There are voices in the industry suggesting that, with the rise of SAGSE in Argentina, G2E Asia, and ICE in London, G2E Las Vegas's days are numbered as a major international show. Well, that's not what we saw in Las Vegas – yes, visitor numbers are unquestionably down, but the number of decision makers seems to have stayed constant. Business was done, in some cases lots of it, and new technology was on show. All in all, it was a very satisfying show, with a few notable standout products.
Top of the tree was Shuffle Master's iTable, which is basically an electronic Blackjack game. Simple enough so far, but there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. It's not fully electronic, it's played with a card reading shoe and a real deck, plus a live dealer. The player takes a seat and buys in to the game, and their credit appears on an individual display before them. From there, play continues as normal, but with a couple of excellent embellishments and improvements. First up, when the player gets their two cards and the dealer has one face up card, the table calculates the true odds of the player winning, and it becomes a side bet; if the dealer has a four, for example, and the player has 18, the odds are good that the player will win so the side bet will pay out less. To take the wager, the player must match their initial bet on the hand. As with most electronic games, it's faster as payouts are automated, so it immediately has the potential to make more profit for the operator.
Also, the machine has a level of AI, so if a player makes a peculiar choice, they are asked if they're sure that's what they want to do – this helps with dispute resolution even before it happens.
Perhaps best of all though, the table is versatile – fundamentally, it's a card table, not just a Blackjack table. The Blackjack model can be rebooted and in just a few minutes, it's a Baccarat table; same shoe, same dealer, different appeal. Genius!
As Shuffle Master's Kirsten Clark explains, "On our version of iTable that utilizes a specialty shuffler, we’ll be able to change from 3 Card Poker to a Hold’Em style game depending on the demands of the floor. We’re launching with Blackjack and Baccarat, but we’re developing the software for other games now.
"We’re really excited about it, we’ve worked closely with dealers and developers with this product and we’re very proud of what we’ve got here. We’re close to submitting it to GLI for approval, which we hope will happen quite quickly. Then we’ll manage a controlled rollout, so we can monitor the games and make sure any minor problems are taken care of, and any enhancements we can add."
Microsoft were demonstrating the next level of their hospitality solution in one of the venue's meeting rooms and it was simply sensational. It's a broad-ranging solution for a resort casino, hotel or, well, anyone that wants to really harness and use Business Intelligence. There's not enough room to go into details here, but in a forthcoming issue, Microsoft will explain just how effective and in-depth their solution is. A visit to the meeting room was worth it if only to see Microsoft's Surface technology in place, and to understand where it can go in the future; they're attacking the gaming market with intelligence and what appears to be a real understanding of what the customer needs – then they take it ten steps further, so it will still be relevant in years to come.
WMS premiered their Bluebird 2 cabinet at the show, the evolution of the much admired Bluebird, their mainstay for the last few years. The Bluebird was future-proofed, capable of working within a server-based gaming environment, but the new cabinet seems to be a real improvement. It uses their wonderful Transmissive Reels technology, where a clear screen overlays the reels, and features programmable buttons – both features make it perfect for a server-based floor. Of course, with a Bose sound system installed, the audio quality of the games on Bluebird 2 is outstanding.
Also at their booth was a cracking selection of community gaming products, including their superb Monopoly branded titles.
WMS has been at the top of its game for the past few years, and judging by G2E the purple patch continues. We'll take a much closer look at the product on show at G2E – including their Casino Evolved vision – in a forthcoming issue.
Novomatic's booth was far larger than last year, and enjoyed a good position on the floor. Just as well, because they had a good selection of quality product for customers to peruse.
Debuting several new Coolfire II game mixes designed specifically for the North and South American markets and presented in the Novo Super-Vision cabinet, Novomatic received a very high level of interest in these multi-game machines. Novomatic’s very highly regarded electronic multiplayer games, displayed in a Novo Multi-Table Roulette configuration, powered by the server based Novo Unity I platform and displayed on the Novo-Vision Slant Top II cabinet and on the innovative Novo Bar (bar top console) also received a lot of attention. Novo TouchBet Live-Roulette, Novo Multi-Roulette, Novo TouchBet Live-Blackjack and Novo TouchBet Live-Sic Bo all featured extremely strongly. The company's reputation grows with each installation of their money-spinning multiplayers, and G2E Las Vegas will only boost their profile further.
Aristocrat brought their excellent Viridian cabinet to G2E, and alongside it stood their new Viridian RFX stepper, which, judging by the effort they put in to promoting it, could be something special. It's a three- or five-reel mechanical reel slot machine which boasts touchscreen interactive bonusing and great quality audio. Mechanical reels have enjoyed a new lease of life in the last two years, and Viridian RFX should do well on the back of that, not least because it looks like a great product.
Also of note on the Aristocrat stand was their Jaws jackpot link, a great-looking piece of licensing which incorporates the movie's classic theme music, film footage and universally-recognised symbols to create a slot experience that will be admired, recognised and enjoyed all over the world.
Octavian, fresh from the capital injection raised after their reverse takeover which will allow them to enter the US market, displayed a broad portfolio of products to appeal to all markets. Octavian EasyStart is their entry-level casino system, and Octavian e2e GMS is an 'end to end' tables to slots solution, both designed to help casinos run at maximum efficiency and enjoy a back-end that will assist in improved marketing, loyalty and business intelligence. For modern casinos, utilizing tools like this is the only way forward – understanding the customer is vital, and helping operators large and small achieve this is a huge part of what Octavian does.
Interblock had a large stand, and though North America is yet to enjoy the wonderful organic range of G4 automated gaming product, the G3 line is winning plaudits in what seems to be a growing market for the company. Not exhibiting with their partner company Aristocrat, on their own stand, Casino International met Marty Glazman, General Manager Sales Operations for North and South America. He explained: “Interblock has been represented here by Aristocrat, and they have done and will continue to do a great job, but we wanted to increase our presence at G2E because we feel there’s a good market for two of our products: the eight-station or ten-station Roulette, and the new Sic-Bo we’re introducing.
"We’re also introducing a new Player Information Display [PID], hooked up live to the Roulette or the tumbling dice game, showing the history of the game which the players love. It's a great product for 'numbers players', people who have a little bit of superstition in them, who believe in lucky numbers for example."
The PID product is very attractive, and certainly catches the eye from distance – but the core product of Interblock is most certainly Roulette, and Marty is well aware of that. "We’ve had a lot of positive reaction to our Roulette because it’s great looking, it’s clean, it’s simple, it’s a nice looking Roulette.
"The US market place is just getting started with automated Roulette, we’re just establishing it; this product is doing extremely well, it’s been in the market place for a few years so people know it."
Bally Technologies had an enormous space at G2E, as we have come to expect – and of course, their product was very, very good indeed. Their stand boasted 50 per cent more games than last year, and an eye on their Networked Floor of the Future Command and Control Center solution, with live demos available for visitors.
Making its debut at G2E was the Blazing 7s Multi-Slot  Reel Slot, which Ballys says is one of the industry's first multi-game steppers, with three games for players to choose from.
The much-admired GameMaker platform also had a new addition, the Super Progressive Suite, and the GameMaker HD Scheduler, plus a new version of the cabinet with six of the company's key slot games on, for the international market.
Atronic also had an expansive stand, and some great product. The standout for us was Deal or No Deal – What's Your Deal?, a wonderfully innovative slot machine – with no reels! The game follows the pattern of the internationally-recognised game show. The core of the game is the briefcase bonus, in which the player uses just two buttons: Deal, or No Deal. It's another expansion of the license Atronic has adapted to slots quite beautifully.
Stargate is another good licensed game theme from Atronic. Under its banner, there are four different slots, each themed around a different key character from the TV show. A special bonus bet must be played to get into the Stargate bonuses. The show's visual theme is carried across very strongly to the slot bank, and it should be another hit for the company.
Atronic's new slant-top cabinet, the double-screen e2 slant, was previewed here, though it will be launched to international markets at ICE in January. The company says that all e2 games will be available on the e2 slant going forward.
Their community bonus series expands with Tree of Riches, a vibrant and fun-looking game which will have players collaborating and competing with each other, under a visual identity rich with crisp graphics and a unique look.
Deal or No Deal – Join and Play also comes under the same community bonus series banner, and it joins Atronic's other great DOND titles as a surefire hit.
Quality really was everywhere at the show; take FutureLogic, for example. Three new products at one show, and every one a winner. They were showing the Eclipse Roll Printer, a product with the casino, VLT and ATM markets in mind, which, like theur Gen2 printer, doesn't eject the ticket until it's fully printed, so it cannot be tampered with by the player or recipient. They also showed developments with the superb PromoNet product, in which it was linked to IGT's Service Window on their sb product. This link means that a player can access Service Window, see what promotions they are eligible for when an alert is given, and the printer can give them the coupon right into their hand. Wonderful.
Finally, and best of all, there is Table Exchange, which is set for a second quarter release in 2009. In the words of FutureLogic's Rob Denham, who was understandably enthusiastic: "In casinos at the moment you have three kinds of currency – chips, cash and tickets. If you come off a slot machine you have to go to a cage or redemption terminal to change to cash to move on to tables. If you have chips, you have to go to the cage to get cash to move to the slots; what this does is to allow players to move between slots and tables more efficiently. It’s got a barcode reader, so when you come from the slots the ticket is read and validated, and you get the chips; your ticket goes into the drop count with the cash. When you’re done playing, the croupier takes his chips back and gives you a ticket back with the right value on, so the player can move on to another table, or move back to the slots." If Table Exchange isn't a huge hit for the company, Casino International will be very, very surprised.
MEI were pushing their identity as a global company very hard at the show, but considering their worldwide growth and increasing market share, that seems fair. Product-wise, they showed the SCM, with a cashbox with space for 50 per cent more bills, or a standard-size cash box.
Also on show was the Cashflow Sphinx, which we've seen before under a different name, but which looks very, very good now. It's a validator for the casino cage, which is probably the part of the casino most susceptible to fraud. It's quick and easy – feed the bill in, if it comes out it's a good bill. Simple but effective.
GLI is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and they're doing it in style, with an innovation that will save all their customers time and money – and help them make money, too. As Christie Eickelman explains: "We’re promoting our new program, ‘Point. Click. Transfer.’ here, which allows manufacturers to transfer previously certified games into jurisdictions all over the world. It truly is a global marketplace for a global company. You can have your game certified for one jurisdiction, go online, point at another jurisdiction you want to be in, click, and you’re ready to do business there.
"It gives our customers a tremendous advantage in reaching the markets they want to reach."
This simple idea was another show highlight for us, no question.
Alfastreet had a new poker product on show, and the seats around it were full what seemed like the entire show. According to Alfastreet's Matjaz Petek: "Early feedback [on the poker product] here is very, very positive. It’s the main attraction on our stand this year. It’s good for us as it’s getting people on to the stand, and we’re listening to our customers – and new customers – to make the right machine for both the operator and the customer."
Alfastreet is growing into the Americas, with a healthy customer base in South America and a growing one in North America thanks to their relationship with Atronic Americas.
GPT launched Nova Black at G2E, their new universal currency acceptor. It uses, says Robert Dunn, "our RGB optics and our proven engine in our Falcon validator and put it into the gaming format package." What does this mean? Well, it means it will fit into just about any slot machine, Robert explained: "This new validator will fit basically anything at the show. It’s ideal for new designs where space is at a premium. Because it’s based on the Falcon engine we’re ready to go with this product right now. We’re targeting North and South America, Australia and South Africa with it. There’s a 78mm channel width so it’s best suited to those countries; it has barcode reading and a USB service port, too."
TransAct exhibited in tandem with JCM, and between the companies they have an interesting and very exciting array of products. Regular readers will know how highly Casino International regards JCM's Trident Tablesafe System, their table game currency validation product. It's superb, in short, and it should result in a lot of sales for JCM. We'll be talking to the company again in a few months to find out how the product has progressed in the last 12 months.
TransAct are growing their product line – and their reputation – steadily, and the result has been steady growth for the company, says Tracey Chernay, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. "We’re having a very good year in difficult market conditions. I think that’s primarily because we expanded our product reach in a couple of key ways. In gaming we just introduced a new product called ServerPort, which allows you to upgrade existing games in your casino to connect to a server-based network. For the operator, the advantage is that they can upgrade their existing games with Epic 950 printers, so they don’t have to completely alter their casino floor to take advantage of server-based printing. They can do things like coupon printing, or connecting for firmware downloads, in a slower customer time, for example. It’s a big advantage for an operator. The other key benefit is the connection to the network so that promotional coupons can be printed, which can be done at a pre-set time. We’ve launched that here at G2E and the reception has been very good."
Quixant launched a new gaming board at the show, with the QX30 impressing with its technical stats. It has its official launch at ICE, but Quixant's Gary Mullins gave us a preview: "The QX30 has the same gaming I/O and footprint as the QX10 but has a lot more horsepower on the PC side. It has a new AMD/ATI chipset, which is very efficient as it means we don’t need a separate CPU and separate graphics engine – it’s all in one chip. There’s no other gaming board out there that will run modern games, like Call of Duty etc – but ours will. That means games developers have a lot more to play with when they’re coming up with product. It will also drive multiple screens, all from one board – there’s no need for a separate graphics controller." Sounds great – hopefully a slot manufacturer will pick it up and produce something stunning very soon…
Abbiati were occupying space on the Paltronics stand, for whom they had made some tables for the show; the stand was largely black in colour, as were the tables. As Abbiati's Terry Clarke elaborated: "We were asked to do some tables for Paltronics, so our tables here fit in with their black stand, but they’re great quality and look really good on the stand. We’ve got new carbon fibre chip trays here too, which of course work with our RFID chips which can’t be used with a metal chip tray."
Terry was upbeat about the show's visitors, too, adding: "I think the show’s been less well attended, but the people that are here are decision makers. We had a client here who usually comes with 15 people, he arrived with just two – but they were the right people."
Another of the show's real high points came from CashCode – or as they are now known, Crane Payment Solutions, with CashCode operating as one of their brands. The company has launched what appears to be an excellent, well thought out and targeted bill validator that is usable around the world. One validator no matter what the currency, the operating voltage – is it too good to be true? No! As Crane Payment Solutions' Denis Antunes explains: "We spent a lot of time talking to our customers, asking what features they want that are not available on the market already, and now we think we have that product – it’s called CashCode One, and this [G2E] is its official launch. It’s called One because we believe it has true universality; it supports all different currencies and protocols, and even different operating voltages, on one device – you just have to change the software to put it into a new country.
"In terms of software it’s very simple – it’s just a standard memory chip, which we have trademarked as BlueChip. It comes from the factory preinstalled, and any time an operator or OEM wants to change, they simply program the memory stick and put it in the machine. What’s unique about it is that you don’t need to bring a laptop and flash the new info into the hardware on the floor, or have a hand-held device where you do the same thing. In terms of getting the information on to the stick, you download it on to your computer, and we have a programmer station which is also brand new and we’re showing it here for the first time. It’s a multi-stick programmer, which allows you to program 18 memory sticks at once. But you can mix what you do, so you could do six in the Euro currency and 12 into US dollars, or any mix really. You can also put multiple loads per stick, so you might want to update 100 machines with one stick. For a technician, that makes life simpler – put it in the validator, power the validator on and within 3 seconds, it’s flashed, and that’s for both currency and firmware changes. You then take the stick to the next machine, and so on."
It's a very bold move by the company, and it's one that Casino International believes will pay off in no uncertain terms.
Roulette wheel specialists Cammegh had an absolutely storming show – and Andrew Cammegh stated that if it had only been a one-day event they could have gone home happy. He told Casino International: "This has been our best-ever G2E show. We’ve been so pleased with the response, the enquiries, the repeat business… It’s been really great. We’ve increased the size of our stand for next year, and based on the support and business we’ve generated already that’s the right thing to do.
"We have a large number of concrete orders in, not just for wheels, but for Billboard displays as well. It’s the kind of business we might expect at ICE, but not here – if we can repeat this at ICE we’ll be very happy!
"Our customers love our commitment to the products, they love the product, they love our experience, solidity, certainty and they know exactly where they stand with us. We have a great relationship with our customers."
LVGI has changed an awful lot since we first encountered them here a few years ago – and their product has developed beyond recognition in incredible speed, too. The software provider was showing superb solutions for operators looking to give the customer the best experience they can. Beverage on demand is one part of the package, where players can order a drink through the slot machine they're playing and have it brought right to them. But there's a lot more to it than that, as John Berkley told us: "We’ve got a complete in-room solution, we’ve got solutions for the gaming floor that we can deliver through PlayerVision, picture in picture overlay in existing video machines, via IGT’s sb service window and a lot more – and it’s all the same software suite, which is also running on handheld devices. All of these points converge into the same back-end, which allows you to utilise things like beverage on demand, and this can be used in the oldest machines still operating on the casino floor. With beverage on demand, if a player orders a drink, then takes their card out of the machine and moves to another machine, their server knows where they’ve gone so the drink will go to the right location.
"We’re showing beverage on demand here, and Nevada Numbers too – on a small extra screen in the machine, and it’s an added game to the existing game. We’re rolling out one application a month for operators to benefit from, it’s growing all the time. This is all available now though, this is not where we hope to be – this is where we are."
TCSJOHNHUXLEY had a strong presence, and the usual line-up of good products that customers have come to expect. The highlight for us was the Omni Craps Display, which brings the eye-grabbing display excitement that Roulette has benefitted from for some time to the Craps table. Information is clear and easy to read, and the times players have been rolling for are a major part of the fun. It can even give the players a printout telling them how long they were 'shooting' for; it's customisable for the casino, with a selection of skins to choose from, and it's simple to use. What more could an operator want?
Well, how about the excellent MultiPLAY Roulette? We've seen this before, including the impressive dual installation at London's Empire casino, but at G2E it was getting a lot of attention. It's attractive because of the security it offers operators, while retaining the fun of the live dealer; on top of that, it's just a great looking piece of equipment that does its job perfectly.
Also of note was the rather plush Aston Martin car parked outside the show, which TCSJOHNHUXLEY was inviting players to try and win at their Craps table (with Omni Craps Display, of course!) – all you had to do is roll five 12s…
Slot product was top of the tree for Ainsworth – after all, that is what they do. Of note was the House of Fortune progressive linked product, with three mystery jackpot levels, multi denomination and up to 50 lines games, and a great sign package. Also on show that looked great was Jackpot Kingdom, a link progressive package with a mystery triggered jackpot feature.
We caught up with Peter Walford, who is soon to take over their European operation, at G2E. He told us: "It’s been a great show for us, probably more so for the American side; the launch of new product from Ainsworth’s perspective has been well received, but I think climate conditions will dictate the next few months of sales.
"We’ve had a great influx of European customers come through, not as many as previous years but strong enough, but again, with our new products and new concepts, the customers seem to appreciate what we have."
GPI continued to push their RFID product, which has grown into a genuine suite which all operators should be aware of. The RFID poker table, for example, saves time in games – and therefore, generates more revenue. At G2E though, the RFID poker table was allied with JCM's table-mounted bill validator, Trident. As Christophe Leparoux of GPI explains: "We’ve teamed up with JCM to interface our RFID table with their Trident bill validator for table games. It means there’s an RFID float tray, which give the exact inventory of the table. Combined with the bill validator, it means you can interface with our system for the drop.
"This means with the chip tray, you know the value of the chips when you open and close the table; basically, this combination also gives you the drop on the table, so you have the balance.
He added: "It’s been an excellent show, the traffic has been very steady for us, and we’ve seen a surprising amount of customers from Europe here. We’ve had our RFID demos roughly every hour on the stand, which always draws a crowd."
Casino Technology, after wowing crowds in Vegas with their incredible PlayMe Roulette-wheel-in-a-piano concept, took it a step further this year with both the PlayMe video slot, and the PlayMe Dueling Piano, which is a dual grand piano configuration for Roulette.
On the slots side, their lovely Gemini Sensa cabinet got most attention, and it must be noted that this cabinet pays close attention to ergonomics and player comfort. It really looks and sounds great, and with their ever-expanding games library, it should prove as much of a success as the previous Gemini incarnations.
TableMAX continued to promote their rather fine Electronic Table Games, which includes a very well known selection of games that the company has exclusive electronic rights to, like Progressive Blackjack, the ever-popular Caribbean Stud Poker, Bonus Blackjack and more. We'll be featuring TableMax in a forthcoming issue of CI where you'll be able to find out a lot more.
EGT exhibited their new cabinet, the Vega Vision+ Slant Top machine, with a 22" main screen and a 26" second screen; it's a great looking cabinet, and their games library certainly seems to complement it.
New games from EGT included Great Egypt and Lucky Buzz, which were shown alongside some of their best-known titles.
Last but certainly not least comes IGT. The main focus of the show for them was their new and improved cabinets, the G20 and G22, and their S-AVPs and S-MLD – the latter being their Reel Depth product, the subtle, simple and brilliant technology that enhances the video slot experience hugely, and which we sampled last year on the Indiana Jones bank of machines. At G2E this year, Reel Depth seemed to be everywhere, which is no bad thing.
Service Window and sb were also prominent – their products are all about flexibility and the player experience, because they know that this leads to greater profits for the operator. James Boje of IGT Europe took time to explain: "We’re all about flexibility for the operator and that’s one of the main things we’re showing here. There are certainly fewer visitors here, but we’ve been very busy.
"It’s going to be exciting for me to bring the new cabinets at ICE and bringing Reel Depth there too; we’ll have our systems stand there too, as we did last year. We’re planning a real ‘wow!’ factor for ICE.
"We know customers are feeling the pinch globally, we know times are hard, but we’re bringing some special product to customers here in Vegas and also to ICE, and our customers know they have to spend money to make money.
"We feel for our customers; we can work with them and find ways for them to take new product, to find solutions that can benefit all parties and make sure they can have the latest technology available to their customers."
Finally, it was a very, very good G2E, especially considering the global financial condition. Now, roll on ICE…

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