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Thinking thin
Moving the intelligence that powers games away from the slot floor and into the back office has long been discussed. But could it become a reality once capital spending returns in a post-recession world? Barnaby Page explores how server-based gaming fits into today’s technology landscape, and the benefits it brings to casino operators
Could server-based gaming be the technology that brings the benefits of online gaming to the casino floor? It lacks, of course, one of the salient features of online – its independence of location – but that’s a curse as well as a blessing: while it means customers can gamble anytime, anywhere, it also eliminates much of the potential for cross-selling that the land-based casino enjoys.
Yet in its essence, server-based gaming is remarkably similar to online. The key is the shift in game intelligence and control from the point of play to a centralised computer system – the server.
Imagine, for example, that you are playing a simulated slot or table game on your laptop, via the Internet. Your computer is bringing a little bit of functionality to the party: the ability to show images and play sounds, and to convert your keyboard input into a stream of bytes that the software will understand, for example. But the core of the game – the random number generation, the automated decision-making on what image needs to be shown and what sound played next, and so on – is all happening on the e-gaming provider’s servers, conceivably a continent away.
Now translate that division of responsibilities to the slot floor (for server-based gaming is, in practice, mostly about slots, although there’s no reason the principles can’t be applied to electronic table games too). The machine at which the player stands has sufficient intelligence to light up bits of the screen in different colours as it’s instructed, play sounds, print tickets and so on. But again, the course of the game is determined not in the slot unit itself but in a central server (in this case, most likely within the casino complex itself rather than thousands of miles away, for security and regulatory reasons).
The slot device has become what computing types would call a “thin client” – little more than an interface between the user and the distant server.
The big picture
In IT generally, thin clients have been hyped as the next big thing for a very long time, because in large-scale installations it’s much more efficient – in both cost and managerial terms – to centralise the operation of software on a server, rather than having hundreds of discrete iterations of the software running separately on individual machines.
For much of that very long time, however, they didn’t take over the world, in part because the capability of localised intelligence – i.e. the PC, or the standalone slot machine – was advancing so quickly thanks to ever-fast processors and cheaper memory, and the capacity of network connections wasn’t keeping up. In that scenario, confining all the action to the server would have actually imposed pointless limits on functionality. Maybe the server could have done everything the one-per-user machine could, but it very often couldn’t transmit the results of its work quickly or reliably enough.
Now, however, the ubiquity of very fast network connections is closing that gap in the client-server logic, and just as mainstream computing is increasingly moving to the cloud model (see boxout, “Clouds on the horizon?”), so in casinos, server-based gaming’s time may have come.
The reasons why
What are the benefits? Most importantly, the games available on each cabinet can be changed at any time without physically touching the cabinet, not only making upgrades far simpler but also allowing operators to fine-tune the game mix for specific customer demographics on different days or at different times. This is a feature common to all server-based gaming systems.
Server-based gaming also provides many opportunities for customising the gaming experience, because a central database can store information on individual players and then deliver appopriate instructions to whichever machine they’re standing at. For example, a player could leave one cabinet, move to another, insert a card that identifies them, and find that it knows all their gaming preferences. They could even spread the same gaming session over several units. As our boxout on the major vendors shows, this kind of customisation and player messaging is a focus of several suppliers.
Server-based gaming is also fundamental to inter-player competitions, whether in one venue or over several, and facilitates site-wide or business-wide progressive jackpots. It allows customers to play more than one game simultaneously if they wish – a practice that’s popular with younger gamblers, already familiar with juggling multiple digital devices. And it lets the same game be distributed through several channels: not just cabinets, but handheld devices, mobile phones, and the Internet.
From a management perspective, the centralisation of server-based gaming also improves monitoring, security and record-keeping. And for regulators, in turn, this improves their view of operations. The recent large rollouts in Italy of video lottery terminals (VLTs) from companies like Inspired and Videobet, for example, are all server-based and give the Italian regulator, the AAMS, a very accurate window on VLT activity.
The downside
However, one of server-based gaming’s biggest strengths – centralised control over the whole floor, or at least a large part of it – has also proved an obstacle to adoption for many operators. While it is true that server-based cabinets should not have to be replaced as often as conventional ones, because the game content can be completely changed at the server, nevertheless the initial capital cost of conversion to the server-based model is huge. That’s not necessarily a fatal flaw for new casinos, but it’s an off-putting factor for many with a large existing investment in machines that server-based gaming will render obsolete.
Says Marcus Prater, Executive Director of the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers: “The Holy Grail of server-based gaming has not taken hold because suppliers have not given operators a compelling reason to change their entire floor. With the recession it’s too expensive, casinos can barely afford replacement machines never mind rip up the floor, rewire it with high-speed cable He adds, though, that “there are pockets of success. Because the Holy Grail strategy is clearly not going to arrive, suppliers have changed the focus of server-based technology and there are products which represent facets of what the industry thought the technology might be, which are not the whole package. There’s good product out there now where the server is tied to the player management system, for example, to offer different rewards and bonusing events based on the player’s worth to the casino. That’s an element of server-based gaming that is alive and kicking and doing very well for operators.”
It’s an approach that has been welcome at Aria, the casino in the new Las Vegas CityCenter development, where from day one half the floor, or around 900 games, was server-based, mostly using slots from International Game Technology (IGT) along with a percentage from WMS Gaming.
Observes Mike Volkert, VP of Slot Marketing and Operations at Aria: “Server-based gaming will provide us with great marketing opportunities. In the near future we will be communicating with players directly through the Service Window, a communication portal [a small LCD screen built in to the slot machine] to the customer which allows us to offer marketing messages and different sorts of bonuses to customers based on that customer’s demographics or the information we have. For example, if they’re gaming with us and use their loyalty card we know if they’re also staying with us, so we can communicate with them differently.
“Like all casinos, our problem was that most marketing comes after their trip has ended and they’ve gone home. But with server-based gaming we can talk to them in real time and with greater relevance: ‘Oh, you’re gambling with me but not staying with me, so maybe I’ll offer a buffet comp if you come back tomorrow.’ It’s about the right message at the right time.”
Certainly, then, the technology is there today for server-based gaming to provide bottom-line benefits to casino operators. And there’s reason to believe that it will gain more support, because it brings the slot floor into line with broader technology trends – there is no reason why the casino industry should be immune from them.
Whether full server-based gaming’s moment has come is a tougher question. But with the benefits becoming widely understood, it may well be that when healthy economic growth returns we’ll see a lot more floors being managed the Aria way.
