Oklahoma has slowed since the 2008 recession. But it has maintained a nearly 5 percent annual revenue increase. The positive growth has contributed to the diminished impetus by tribes to deal with compact negotiations, particularly with Fallin’s lawyers. “I think there’s an inclination to kick the can down the road,” McBride says. It’s not clear under what circumstances the 15-year automatic renewal

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“The state has gone dark.” —Jamie Hummingbird, director of the gaming commission for the Cherokee Nation Enterprise, on further attempts to force tribes to negotiate

kicks in. Indian law experts contend the wording in the compact is ambiguous. Since the bungled overture to Interior about the legality of machines, state officials have not formally approached the tribe about negotiations. “The state has gone dark,” Hummingbird says. “The state doesn’t seem to have any real plan beyond the belief that they need to get more money out of the tribes,” says John Tahsuda of Navigators Global, a Washington political consulting firm. “I don’t know what they can offer to entice the tribes to renegotiate.” Taking a hard line on the tobacco compacts may not have been a wise strategy, as smoke shops do not play a significant role in most tribal economies, particularly with Oklahoma’s larger gambling tribes. “That was a miscalculation on the state’s part,” Tahsuda says. “They approached the tobacco compacts very hard-nosed. And arguably, the state had a stronger hand to play on that front. “But for the tribes, tobacco is not as big a piece of the economic picture as it was 20, 25 years ago, when they negotiated the first tobacco compacts. If the state thought the tobacco talks were a precursor for how the gaming compacts will go, forget it.” The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and Interior policy discourage states from extending compact negotiations beyond the scope and regulation of gambling. But attorney George Wright, who won a tax arbitration judgment on behalf of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, believes the state may draw tobacco and sales tax compacts into the talks. “If we have an administration similar to the current administration, I think you’re going to see compliance with lots of state laws through the compact despite what IGRA does or doesn’t allow,” Wright says, including tobacco and tax compacts. “I think the state is going to try to get a lot more off that table than the gaming compact itself.”

Preference for Tribal Unity Tribes were unified earlier this year in blocking efforts to legalize daily fantasy sports, a move they saw as violating gambling exclusivity guaranteed in tribal-state compacts. “We killed that bill in seven hours,” Morago told an economic summit at the Cherokee Nation’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa. Tribes may be willing to discuss new compacts after Fallin leaves office and the 2020 expiration date nears. Much may depend on the economy. The Oklahoma market is approach-

ing saturation and tribes are pondering how to grow their gambling industries. Many are investing in non-gambling amenities such as hotels, retail and entertainment development. “I don’t think we have necessarily reached a plateau,” Hummingbird says, noting a nearly 5 percent growth in the nationwide tribal gambling industry, which sits at $29.9 billion. “But I think growth is somewhat limited by the terminology in our compact. “If we do go forward and look to renegotiate those compacts, what is the goal of the tribes? That’s really kind of the $64,000 question. Where do we go from here with our compacts?” Tribes may seek some kind of expanded gambling, he says, which could include Class III machines comparable to Nevada devices, along with housebanked table games. The state, in response, will likely seek an increased share of casino revenues. “Because our state budget is in dire straits, our discussions regarding the percentages are going to be the hot-button issue,” Hummingbird says. Tribal unity will help in leverage with the state. “United we conquer,” OIGA Chairman Brian Foster says. “Divided we get conquered.” The larger Oklahoma tribes with political clout and financial resources such as the Chickasaw, Cherokee and Choctaw nations have historically led the way on gambling and pan-Indian issues. But there have been rumors of mid-size and smaller tribes meeting with state officials to discuss the gambling agreements. “The state has been able to sow some discord among the tribes,” says a tribal official who requested anonymity. “A couple of the tribes expressed a willingness to strike out on their own, if the state had something to offer.” The tribes have been generous, paying the state $1 billion in exclusivity fees since 2006, according to a report by the Steven C. Agee Economic Resource and Policy Institute and research firm KlasRobinson. Tribal gambling employs 27,277 people, pays $910 million in wages and generates $264 million in taxes, according to the report. The ripple of economic growth, particularly in rural parts of the state, has proven valuable to Oklahoma’s prosperity, competing with the traditional oil and gas industries. That the state needs more irks more than a few indigenous leaders. Tribal gambling under IGRA is intended not to assist the states, but to generate revenue for tribal government programs. “The state looks at us as if we have deep pockets,” Coffey says. “But we give our resources back to our membership.”

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Class Action Bingo Machine Giant Oklahoma Will Get Even Bigger

ndian Country’s mecca of Class II, bingo-style slot machines is poised to grow even larger as Oklahoma tribes face the renegotiation of tribal-state gambling compacts due to expire in 2020. Unlike Class III casino-style slot machines subject to state taxes and regulations, tribes can operate Class II devices free of restraint beyond oversight by a tribal-friendly National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). The bingo-style machines—which sources contend make up about 15 percent of the 350,000 gambling devices in the 28 states with Indian casinos—are crucial leverage in negotiating new agreements with state officials. As a result, many of the 30 Oklahoma tribes with gambling facilities are increasing their inventory of Class II machines. “Compact negotiations are coming up,” says Robert Perry, vice president of sales for Las Vegas-based slot supplier AGS, which produces Class II video machines for the Oklahoma market. “Whether it’s Oklahoma, California or anywhere else, there’s always a trend up on Class II because it’s used as a negotiations tactic, because tribes don’t pay taxes on Class II devices.” “Compact negotiations are between the tribes and the state government. We have no place in that discussion,” says Jay Sevigny, president of Video Gaming Technologies (VGT), the Tennessee-based subsidiary of Aristocrat Technologies that divvies up Oklahoma’s Class II market with AGS. “Our commitment in that whole process is to make sure tribes have a successful Class II product, which gives them the economic strength to

“The Class II product proved, over time, to be very successful with the players. It’s a great value.” —Jay Sevigny, president, VGT

116 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

protect their sovereign rights and negotiate from a position of strength.” “We have seen a rise in Class II machines,” says John Estus, spokesman for the Oklahoma Gaming Compliance Unit. “We have not seen Class III keep up with that increase.” Class III machines subject to tribal-state compacts operate with random number generators while Class II devices use a pre-programmed bingo format. Class II devices were traditionally slower and less entertaining than Class III, but recent technological improvements and regulatory standards have made them more appealing and, in some cases, indiscernible to the players from Class III machines. Of the 28 states with Indian gambling, Oklahoma is by far the country’s largest Class II market with 28,640 devices, or roughly 65 percent of the 43,859 bingo machines nationwide, industry sources told Global Gaming Business. Class II devices make up nearly 44 percent of Oklahoma’s statewide inventory of 65,298 machines, the sources said. Economist Alan Meister, author of the 2016 Indian Gaming Industry Report, put the 2014 inventory of machines in Oklahoma at 70,219, with 29,609 Class II devices making up roughly 42 percent of the total. The Oklahoma Gaming Compliance Unit 2015 annual report— citing Meister’s figures—shows the state’s percentage of Class II ma-

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Of the 28 states with Indian gambling, Oklahoma is by far the country’s largest Class II market with 28,640 devices, or roughly 65 percent of the 43,859 bingo machines nationwide. chines increasing from 34 percent in 2008 to 42 percent in 2014, a growth trend that is likely to continue. Unlike other Indian gambling jurisdictions, Oklahoma residents had been patronizing tribal casinos for several years by the time legislators in 2004 approved landmark tribal-state compacts. Players were weaned on Class II devices, most of them VGT products. Oklahoma compacts called for a Class III electronic instant bingo machine that conformed to the Oklahoma State-Tribal Gaming Act but fell short of replicating the Class III casino-style devices found elsewhere in the country, including Nevada. Tribal and state regulators in 2006 agreed to tweak technical specifications for the Class III compacted games to speed up play and make the devices more appealing to gamblers. The percentage of Class III machines in Oklahoma casinos initially increased dramatically with signing of the compacts, jumping from 36 percent of the state’s inventory in 2004 to a peak of 66 percent in 2008. The trend then reversed, and the percentage of Class III games began to fall—rapidly—in part because of player loyalty to Class II devices. “Oklahoma came of age, really, with stepper (three-reel mechanical slots) and VGT,” says VGT’s Sevigny. “When compacts were signed… there was a general view that Class III would displace a great deal of the Class II product.” Operators purchased machines or signed revenue-sharing deals with Class III manufacturers, Sevigny says, only to realize many of their players preferred Class II games. “The Class II product proved, over time, to be very successful with the players. It’s a great value,” Sevigny says, with a high payback. “Customers have been very loyal to that.” “The players pretty much grew up on our product,” says Perry. The AGS Class II video product ranks second to VGT in the Oklahoma market but casts a wider net in other states. “Oklahoma players are very knowledgeable and savvy in that Class II space.”

The value of Class II in tribal-state compact talks nationwide is evident as agreements come up for renewal. But the issue is particularly significant in Oklahoma, the nation’s second-largest Indian casino state behind California, which generates $7 billion-plus a year. Technological improvements to Class II machines and regulatory support from NIGC have increased the popularity of bingo-style devices. Other states with large Class II inventories, according to industry sources, are Alabama (6,576), California (2,342), Washington (1,591), Wisconsin (1,242) and Arizona (1,059). But no state compares to Oklahoma, which, depending on various sources, has 28,000 to 30,000 Class II machines. The tax-exempt status of Class II games, coupled with the technological improvements, provide even casino operators in Class III markets with a viable, economical alternative to casinostyle slots. “When tribes can find a Class II product, they’re giving it every opportunity,” industry consultant Randy Carnett says. AGS, the nation’s second-largest producer of Class II devices, is anticipating a big demand both in Oklahoma and throughout the country. “There’s some pretty compelling Class II product being offered,” Perry says. VGT, acquired in 2014 by Aristocrat Leisure Limited—increasing that company’s U.S. machine inventory from 8,200 to 28,000 devices— is rolling out Ovation, a video product advertised as “taking Class II gaming to the next level.” “People are going to see that Class II games are really spectacular,” Sevigny says. Meanwhile, leading slot manufacturer International Game Technology is ready to launch its first Class II product. “There’s a huge amount of interest in Class II, from all the tribal customers,” says Knute Knudson, IGT’s vice president of business development and tribal relations. “We are responding by investing considerable resources in new Class II platforms and new Class II games, and new hardware. We’ve got a team devoted to that.” —Dave Palermo

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TABLE GAMES

Insult to Injury Protecting a cushy job by growing a thick skin

obert Altman’s 1992 film The Player is best remembered for its opening camera shot that runs eight minutes without a cut (the TV show Better Call Saul paid homage to it last season), for its countless cameos from Hollywood who’s whos, and for its wink-wink, nudgenudge, say-no-more satirizing of the business of show business. Tim Robbins stars as Griffin Mill, a studio executive who rejects a script submitted to his office—something he does a dozen times a day—only to face the maniacal fury of a writer scorned. Threatening notes, postcards, even a rattlesnake in his Range Rover make Griffin a Molotov cocktail of nerves and anxiety, while at the same time he’s forced to parry the advances and triangulations of a colleague after his cushy job. Don’t think life imitates art? Well, the same thing happens to me. Like. All. The. Time. Except, of course, for the part about the rattlesnake in the Range Rover, and the colleague being after my cushy job. (Wait. You haven’t heard anything, have you?) Let’s circle back to that later. For now, here are excerpts from emails, texts, IMs and phone calls over the years from people who didn’t take kindly to having their ideas turned down, followed by the witty retorts thought of and typed out, but ultimately—and wisely—forever left unsent: “You’re a stupid, lazy, arrogant, cynical, ass****, son of a b****.” Hold on. Isn’t that from A Fish Called Wanda, where Kevin Klein berates John Cleese rapid-fire for 30 seconds, then dangles him by his feet out a third-story window? Classic scene. But you forgot “pompous,” “snot-nosed,” and “twerp,” not to mention “sexually repressed football hooligan.” “You don’t understand what I am. This is 1968 and I’m Led Zeppelin. It’s 1987 and I’m Nirvana.” Actually, I think it’s 1972 and you’re Carly Simon, as in “You’re so vain.” “If you reconsider, I am willing to throw in the T-shirt rights for free!” Whoa, whoa, whoa. T-shirt rights? Why didn’t

By Roger Snow

not just another one-hit wonder.” you say so? Let me start peeling off $100-dollar You mean this isn’t Dexy’s Midnight Runners? bills, and you just tell me when to stop. “You are no more consequential in the higher “Any reasonable and rational observer would order of things than a single-cell organism.” call you a phony.” What’s that, a protozoa? One of them-there But what would you call me? asexual dealies? Sorry, but UMass-Dartmouth didn’t “Why do I care about the opinion of some offer anything above remedial biology. At least not to lowly UMass-Dartmouth grad anyway?” us dumb business majors, anyway. How dare you malign the academic pedigree of one of America’s most geometrically symmetrical universities! You I guess your company should see the campus. It’s laid out isn’t interested in making like a giant crop circle with buildmillions of dollars. ings in the middle. Had it not Nah. Too much agro. First worked out as an institute of higher you’ve got to send an invoice, learning, it would have made one heck of a shopthen you’ve got to collect the ping mall or maximum-security prison. money. Then there’s a lot of And by the way, who said I graduated? accounting involved. Plus “I could destroy all your games if I wanted to. auditing, quarterly reports, It would be easy for me. Too easy, in fact.” earnings calls. It’s a real nuisance. If you reconsider, I am willing to throw in the “Now what are you going to do, Mr. Big Shot?” T-shirt rights for free! Big Shot is fine. “Mr. Big Shot” makes me turn around and look for my dad. “I guess your company isn’t interested in making Whoa, whoa, whoa. T-shirt millions of dollars.” rights? Why didn’t you say Nah. Too much agro. First you’ve got to send an so? Let me start peeling off invoice, then you’ve got to collect the money. Then $100-dollar bills, and you just there’s a lot of accounting involved. Plus auditing, tell me when to stop. quarterly reports, earnings calls. It’s a real nuisance. “You’re not qualified to coach third base on a children’s tee-ball team.” Oh yeah? Check out these skills: Two outs, run on anything now… In the air, you’re tagging up.. Please Hammer, don’t hurt ‘em. Swing like you mean it… Don’t sit on the base; it “When your children realize what you are, looks like you’re trying to hatch an egg… What? they will not doubt find you as repugnant and reCome on. How the #$%@ can you strike out? The pulsive as the children of crack cocaine dealers frigging ball is on a frigging tee! find their fathers.” Mic drop. Sexist. Assumes all crack dealers are males. Women have come a long way baby, and they can Roger Snow is a senior vice president with Scientific hawk the rock as well as any man can, man. Games. The views and opinions expressed in this article “You obviously do not know how to read.” are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the I obliviously know how donuts are red, too? views and opinions of Scientific Games Corporation or That makes no sense. its affiliates. “Do you know who you’re dealing with? I’m

118 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

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BACK TO THE Future Why server-based gaming is still a dependable technology

erve up the discussion. Roughly a decade into its casino presence, server-based gaming remains a unique topic. Has it met the objective of giving players instantly shifting game content? Does it resemble the swing-and-a-miss tag assigned under-performing industry products like RFID or does it fit nicely with Class II gaming, where it mostly resides in the U.S.? That depends upon one’s connection with the niche. For Native American casino vendors, Class II paves a fast market entry. Tribes conduct, license and regulate it. They don’t require compacts, as they would with the more lucrative Class III realm. There is less administrative red tape associated with Class II. On the flip side, server-based gaming at the heart of Class II has been underutilized. “The server-based vision was a tremendous one, and if you would call that a 10, the industry execution has been roughly a four,” says Andrew Burke, vice president of slot products for AGS, a major player in Class II gaming. “Perhaps we expected too much from it. There was a myth on players’ expectations. They like old games, legacy games. The operators have not been able to bring all the legacy titles to the floor, which I understand, as it is hard to do.” AGS nonetheless remains vested in server-based gaming, Burke notes. It has parlayed the trend of increased slot titles and jurisdictional licenses into becoming the second-largest supplier of Class II games in the world. Leading slot manufacturer International Game Technology has an array of server-based products. Aristocrat subsidiary Video Gaming Technologies, a top supplier of Class II games in the United States, keeps churning out new games. “Server-based gaming has evolved over the years to provide casinos with more ways to streamline operations and engage with players than ever before,” says Sina Miri, vice president of casino systems for IGT. “As the footprint of server-assisted capable devices grows through natural replacement cycles, market expansion or intentional migration, the opportunity for server-based gaming implementation grows.”

Large Expectations Server-based technology was supposed to be, by most forecasts, a game-changer. Influential participants thought server-based functions would revolutionize

120 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

BY DAVE BONTEMPO

the industry. They championed the concept that community gaming changed the industry from man versus machine to group play, in which tournaments could mirror the excitement and multi-player involvement of games like craps. How, they wondered, had operators existed without it? Benefits appeared abundant. Players could observe more action via multi-channel gaming, obtaining access to games on other platforms like mobile phones, and the linked game content supporting multi-player and progressive jackpots. Operators could dramatically reduce the hardware and software costs for the entire casino game system because most functions of a game device could be centralized in a server. They could also shift content quickly. Different slot games could be downloaded into the slot cabinets. Slot managers could change a machine’s games, denominations, bonus payouts and promotions from a central computer server rather than requiring technicians to perform the work manually. Instead of buying a slot game that could go out of favor with players, casinos could change their lineup in seconds. Being centralized even enhanced security because the random number generation and game logic could not be manipulated at individual game terminals. Yet, countering the innovation were concerns that game payouts could also change too quickly, that a 95 percent payback could suddenly become a 90. Where would the line be drawn between enticing players and staying within regulations? If the administrative process became too complicated, would the investment benefit an operator?

History Books For Las Vegas-based AGS, a designer and manufacturer of gaming products for the casino floor, server-based gaming represents history, and a staple. The company’s roots are in the Class II, Native American market, and although it has expanded product lines and wowed the Class III commercial marketplace, server-based gaming remains a specialty. “It is in our DNA,” Burke says. “AGS and Cadillac Jack (which it acquired last year) both started as Class II companies. About 95 percent of our install base is on server-based games. It is a buzz word in the industry. We have had data-based games in development since our founding. We know

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everything about Class II and the importance and capability of it.” Burke lauds the intent of server-based gaming and hopes the regulatory environment will enhance it. But the concept of server-based may have been ahead of the curve. “The vision was a great one,” Burke says. “If I am at home, for example, I can select whatever video game I want. I don’t have to walk around looking for a game (as an arcade experience would be). I can just put it into my console. With serverbased gaming at your property, you could say that you have 2,000 positions on the floor with five times as much content as you had before. It had many benefits for operators, who could interact faster with the customers. They could know what they are doing, they could organize tournaments, etc.” As for the server-based report card, however, “it has under-performed drastically.” Burke believes some slick enhancements, which would need to be accommodated by industry regulations, could rejuvenate server-based gaming. One would be the option to swap out content for different times of the day, matching groups of patrons who occupy specific time slots. That tool is available in some worldwide jurisdictions, but not all. Another innovation would be the ability to connect jackpots and tournaments across state lines in Class II gaming. Burke’s company retains a Class II presence while reinventing its Class III portfolio.

Serving Up Winners Las Vegas-based IGT is well-stocked in the servergame space. Miri says that, central to many casino operations, IGT Floor Manager in the IGT Advantage casino management system is used by more than 140 sites in 24 countries, illustrating how global operators recognize the benefits of centralized game management. By leveraging IGT’s remote game server, its customers increase the number of connected games within their enterprise systems, Miri says. What are the advantages to server-based gaming? “It accelerates access to new game packages, the ability to increase ROI from each gaming machine and lower operational cost of gaming machine management,” Miri says. “From a customer service perspective, and when combined with fea-

tures such as Service Window and advanced marketing applications, the capabilities are compelling. IGT Media Manager 5.0 enables the operator to deploy select promotions from other platforms into IGT Service Window, which can further personalize the player experience and drive game play.” The company’s Floor Manager and Service Window products have paved the way for new mobile technologies to increase operating efficiency, Miri asserts. Through IGT mobile applications, casino staff can recognize activity on a casino floor through the convenience of a mobile device.

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“Developed to improve serviceability on a casino floor, IGT Floor Manager Mobile is a seamless systems application that empowers technicians to modify various slot machine functionality from a mobile device,” Miri asserts. “With this product, technicians no longer need to update electronic gaming machines (EGMs) from their office desktop; they can now approach any individual EGM or bank of machines and make select changes in real time on a mobile device. The server-based solution is scalable, and can be uniquely tailored to suit the needs of any gaming floor.” IGT Mobile Notifier is an advanced mobile application that enables real-time updates of operator key performance indicators (KPI) and events that can be accessed remotely from a mobile device, Miri says. Instead of waiting for a weekly report to measure success, operators can select KPI tracking options and event alerts on Mobile Notifier to proactively monitor and adjust operational needs. Mobile Notifier offers several subscriptions and enables operators to select KPI features. They can also employ event alerts such as Table Issue Maker, Table Average Bet and Cage Front Money Withdraw. Mobile Notifier can be deployed on desktop computers, mobile devices compatible with iOS and Android, and the Apple Watch. Miri says server-based gaming has room to grow. The mobile age is a driving force. “As we look toward the future of server-based gaming and systems innovation, evolving technologies such as OnPremis and Cardless Connect exemplify how mobile devices can leverage a server-based casino system,” Miri says. “This will bring all of the excitement of the casino to a mobile device, with the convenience of access to sports books, games and even payment capabilities.”

tially introduced in the Louisiana market, and continuing through a line of games that includes the Treasure Quest series of skill-based games, and the current hit Live-Call Bingo, VGT has consistently developed popular games. VGT’s game types include C6 Mechanical Reels, C 6 Video, XSpin Video and Live Call Bingo.

An Inspired Vision London-based Inspired Gaming Group is a global game technology company. It supplies virtual sports mobile gaming and server-based gaming systems, along with associated terminals and digital content to regulated betting and gaming operators worldwide. It operates more than 25,000 digital gaming terminals and supplies its virtual sports products in more than 30,000 venues and on over 200 websites in 30 countries, according to CEO Luke Alvarez. It’s also a hot property. Inspired became an attractive target and was recently purchased by New York-based Hydra Industries for about $264 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in October. Because Inspired’s products are fully digital, they can interact with a central server, and are provided on a “distributed” basis, which allows Inspired to realize a number of benefits, including its ability to access a wider geographic footprint

The Aristocrats VGT, founded in 1991 and acquired by Aristocrat in 2014, is a leading North American developer, manufacturer and distributor of casino games for the Class II and emerging markets. The Franklin, Tennessee-based company has more than 20,000 terminals in more than 140 locations in the United States. In joining Aristocrat, a premium supplier of groundbreaking technologies and services to the international gaming industry, VGT became part of a diverse portfolio that includes land-based games, casino management solutions and online gaming. Players often identify its terminals by the hallmark bonus feature Red Screen Free Spins. Favorites including Hot Red Ruby and Mr. Money Bags. Beginning with the popular Riverboat Queen multi-game system ini122 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

Inspired became an attractive target and was recently purchased by New York-based Hydra Industries for about $264 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in October.

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through the internet and proprietary networks, Alvarez says. There are significant benefits to server-based gaming (SBG) that drive the accelerating adoption of digitally networked gaming and lottery, he contends. SBG allows operators to remotely manage their estate with minimal disruption to their business. The central system offers flexibility to rotate games, allowing operators to tailor game availability by time of day, target specific player demographics and take advantage of seasonal and themed marketing opportunities. New games can be phased in seamlessly, overcoming the revenue dip often associated with replacing games on traditional slot machines. More games per terminal provides incentives for operators to test new games and suppliers, Alvarez contends. Operators can appeal to a broader base of players with minimal cost or risk as well as commission games from new third-party suppliers on an open game interface. The increased number of games per machine and remote game management eliminate procurement risk for the operator, as unsuccessful games can be easily switched out. The SBG model significantly reduces the need for on-site repairs and improves terminal up-time. Elimination of machine obsolescence should extend product life cycles, as well as the time period over which costs can be depreciated, Alvarez says.

The company’s game portfolio includes a broad selection of leading SBG slot titles such as Centurion, Diamond Goddess and Rise of Anubis , which offer customers a wide range of volatilities, return-to-player and other features. Inspired also offers more traditional casino games through its SBG network, such as roulette, blackjack and keno. Inspired has a strong market position in the U.K., with approximately 50 percent of SBG terminal placements and over 100 games. It offers SBG terminals such as the Eclipse, Inceptor, Optimus and Blaze, each offering a different size, graphics technology and price proposition. Inspired’s SBG portfolio distributes games to devices via different game management systems, each tailored to a specific operator and market type. Core Hub is Inspired’s next-generation server-supported gaming management concept, complementary to and based on the CORE platform. It uses a new protocol layer to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the open Gaming Standards Association G2S gaming protocol. Core Edge is the next iteration of Inspired’s server-based gaming management system. The success of Inspired Gaming can be seen as a model for the efficiency to be had by server-based gaming. How fast the technology will continue to expand in the U.S. remains to be seen.

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GLOBAL GAMING WOMEN

Show Us Your Shoes Why the “Kick Up Your Heels” fundraiser is a crucial part of the GGW mission

very once in a while, nearly everybody likes to let down their hair and kick up their heels, particularly in an industry as intense as gaming. But Kick Up Your Heels takes on a whole new meaning in conjunction with Global Gaming Women—it is the fundraising event that just last year raised $100,000 for scholarship programs for emerging leaders in the gaming industry. I am honored this year to be asked to chair such a prestigious event, and to work with the Global Gaming Women (GGW) board of directors to raise funds for such an important mission. In 2010, Patricia Becker, former gaming regulator, industry leader and International Gaming Institute (IGI) executive director, created Kick Up Your Heels as a fundraiser for the IGI at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This event, held on the Wednesday evening during the Global Gaming Expo conference, was an enormous success.

By Ellen Whittemore

In addition to raising funds, the invited women executives benefited from a high-level networking opportunity, and it became clear that there was a demand for similar events in the future. In 2011, the American Gaming Association launched GGW, and Kick Up Your Heels became a GGW mainstay, raising funds for education for women in gaming. Becker continued to coordinate the event, now with the assistance of the GGW Education Committee. Funds raised accrued to the Charitable Education Fund, and numerous women from across the country were awarded scholarships to programs designed to enhance their business skills and careers. While GGW is now an independent organization, it continues to receive the support of the gaming industry’s leading companies, which recognize the invaluable benefits of its mission to support, inspire and influence the development of women in gaming. The GGW Education Committee is co-chaired by Becker and Phyllis Gilland, senior vice president and general counsel at American Casino & Entertainment Properties. Under their leadership, the educational offerings in 2016 have expanded into an educational pyramid of programs offering tiered classes throughout the United States with customized sessions targeted to women at all levels in gaming who seek to advance their careers. These programs are offered free of charge to the women who attend and their companies—they are only expected to pay travel and personal expenses.

Since the geographical expansion of the programs significantly increases the number of women who can participate in the classes, it is more important than ever to raise funding for additional scholarships. Kick Up Your Heels 2016 will be held on Wednesday, September 28, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. For the first time in the history of the event, it will be held at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas’ Boulevard Pool. “The Cosmopolitan is excited to host such an esteemed group of women,” remarked Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas Chief Financial Officer Chelle Adams. “It’s great to be able to honor the industry’s best and brightest while fostering support for the next generation of leaders.” Also for the first time in the history of the event, this year will be the inaugural award ceremony honoring women who have a demonstrated a history of helping to advance the careers of other women in gaming. The award is a specially designed bracelet that complements the bracelets that are given by the Education Committee to the graduates of the educational pyramid programs. In recognition of Becker’s creation of Kick Up Your Heels and dedication to Global Gaming Women initiatives, the annual award will be named the Patty Becker Pay It Forward Bracelet, sponsored by the Simmons Group. Honorees this year are GGW President and Board Chair Virginia McDowell; Phyllis Gilland; Tina Kilmer, vice president of product compliance, Scientific Games; and Christie Eickelman, vice president of marketing, Gaming Laboratories International. Individual tickets for Kick Up Your Heels 2016 are $100, and event sponsorships are available beginning at $1,000. Further information and ticket sales are available at globalgamingwomen.org. It will be a fun and inspirational way to network with the most influential women in the gaming industry while raising money for a very important cause, and I hope you will join me there. Ellen Whittemore is president and founder of Whittemore Gaming Group, a gaming law firm. She serves as gaming regulatory counsel to gaming industry leaders including MGM Resorts International.

124 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

“G2E is the opportunity to meet with vendors from all across the industry.”

Colleen Birch SVP of Revenue Optimization, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Discover new technologies. Source new vendors. Stay current with industry trends. Energize your career with world-class education and professional development. And make valuable new connections. It all happens at the gaming industry’s premier event: Global Gaming Expo. Join Colleen and thousands of other gaming professionals at G2E. Register today at globalgamingexpo.com

GLOBAL GAMING EXPO SEPTEMBER 27 – 29, 2016 SANDS EXPO CENTER LAS VEGAS

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FRANKLY SPEAKING

s you probably know, this is the issue of GGB where we tell you about all the great games coming to slot floors next year, via our annual “Global Games” section. (Motto: “Your Advertising Dollars At Work.”) I’m going to give you my assessment of this year’s remarkable lineup of games, and identify those slot-sector trends that pop out like Barney Fife’s eyeballs. (With all the work you slot-makers are doing these days, I figured a good simile was in order.) (I’ll let you know if I think of one.) Before I get into this year’s crop of games, let me divert your attention to some casino news of the day. One week last month was a bad one for truck drivers venturing close to casinos. First, a truck crashed into the “Welcome to Fabulous Downtown Las Vegas” sign. Don’t worry—nothing happened to the famous icon that greets motorists coming up Las Vegas Boulevard from the south. It’s the replica—the fake Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign put up a couple of years ago to attract people to the Fremont Street Experience Downtown. After hearing of the crash, local historians and preservationists expressed simulated horror and mock outrage. The truck ended up landing on a large rock, where it lodged with its wheels in the air. The wreck will be permanently displayed to attract tourists to the Fremont Street Experience. (Not really. They hauled it away.) Meanwhile, in Cleveland, a city truck crunched into the skywalk leading to the JACK Casino. Reportedly, the driver became startled by the casino’s name, which is in capital letters: “Hey, look, Phil—JACK!” “Whoa, look out for the skywalk, Sammy!” This next story comes from our Italy Desk. What, you don’t think we can have an Italy Desk? We gave them 500 square feet, which is twice what we gave the Bora Bora Desk. Our dedicated staff of seasoned-pro reporters on the Italy Desk reports that the city of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy has opened a permanent pubic display of works in the art collection of mafia boss Gioaccino Campolo, also know as the “Video Poker King.” Reading this story made me feel really Italian, even more than the half I actually am. I went out and tipped the mailman a couple of fazools. Gioaccino “Gino Ducks” Campolo was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he was convicted of making a fortune tampering with slot machines. The city of Reggio Calabria reportedly seized assets worth €330 million, including paintings by Salvador Dalí, Lucio Fontana and Giorgio de Chirico. You know, I knew a Reggio Calabria in ninth grade back in Pittsburgh. He could burp the entire Gettysburg Address. And OK, I made up the Gino Ducks nickname. I just thought it fit. 126 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

Anyway, the city of Reggio Calabria has made this particular art collection into a permanent exhibit at the city’s National Archaeological Museum, billed as “a symbol of a heritage restored to the community.” Or as Gino Ducks called them, “a bunch of friggin’ pictures, of melted clocks and stuff.” Finally, a casino in Pennsylvania caught a dealer trying to sneak a bunch of chips off the property in her bra. Her surname is Cheatham. I swear. I wonder if she has any ties to the law firm Dewey, Cheatham & Howe. (Stooge fans: Tweet me if you get the reference.) OK, on to this year’s crop of offerings that you’ll find in our annual Global Games section (second motto: “Where Every Single Game Is Awesome”). First, just about every one of the world’s slot-makers seems to have a new cabinet this year, or two or three. By the time I got home after visiting all the slot manufacturers, I just had to get new cabinets. They’re in the kitchen. They’re fabulous. The games themselves are as innovative and creative as ever, from Everi’s Penn & Teller game to IGT’s Sherlock Holmes, to Aristocrat’s My Cousin Vinny. (Yeah!) And of course, this year’s offerings will afford ample opportunities to attract the millennials. There are several regular slots with skill-based, arcadestyle bonus games—which, of course, will probably appeal to people who are 50—combined with some mobile-style slot games, taking their cues from the games all those twenty-somethings are playing on their phones. Umm… For free. Here’s how you get the millennials into the casino. Offer the chance to wager student-loan debt on an even-money table game. High card, double or nothing. Oh, relax—I’m kidding. Besides, casinos would never take that bet. At least I don’t think so. RINALDO

Trucking Ahead

Where every Singl e game iS aW eSome

VICT OR

by Frank Legato

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CUTTING EDGE by Frank Legato

Power Platform Product: AIO Gaming Solution Manufacturer: Ganlot, Inc.

anlot has launched the new AIO gaming solution PGB-8130, and will showcase the technology at G2E Booth No. 3026. Ganlot knows the gaming industry is unique and adopts different strategies towards different regions. “In recent years, we had breakthroughs in the market with AIO gaming systems based on different platforms from X86 to RISC,” says Olive Chuang, senior director of Ganlot. “We will keep innovating gaming technology and concept.” The Ganlot AIO gaming solution PGB-8130 integrates with the latest Intel sixth generation Core platform, featuring high levels of I/O integration, great graphic performance and low power consumption. Providing great computing functions and graphic performance, game developers or casino operators can perfectly deploy their games or casino software and systems with it. As a result of continuous research of new materials and technologies, Ganlot will introduce various gaming and security features at G2E, as well as a wide range of software and firmware customizations. With the customized

API, PGB-8130 can quickly connect with the gaming peripherals for fast time-to-market. Another remarkable technology to be brought out will be the Smart Casino Concept, which will integrate IoT into casinos. For more information, visit ganlot.com.

Fast Cash Product: DFS-500 Casino Kiosk Manufacturer: DiTronics

t this year’s G2E, DiTronics will feature the new DFS-500 Kiosk, which allows players to redeem slot tickets and break bills as well as access their funds via ATM, cash advance and check-cashing transactions. Players can use those funds in operators’ landbased or online casinos, for a seamless funds access experience. Exclusive DiTronics Vantage Kiosk software provides a number of options and patent-pending technologies for enhanced functionality through DiTronics’ proprietary Rewards Center, which includes: • Transaction Rewards database integration, which enables a casino’s best players to complete their funds access transactions and have their fees comped or receive a discount on fees automatically at the kiosk. In addition, they can also earn points at the DFS-500 Kiosk for doing their transactions at your casino. • Smart Dispense, whereby operators can customize and define the bill break mix by kiosk, by zone, by casino floor.

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• Jackpot Pay, which helps casino operators manage jackpots more efficiently by making one, some or all ticket redemption kiosks into jackpot dispense units. • DiTronics exclusive software enhancements for Ticket Redemption, Check Express for direct check cashing, Currency Exchange and ATM Express. DFS-500 Kiosk features also include a dual bill validator (multiple ticket pay-off capability can process up to 10 tickets at the same time), greater bill-holding capacity (five cassettes/3,000 notes each reduces need to refill cassettes during busy times), a 17-inch touch screen and eyecatching multi-color LED illumination. Since 1998, DiTronics has continually defined the future of funds access with a fully integrated suite of products and services that include ATM and multi-function ticket redemption machines, check guarantee services, cash advance, iGaming, digital wallets and innovative marketing programs for casino operators who require funding solutions for land-based, mobile and online gaming. For more information, visit ditronics.com.

“G2E remains evolutionary – it helps industry peers stay on their toes and grow with the times.” Laura Ishum Director of Entertainment, Pinnacle Entertainment

Discover new technologies. Source new vendors. Stay current with industry trends. Energize your career with world-class education and professional development. And make valuable new connections. It all happens at the gaming industry’s premier event: Global Gaming Expo. Join Laura and thousands of other gaming professionals at G2E. Register today at globalgamingexpo.com

GLOBAL GAMING EXPO SEPTEMBER 27 – 29, 2016 SANDS EXPO CENTER LAS VEGAS

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GOODS&SERVICES weigh menu items, process payments via credit card, gift card or payroll deduction and print receipts using a simple interface. Its architecture also enables rich-data integrations with applications delivered from Agilysys and its partners and customers. Additionally, new product releases and features are delivered automatically to all rGuest Buy devices on property.

ARISTOCRAT UNVEILS SHARKNADO SLOT

ristocrat’s new Sharkanado slot machine premiered in Las Vegas recently, accompanied by actor Ian Ziering, the star of the popular film franchise. The unveiling of the game at the Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas was timed around the release of Sharknado 4 in theaters in the city. The Sharknado also will be on display in Aristocrat’s booth at this month’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.

DEL LAGO CHOOSES SCIGAMES FOR SYSTEMS

cientific Games is providing its SDS management system to New York’s newest gaming venue, del Lago Resort & Casino, scheduled to open in the Finger Lakes region early next year.

AGILYSYS KIOSK REACHES WIDER MARKET

ospitality software and solutions provider Agilysys has placed its innovative self-service kiosk rGuest Buy in more than 25 locations across the United States, including corporate cafeterias at a top-five bank, a top-40 law firm, one of the nation’s largest technology manufacturers and a national financial services firm.

The platform is part of Agilysys’ continuing market penetration in food and beverage venues that sell pre-packaged and bar-coded food items. “We built rGuest Buy from the ground up to meet the unique needs of the hospitality industry,” said Larry Steinberg, chief technology officer and senior vice president of development at the Georgia-based company. rGuest Buy is a cloud-based system designed to deliver an enterprise-wide next-generation software-as-a-service-based POS solution. Features include an intuitive customer-facing order-and-pay experience, enabling clients to choose and scan or

New York’s del Lago Resort & Casino

The $440 million casino hotel, which will feature 2,000 slot games and 85 table games—including a 10-table poker room—will employ SDS’ slot accounting as the foundation for a total solutions package that includes: • CMP, a player-tracking system that also provides bonusing, promotions, and cage and pit accounting; • Live Floor View, which analyzes slot-floor performance and monitors player activity; • the TableView real-time table rating and player-tracking system; • iVIEW Display Manager, a direct-to-device messaging technology for conveying bonusing offers, marketing messages and other targeted content without interrupting play; • Elite Bonusing Suite, which features an array of applications enabling floor-wide bonuses, promotions, tournaments, virtual-racing events, dynamic random bonusing, flex rewards, video poker bonusing and more; • Power Progressives, a progressive jackpot application that gives operators centralized control of all SAS pay-table progressives on the floor; • Beverage Ordering and Service System, which enables self-service, touchscreen drink ordering at the slot machine through iVIEW DM; and, • Servizio, a mobile services solution that fea-

130 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

tures a suite of intelligent, rule-driven applications for automating the traditional dispatch system for jackpot processing, player registration, host functions, slot maintenance and more.

PAWNEE TRIBE DEPLOYS JOSEPH EVE’S CASINOEDGE

oseph Eve CPAs has expanded the range of financial management services it provides to Pawnee Development Corporation of Oklahoma and the company’s three casinos—StoneWolf Casino & Grill, Tee Pee Casino and Trading Post Casino. The new agreement calls for installation of Montana-based Joseph Eve’s cloud-based CasinoEdge system at both the corporate and property levels, and includes accounting services for gaming, retail, food and beverage, accounts receivable and payable, payroll, cash/banking activity, fixed assets, debt, and month-end procedures, reporting and monitoring. CasinoEdge, powered by Intacct, provides simplified and automated revenue audit and posting processes. It features an array of accounting, cash management, purchasing, vendor management, financial consolidation, revenue recognition, project accounting, fund accounting, inventory management and financial reporting applications.

UNLV, SYDNEY UNIVERSITIES STUDYING SPORTS WAGERING

he University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Sydney in Australia agreed to “invent” the research field of sports betting integrity. On August 1, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval announced the memorandum of understanding between the two universities during his two-week trade junket Down Under. The universities in particular will work to help create regulatory controls for interactive gaming and sports betting—in which Nevada seeks to be a global leader—while combating problem gambling. Sandoval said the partnership will help gaming operators and bettors to maintain gaming integrity, while helping to “ensure that those who seek to do harm to the interactive gaming industry are better prevented, and that those who might be experiencing

UNLV’s Bo Bernhard; Governor Brian Sandoval; University of Sydney’s Alex Blaszczynski

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an addiction to this entertainment are better identified and assisted.” “In order to maintain the integrity of this sport, those who are participating, both from a user and provider standpoint, must be held to the same high standard that we enforce on our casino floors,” Sandoval said in a statement. UNLV Executive Gaming Institute Executive Director Dr. Bo Bernhard and University of Sydney Gambling Treatment Clinic and Research Unit representative Alex Blaszczynski signed the memorandum. Bernhard said the team will “invent the field” of scientific study into sports betting integrity by reviewing current regulatory controls and suggesting guidelines to minimize potential game-fixing. The team also will study personality and psychological factors that could influence athletes, officials, team employees and others to fix games and shave points.

CASINO ADMIRAL DEPLOYS TRAFFGEN PLATFORM

raffGen announced last month that Novomatic’s Casino Admiral property has deployed its Hub Pro marketing platform. Casino Admiral will use TraffGen’s system to replace and enhance all marketing and in-property reporting, marketing tools and player development management. Additionally, Casino Admiral will be the first European installation of TraffGen’s PromoBeacon player tracking and engagement product, which will provide real-time player tracking inside and outside the casino, while enabling players to redeem loyalty points anywhere in the casino.

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of Dedication to Casino Cash Access Service ATMs • Cash Advance Ticket Redemption• FABItrack/Title 31 Integrated Check Cashing • 24/7 Customer Service and much more!

G2E Booth #1633

504.837.2626•www.fabicash.com

Novomatic’s Casino Admiral

Stuart Kirkpatrick, general manager of Casino Admiral Gibraltar, commented, “TraffGen’s product is the first marketing platform that enables us to manage all marketing and player development campaigns from a single place. The unified view of our players will enable us to improve our marketing effectiveness and ROI on spend.” Casino Admiral will be the first European casino to implement a fully holistic marketing system, and is the first step as Novomatic expands its SEPTEMBER 2016 www.ggbmagazine.com 131

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use of TraffGen’s products in Europe. “Working with such a unique casino as Admiral is a great first step in our expansion outside our core U.S. casino market, into Europe,” said Andy Caras-Altas, TraffGen CEO. “A true convergence environment, it is a perfect casino to make the most of the Hub Pro platform and of TraffGen’s marketing services team. We are proud to now have business in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa, and to establish ourselves as the convergence marketing market leader.

Marina and the Biloxi Lugger restaurant. Scheduled to open in spring 2019, the 781,000-square-foot resort will reflect an “Old Biloxi” theme and have a casino, 500-room hotel, 71,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space, theater, six restaurants and bars, retail, spa and fitness center, swimming pool and bowling and shuffleboard areas. Other attractions will be announced later. Biloxi Pointe will be the tribe’s first casino property built outside Connecticut, where its 9 million-square-foot Foxwoods Resort Casino is the largest casino resort in the U.S. FRIEDMUTTER TO DESIGN Ferrara said Friedmutter Group will complete BILOXI POINTE the project designs by the end of September. he Mashantucket Pequot Tribal “We look forward to partnering once Nation’s Foxwoods Resort again with the Mashantucket Pequot Casino and Chris Ferrara, managTribal Nation and Foxwoods Resort ing director of Biloxi Boardwalk Casino as they expand their brand into Ventures, have hired Las Vegasthe Biloxi, Mississippi market,” said based architectural firm FriedmutFriedmutter Group founder and CEO ter Group to design and engineer Brad Friedmutter. “The Mashantucket the new $265 million Foxwoods Pequot Tribe is rich with indigenous culResort Casino at Biloxi Pointe in ture, and Foxwoods Resort Casino Biloxi Mississippi. Pointe will reflect that among many of Friedmutter Group The 23-acre former Heinz the elements that make it a premier resort founder and CEO plant site in Biloxi’s Back Bay area destination.” Brad Friedmutter is adjacent to the Biloxi Boardwalk

132 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

PARADISE PARTNERS IN JAPAN

aradise Entertainment is reported to be partnering with a Japanese company to develop slot machines via its LT Game subsidiary. The joint venture, dubbed LT Game Japan, will be based in Tokyo, according to news reports. The name of the Japanese partner was not disclosed. Hong Kong-listed Paradise is the monopoly supplier via LT Game of live-dealer electronic table games in Macau, and is expanding elsewhere in Asia and worldwide. Paradise also has a comprehensive agreement in place with International Game Technology that calls for the transfer to IGT of all of its etable technology, patents and other intellectual property outside of Macau.

GSA RELEASES NEW STANDARDS

he Gaming Standards Association has released 11 new advanced standards, including an updated system-to-system (S2S) protocol and a new specification called SSI (Simple System Interface), both designed to increase operator and developer efficiencies and facilitate innovation. S2S, a communications protocol that helps untangle different back-of-house network interfaces, is fully integrated with the association’s popular game-to-system (G2S) standard, making it easier to dispatch G2S transactions and extend G2S functionality to an array of end points. It also simplifies message handling and communications requirements and does away with unnecessary and redundant features. S2S allows slot manufacturers to develop a single peer-to-peer interface for communicating with gaming and non-gaming systems and simplifying connectivity over wide-area and localarea networks. “The bottom line is the S2S protocol is now easier—easier to implement, easier to test and easier to operate,” said S2S Committee Chairman Jeff Shephard of IGT. SSI is designed to address implementer needs by providing a method to achieve a simpler client-server mode of operation where the full power of S2S is not required. SSI accomplishes this by providing a simple and efficient method for accessing system resources. Each of the standards is available free to all GSA members on the association’s website, gamingstandards.com.

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GGB

PEOPLE EXECUTIVE SHUFFLE AT SCIENTIFIC GAMES

cientific Games Corporation last month announced some changes to its executive team. Kevin M. Sheehan, former chief executive officer and president of Norwegian Cruise Line, has joined Scientific Games as Kevin Sheehan the company’s new president and CEO. Additionally, he will serve on the company’s board of directors. Current Scientific Games President and CEO Gavin Isaacs will become vice chairman of the board of directors. Sheehan and Isaacs assumed their new roles immediately. “Today, we are one company with three strong businesses—gaming, lottery and interactive,” said Isaacs. “Our integration is behind us and our business strategies are delivering solid results. With our momentum building, I’m moving from an operational leadership position to a more strategic role, vice chairman of the board of directors. “On behalf of my colleagues and the board, we welcome our new CEO and president, Kevin Sheehan. This is the right time to grow our leadership team and have someone of Kevin’s talent, experience and financial acumen take us to the next phase of growth and innovation.” Sheehan served as president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line for seven years, and led the development and expansion of the company, presiding over strong sales and EBITDA growth and the company’s initial public offering, one of the most successful IPOs in 2013. He broadened the company’s reach with new classes of ships, including luxury cruising, and led the company to industry-leading profitably, which strategically positioned the company for continued long-term growth. Sheehan oversaw major initiatives including vastly improving on-board service and amenities across the fleet, expanding the line’s European presence, repositioning two of the line’s Hawaiibased ships to create a profitable business model, revitalizing top management with a combination of cruise industry and outside expertise, and using his 30-year background in the business world to help Norwegian post a sharp turnaround in profitability in the midst of a tough economic climate. “This is an exciting time to join Scientific Games,” said Sheehan. “Scientific Games is the worldwide leader in gaming, lottery and interactive innovation, and I look forward to building on that

momentum to drive continued growth across the company. Scientific Games offers an unrivaled comprehensive suite of products and services for our customers around the world, and is well-positioned to continue to grow.” “I am so pleased to welcome Kevin to Scientific Games,” added Scientific Games Chairman Ronald O. Perelman, “and that Gavin will continue with the company in his new role. With the company fully integrated, it is the right time to expand our leadership team so we can take full advantage of the new and growing opportunities open to a company with our global scale and broad expertise. Kevin’s intellect and experience will be an invaluable asset as we move forward as one company.”

BAAZOV OUT AT AMAYA

ess than six months after Amaya CEO David Baazov took a leave of absence, he stepped down from all positions at Amaya, cutting all ties with the company. Baazov is under investigation by Quebec’s securities reguDavid Baazov lator for financial irregularities and insider trading. In March, Baazov said he would “vigorously” fight the charges. Amaya announced the changes as it reported its second-quarter earnings of 46 cents a share, topping a consensus by analysts of 37 cents per share. Amaya stock rose briefly to C$22.64, its highest level since November 10. The company also announced that the “interim” title will be removed from CEO Rafi Ashkenazi, who will take over permanently. Baazov, who engineered the purchase of PokerStars and its related assets several years ago, has been trying to take Amaya private. It’s unclear how his departure last week will impact those plans.

AINSWORTH HIRES ALLISON

elcey Allison has been named senior vice president of sales-North America at Ainsworth Game Technology. Based in Las Vegas, Allison will lead the company’s team of sales professionals. Most recently, Allison Kelcey Allison was chief executive officer at Aruze Gaming America. Before that he held several key sales roles, including regional vice president of sales, at Progressive Gaming

September 2016 Index of Advertisers

Acres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39,62,63,135 Action Gaming/VideoPoker.com . . . . . . . . . . .91 Adlink Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 AGEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127 AGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99 AGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gatefold,13 Agilysys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Ainsworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Aristocrat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10,11 Aruze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Best Gaming Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Casino City Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 Cintas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 CountR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 Ditronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93 Everi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Fabicash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131 Fantini Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131 G2E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125,129 GameCo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Gaming Support USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 Ganlot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 Gasser Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 Giesecke & Deverient GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 GLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Global Market Advisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Greenberg Traurig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Hnedak Bobo Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 ICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119 Incredible Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 IGT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Innovation Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 Interblock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 JCM Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Joseph Eve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 Konami . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22,23,Back Cover Merkur Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Micro Gaming Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Narus Advisors eSports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105 NetEnt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Novomatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 Red Square Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117 RMC Legal Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 RPM Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Rymax Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Scientific Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 SG Interactive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107 Sightline Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30,31 Spendsight Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132 Spin Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Suzo Happ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123 TCSJohnHuxley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Thalden Boyd Emery Architects . . . . . . . . . . .89 VGT-An Aristocrat Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

International. Ainsworth President–North America Mike Dreitzer said, “We are excited to welcome Kelcey to our team. Kelcey brings more great experience, strong customer relationships and further leadership capabilities to our already-top-notch sales team. His addition will allow us to continue our momentum and position us even better moving forward in this very competitive marketplace.” Allison stated, “I’m honored to join Ainsworth’s strong North American team. I believe Ainsworth has the ability to have great success in the coming years, and am excited to be a part of their team.”

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CASINO COMMUNICATIONS

Per Eriksson President & CEO, NetEnt

etEnt was one of the first corporate entities to get involved in iGaming back in 1996. As in its infancy, the company concentrates on “better gaming” by emphasizing a cutting-edge platform and entertaining games. Per Eriksson was appointed president and CEO in 2012, and has led the company in a U.S. expansion. Eriksson spoke with GGB Publisher Roger Gros from his offices in Stockholm. To hear a full podcast of this interview, visit GGBMagazine.com.

Global Gaming Business: NetEnt started during the infancy of iGaming. How did the company grow and evolve with the industry? Eriksson: The company was founded in 1996.

The founder, Pontus Lindwall, was brought up in a casino family. His father owned a company called Cherry, and they had a big portion of the land-based markets in the Nordics. So, when the internet became available, he realized it was a fantastic tool. Just imagine, instead of having a physical casino, you can reach out to everyone, everywhere in the world. So, that vision has been part of our success from the very, very start. In the beginning, the regulations surrounding iGaming were either very spare or even nonexistent. But NetEnt has always navigated those waters very skillfully. What did you have to do to make sure that you always stayed on the right side of the regulations in those days?

From the very beginning, we saw that this is such a great opportunity, it’s important to really try to do it right, instead of taking any chances. Even though there was a lot of money out there, the best thing is to do it right—as right as you can do it when there’s no clear regulation. NetEnt games have the potential to cross over from online to land-based. How do you see that happening?

In the U.K., we have William Hill shops all around the country. You can get NetEnt games on slot machines or video terminals there. So, that’s the start for us. They’re getting more into land-based. But our main focus is still online. NetEnt also has games in the New Jersey online casinos. Have they been successful?

Yes, very successful. And we’re really happy to see that, because we heard a lot of people tell us these games will not work in the U.S., because the U.S. players are different. But apparently, they’re not. They are more or less the same, and like the same types of games, as the Europeans. So, we’re really happy to see that. And also, we’ve put a lot of energy and innovation and quality into our games, especially in the U.S. We are off to a better start than we could have dreamt, so we’re really happy. Why did you decide to come into the U.S. at this time, with just three states active in iGaming?

We see ourselves as pioneers. We were in the U.S. before it was banned in 2006. We pulled out immediately at that point, but at that time, it was the biggest iGaming market in the world. The potential is still there. So now, when it starts to open up again, we want to be part of it, and make sure that we do it the right way. And that’s also why we pulled out immediately when it was banned, so therefore, it was not hard for us to get into New Jersey. We think that we are very well-positioned for success in the U.S. Why isn’t NetEnt involved in social gaming or online sports betting?

We have decided to be in casino only, just to make sure that we stay focused and that we are best in class in what we do. Even if it’s tempting, we resist, so far. There’s so much potential in the casino market, so, it’s better to be there only. There might come a day in the future, but not in the near future.

134 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2016

NetEnt has been very aggressive recently in signing some impressive branded games, like Jimi Hendrix, Guns N’ Roses and others. What’s behind that strategy?

We think a good way of getting recognition for our casino games is with popular brands. This year we have Guns N’ Roses and Jimi Hendrix, and we also will debut Motorhead shortly. Prior to these, we’ve had South Park, and film titles like Scarface, Alien, and so on. So, we’re trying different types of branded games, to see what fits best and also for the players to enjoy. It’s great fun; we were so happy when we were able to sign these titles, because it’s very emotional. Most people like the bands, and new players are coming into the casinos that offer them to play. Your second-quarter report was very impressive—more than 30 percent increases in the revenue, net profit and operating margin. How does that happen?

It starts with our corporate culture. We have people from 47 different countries working in NetEnt. We want people from all over the world to be part of NetEnt, so that we get influences from everywhere—because we believe very much in diversity, and because that diversity creates so much creativity. We see ourselves as the leaders in the iGaming casino industry, and you need to push yourself all the time; otherwise, someone will come and be better than you in the future. We need to see ourselves in a different view, so that we can become better in what we do. And of course, we are launching new types of games, we are entering new markets. We are opening new offices, and we are expanding around the world.

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