Key new product for the company included a preview of their server-assisted gaming, which they call the Dynamic Floor Configuration DFC, which was presented on two Emotion machines; the presentation included a demo of changing the pay table remotely, controlling the sound settings, language controls, machine settings and more.

On the slot machine side, Atronic was previewing the Harmony slant-top cabinet, which is to be fully launched at ICE in January. This cabinet is not available for the North American market, but feedback, according to Atronic’s Marketing Director Sylvia Dietz, was very positive.

Atronic have also joined forces with Konami to develop their Passion Slots, a stepper product which can either stand alone or be linked into a five-level progressive, which is an exciting addition to their product range.

A major part of the stand was devoted to the Game of Life license, from the mega-popular Hasbro board game. Using the Emotion cabinet, it is a five-layer multi-level progressive which the company is supporting with a new game release every quarter, to keep the floor fresh and so the operator does not need to replace the entire link. The Game of Life bonus is the kind of addition that will draw in even non-players; the feel of the board game is replicated quite beautifully – this will prove a hit for Atronic, no doubt. Pre-show, Atronic placed The Game of Life in 10 US locations, and could direct customers to the Hilton nextdoor to see the game in an active location.

Thanks to the resurgence of the TV show Deal or No Deal, Atronic have refreshed interest in their licensed slot machine which was also prominent on the stand.

King Kong Cash was a stunner, nestled out of the way of the stand’s main traffic you could nevertheless hear King’s mighty roar wherever you were. Based on the recent remake of the 1933 classic movie, this is a very, very striking machine indeed. The full launch of KKC will be at ICE, where European customers will be able to enjoy the four-level progressive; at G2E, two games were under its jackpot ‘umbrella’ – ICE will see more games available for it.

Atronic’s established favourites Tournamania, Chain Reaction and its CHIP CASH cashless solution were also on show.

Gaming Partners International had an expansive stand, geared toward demonstrating their RFID chip products to educate potential customers.

Christophe Leparoux, Manager of International Sales and Marketing, explained what they were telling these potential customers: “I tell people to realise what they can do with the RFID chip at the change station or the tables and the chips inventory on the tables.

“We provide a screen with the chips and the readers, so a customer can get a fully working set off the shelves, so to speak, and it’s a proven technology.”

Judging by the crowds on the stand in Vegas, the company’s educational approach is still working; as they invest in new technology – like the new stations and updated software for the 125 that was on show – you can only see GPI going further and further as the leader in RFID technology.

Novomatic was another company with a large presence at G2E, and were showing a wealth of interesting product. One of their most eye-catching machines for international markets was Three, which looks like a traditional three-reel slot machine, themed as a jukebox from the 1950s.

Also prominent was the Novo Multi Table Roulette feature, which allows an operator to interconnect up to three Novo roulette products and for the player to access them on a single terminal, so they have a choice of games. Another innovation for a tried and tested popular product.

Another company with a sneak preview, Novomatic were showing their new Gaminator King cabinet, which boasts two wide TFT, 16:10 format, 20.5” screens. It’s a beautiful looking cabinet, and this taster will guarantee big crowds on their ICE stand. Keep an eye out for it.

Octavian had a prominent presence, their distinctive blue and yellow branding standing out among the Vegas crowds. There were a couple of AWP games on Boomerang cabinets, and more interestingly, a couple of downloadable games also on Boomerangs.

Of course, whatever product the company had on show was always going to be overshadowed by the company’s acquisition by Australian outfit eBet, which was announced to some surprise at the show (reported in last issue’s news section).

Octavian’s catalogue is heaving, as they showed new product at the show which included a Wireless Network Module, a compact, fully mobile, high-security unit that can wirelessly link up to 100 electronic gaming machines. It rules out the need for cabling, which can bring an operation to a standstill and makes this product ideal for older casinos, where the potential for network cables has not been considered at the building stage. Temporary venues and cruise ships could also benefit from its simplification of slot management and accounting.

Your Money Prize is an add-on which allows operators to incorporate a local progressive jackpot to existing video reel titles. It operates as a game in a game, with prize coin symbols seen on the game reels turning from silver to gold when the necessary betting level is hit. Five of the gold symbols on the screen pays out.

One of the most exciting things on the Octavian stand was PortalVision, a product of LVGI. Octavian announced in October that they would be distributing LVGI’s PortalVision product worldwide (except for South Africa), and judging by the response of customers at the show it’s a smart move for both companies. It was undoubtedly one of the stars of this year’s G2E, and LVGI also had their own stand which was buzzing.

LVGI are known in Nevada already as they provide a lottery-style keno game in the state. This became possible after, as President and Chief Marketing Officer Stephen Crystal explains, they: “…acquired a company two years ago called Adline and the technology associated with it, and basically that proprietary technology enabled LVGI to design a piece of equipment when inserted into a slot machine, converts the video within that slot machine and in essence, let’s us take over that real estate.”

Stephen continued: “What we have now, and what has been submitted to approval in Nevada and the GLI jurisdictions is a very simple piece of apparatus that enables us to turn a single purpose, single content, video slot machine into a lottery ticket dispenser or a sports ticket dispenser or a Keno ticket dispenser or a kiosk. So a lot of the focus in the show this year is server-based gaming and the content that’s coming and the potential issues that were associated with that. But what LVGI has is what is considered in the US, a piece of associated equipment that can go to the marketplace in the next several months and can basically allow operators to turn their slot machines into these multi purpose betting kiosks, and in essence do it across their entire manufactured base. So what you’ll see on our floor here is every manufacturer represented, regardless of the manufacturer, our device can take the video stream, and in essence overlay our video content, our games, our functionality onto existing slot machines. That’s what we do.”

It’s a fascinating multi-layered concept that is exciting for casino operators everywhere. Stephen explained further: “We’ve done a corporate deal with MGM, and Treasure Island is going to be where we launch this product next month [December 06].

“There’s a number of ways the product can be represented; one is a toolbar that exists beneath the existing content, so in essence we squeeze the existing game content and take over a tool bar. In this case we have a rotating icon, you see the MGM setup it’s an MGM logo that’s rotating, think of Intel Inside, think of what you do to brand the fact that this slot machine is powered by a technology that enables you to do more than what the technology shows on it’s face, so when you activate that it actually brings you into our portal, that’s why we call it PortalVision. You basically see that we have four offerings; SlottoVision, which allows you to dispense a lotto style ticket from the slot machine; PortalVisionTV which is the ability to have a screen, on screen ability to watch live TV while you are playing on a slot machine; Ad Vision, a machine by machine program advertising content, promoting the offerings of the casino, and WagerVision, the ability to accept a sports bet from the slot machine.

“Let’s assume then that we are in an advertising link – this is what we did for Treasure Island – and you can see the quality of the advertising link, this could either run across a bank of machines, it could run on a lone machine basis. For example, if you are trying to push tickets to a show that you are sponsoring that from a yield management standpoint is not sold out, you can program on a real time basis that to go up. What’s nice about this is that it works like a screen saver, so all you have to do is touch the machine and you’ve returned to the base game. So you enter the portal, you’re in an advertising loop, you touch the screen and you’re back into the game. So you could either have that loop running every so often so that basically you’re getting intermittent advertising on the banks of machines or you could have it be some thing that the player has to trigger and access, ie through entering the portal. So on the SlottoVision, the way that that works, we are actually still putting money in the machines.”

It’s hard not to be impressed by the energy of this company and the simplicity of their product, not to mention the actual excellence of what was on show at G2E. You’ll be reading a lot more about LVGI and Octavian in future issues – PortalVision was one of G2E 2006’s brightest stars.

Speaking of stars, Inspired won a host of new fans in Vegas, showcasing their existing, ready-to-roll expertise in server-based gaming. The stand looked great, with live product presentations taking place on real terminals. It’s a small point but a significant one; what Inspired showed at G2E was all demonstrated on an actual network. Their brilliant jukebox innovation allowed customers in the US to see what could be done on terminals in the UK in real-time. Of course, they were in the US to push their server-based gaming product.

Anne de Kerckhove, manager of the company’s international interests, explained their presence at the show: “Until the float then we were very UK-centric and now we have big operations in Australia and Italy, in the Czech Republic, in Vietnam, and so this show was about bringing us to the American market as well, the North American market and really pushing our presence.

“We already have 30,000 terminals, end points all using server-based gaming, and I mean managed server-based gaming, full fat server capabilities. We do it across all our products – everybody’s been asking the same thing on the stand, “Which one of these is networked?” Well, the whole lot, that’s all we do. So what you’ve got here are VLT products, which is the equivalent for the UK market’s fixed odds betting terminal, that we’re now launching in Latin America and probably in the States in about six months. There’s also the multi win roulette product which is the one which is launched in Gala as well as a few other UK casinos, doing phenomenally well in terms of income.

“We’re also showing an ItBox, which is skill-based gaming machine, and it’s interesting. It’s got a lot of attention at this show. Many US customers are saying ‘wow’ this is really amazing because it uses all that same technology and why couldn’t a casino also have entertainment products that are outside of pure gaming so I wanted to kind of open their eyes to the fact that gaming isn’t just a slot machine.

Steve Wooding, who is responsible for product innovation at Inspired, is particularly proud of their virtual sports concept. He explained: “We’re also showing virtual sports concept, and the idea of that is we’re taking very well established virtual racing content in the UK and we’re kind of developing a concept that will see us being able to play. It’s like a combination fixed odds terminal; we will have streamed virtual racing content, with a effectively a terminal-based operation that will allow you to play. It will essentially handle all the bet transaction and via the server we’ll deliver the results back to what’s streamed onto the screens and then back to the application, so it’s very much a concept product for us, but looking over here for the potential for producing a virtual racing feed into some of the sports books. It’s potentially very exciting.”

Anne elaborates: “If you look at it the sports books here they are huge in the casinos, but there are certain times of the day when there is no racing going on, there’s nothing interesting going on, there’s no sports. If you can mesh that with virtual products it makes it really, really fun.”

Anne summed up the company’s attitude at G2E perfectly when she said: “Everybody’s understanding in the industry that server-based gaming is coming, and that it will be about partnerships. We’re never going to be the best slot provider in the world, that’s not what we do, we’re the technology provider, we’re the platform.

“However, they can’t say that they’ve run 30,000 of these terminals. We’ve done everything – the hard work, the horrible time where nothing works and everything’s broken, we’ve gone through that already.”

Inspired’s staff did the company proud, with demos of the live ‘brain’ so you could watch a network operation in live action and knowledgable, friendly staff all around, not to mention their product line-up which impressed all that visited the stand. Up there with LVGI, Inspired were... Inspiring!

Unicum put on a large stand, a show of confidence from the company as they expand out of Russia and into the rest of the world. Their impressive, future-proofed Sensation machine took centre stage, which featured heavily at some European and South American shows earlier in the year. Sensation was not alone, however, as the company unveiled another new cabinet with ONYX.

Both machines utilise the Unicum Sapphire platform, but ONYX is aimed at middle-market operations – despite boasting features you might expect to find on a more expensive machine. It has a 17” high resolution monitor, full-range stereo speakers, ATI graphics and an elegant but functional outer design. Expect this to be a hit at ICE in January.

Also on the Unicum stand was a small selection of slots in the Sensation cabinet which showcased their collaboration with 3M, using that company’s brilliant TouchSense technology to create a very interesting gaming experience. The tactile touchscreen effect gives the player more absorbing gameplay and greater stimulation and involvement in the game to hand.

GPT’s stand had its focus firmly on the new Falcon currency validator, unveiled at the show and a piece of technology of which they are justifiably proud. Falcon combines Digital Signal Processor (DSP) technology with GPT’s proven RGBI optical technology, to provide fast, reliable bank note recognition.

Following their recent management changes, GPT has begun to act with renewed confidence and with a bold attitude toward new products. President and CEO Stephen Nevitt said the new products GPT is developing “should yield eight to 10 new patents in the coming months,” which bodes well for the future of this industry stalwart. Nevitt added: “We intend to focus our marketing and targeted advertising on the OEM’s and casino operators to reinvigorate interest and educate the market regarding our new products. GPT has also begun to explore the development of smart card technology and RFID applications for cashless systems.”

IGT enjoyed the same stand location - and size - as last year, a behemoth dominating one end of the main hall and furnished with the spectrum of their outstanding catalogue of games.

There really is nothing quite like the IGT stand at G2E; it houses such an array of product and such a huge number of people, no matter what time you go.

A key product on the stand was the Wheel of Fortune progressive. A variation on their iconic Wheel of Fortune game, its launch marks the 10th anniversary of IGT from 1996 to 2006. As IGT’s Ali Civile explains: “You have a wheel and you have your modular progressives, triggered at random and the way we are enticing the higher bets is you enable the wheel only with the 20 additional credits, but on top of that if you play only one credit for a line you are going to enable only one pointer of your eight on the wheel, out of your eight pointers. We changed we have eight pointers now for this one. So you need to bet eight credits per line to enable your eight pointers and you could win more than one level of your progressive, and the maximum would be two, and then the red and the purple and the blue whatever, plus additional credits times your bet.” The new format - with the eight pointers – gives the player a greater sense of the chance to win, combined with the fun of the traditional Wheel format.

As Ali states succinctly, “We have very high hopes for this one because Wheel of Fortune is a classic.”

IGT are also entering the multi-player market, with a baccarat and roulette product, though with intelligent twists to keep players coming back. Over to Ali: “We’re going to have four different types of roulette available, we are going to add poker and we are going to add also three games within one station. If each station is individual you can configure it in the way you want, you know circular, semi circular, whatever, the minimum is four and the maximum is 250. There’s going to be virtual dealer available and there’s going to be a live dealer available, virtual roulette, live roulette, several options, several configurations.

“You can see the neat graphics we have there. And there’s a little bit of competition going on there also; you see in the colours also there will be the normal machine lights and candles. The red light indicates that that customer is betting higher than the blue one, which helps when you have a lot of stations around, it helps for comping, you know. And there’s another light at the top that indicates, well at the moment the lady’s got it, she’s the highest better and player, she’s got a blue light on top, and she’s the one that gets to see the cards first for the players. If I had bet on banker and I was the highest better on banker, I would get a red light there and I would be able to see the card first before it goes to the screen and everybody else can choose.” These simple touches make for a competitive edge among players as well as versus the house.

IGT also has product in the downloadable games arena, privately demonstrated to select operators - expect to see more of this at ICE.

The company are also launching a guaranteed play machine, where the player buys a set number of hands, similar to the principle of buying time on a games machine. For example, for $20 a player might be able to buy 75 hands of poker on the machine and regardless of what and how they win, they will play out those 75 hands. It also means the player can only lose the $20 initial stake, so in terms of perceived value to the player this could be a real winner.

IGT had 49 machines on show for the international market, a huge number with variety and innovation worthy of the company’s name.

Bally boasted of having the broadest array of gaming products at the show and it’s easy to believe. Their huge stand seemed to sprout new ideas and bold product every which way. Toward the top of the pile was certainly the ALPHA Elite series of machines. The series features a common base cabinet designed to make it easy for operators to switch back and forth between a reel-spinner and a video slot. This variety of cabinet configurations will include the ALPHA Elite V32 video cabinet with a striking 32-inch vertical touch-screen; the versatile ALPHA Elite V20/20 with twin 20-inch stacked LCD touch-screens; the vivid ALPHA Elite V20 with a single 20-inch display; the ALPHA Elite S9C, featuring a 6.3-inch touch-screen below the reels and the all-new ALPHA Elite S9E stepper slot with 20-inch LCD mounted in the top box.

The big story, however, was the agreement signed between two of gaming’s giants – Bally and Aristocrat. The companies agreed to “cooperatively develop and market a common download system that manages configuration and content download in accordance with Gaming Standards Association (GSA), G2S and S2S protocols.”

Of course, this makes sense as companies of all sizes realise that divergence in SBG is not necessarily good for the casino operator, who may take their trade elsewhere. The companies plan to adopt open industry standards to encourage inter-operability, while the combination of their resources should see unbeatable product at the end of the road.

Their Downloadable Configuration Manager, or DCM, apparently allows content download and configuration management, while working comfortably with both companies’ slot and casino management systems. A working prototype was on show at G2E, and you will be able to read much more on this in forthcoming issues.

Aristocrat had the largest presence at the show, with a separate section for Interblock’s dynamic and widely appealing product. Meetings were also held away from the main stand in a secure, pleasant environment, while the main stand was predictably a hive of activity. Stars of the stand were their brilliant PokerTek table, developed by PokerPro and distributed by Aristocrat, and Interblock’s multi-player, multi-station electro-mechanical roulette, which has been gaining fans since their G2E appearance last year. Look out for their product at ICE – with Aristocrat’s backing, Interblock are going places.

Also on the stand were some new Hyperlink progressives: Looney Sevens, which adds the Hyperlink appeal to Aristocrat’s new five wheel stepper product, plus Jackpot Deluxe takes proven base games and adds the ability to win one of several jackpots in the same game. Also, LocoLoot is a Hyperlink four-level progressive, where the grand jackpot is a wide area progressive. In short, there was plenty of new gaming floor product for customers to enjoy.

Systems-wise, Aristocrat was pushing a new OASIS innovation, the Sentinel III player interface hardware. Using the SpeedMedia delivery system, Sentinel III allows gaming operators to advertise player and property promotions at the gaming machine. It’s an IP/Ethernet-based device featuring downloadable multi-media graphics and sound capability with a TFT touch screen interface – and something you’ll be reading a lot more about in forthcoming issues of Casino International.

Progressive Gaming had an unbelievably busy stand, crammed with people from start to finish it seemed. looking at their product, it’s not that surprising. Top of the list from a player perspective is their World Series of Poker-branded P2P platform. It’s a live multi-player poker system which allows player to compete in real time using terminals located throughout a gaming venue – or multiple venues. They can be kiosks, terminals or wireless devices, and operators can create unlimited numbers of tables with variable stakes. First up is Texas Hold’Em, with Seven Card Stud and Omaha to follow. A great idea with a big brand to back it up – this spells increased revenue across the board. Again, you’ll see more on this in a coming issue.

PGI’s collaboration with Shuffle Master and IGT, Table iD, looks set to bring new standards to table automation, as it combines RFID chip tracking, bonusing, table management software and image-based card recognition and analysis in one package. The smart thing about Table iD though, is that the package can be implemented in stages depending on the vendor’s needs and budgets. It can be added to existing tables, making it even more attractive and bringing an extra level of security and accuracy to the casino. Brilliant – we’ll be looking at this in a lot more detail in forthcoming issues too.

Shuffle Master also seems to be moving from strength to strength. There was a lot of interest at the show in their table games, enhancements and tweaks to old favourites to add spice and flavour and keep players coming back for more. Their Rapid Roulette can play up to 65 spins an hour, using a live dealer and wheel, and touch-screen betting terminals. With some success in roulette, the company has expanded the line to include Sic-Bo, Baccarat and Craps, incorporating a new jackpot system as well.

Vegas Star is Shuffle Master’s completely electronic platform for what are termed ‘high traffic’ games; blackjack, roulette et al. Designed for use in areas where live table games are perhaps forbidden, it’s an entirely scalable system from a single station upward.

Cyberview, like Inspired, have a solid background in server-based gaming and used G2E as a means to educate potential customers in SBG and what they do. Their global presence in networked gaming solutions – and not just for casinos, but for a range of applications – is growing by the month. As a potential partner to explore the possibilities for your casino, you’d be hard pushed to find a company with more to offer. The depth of their product is too much to go into here, but look out for more on Cyberview in Casino International soon.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY had their usual impressive show presence, with lots of foot traffic entering that stand to see their many innovations. Among the hot product was their new Sic Bo game for their TouchTable technology; like their successful roulette product, it’s a mutli-player system linked to a live Sic Bo game on the gaming floor. High definition graphics replicate the live game layout. With a drink-proof surface, it’s a good bet for bars and lounges. Sic Bo’s popularity is expanding beyond its traditional audience in Asia, so this could be a well-timed launch for TCSJOHNHUXLEY.

AccuPLAY Blackjack, first seen at last year’s ICE, has had a few tweaks and if anything looks even better than what we saw in early 2006. It’s a card game innovation that combines the best of internet play with the best of a live game. Player stations are equipped with a credit meter and a touch screen interface. Decisions are quicker from players, and there is greater accuracy too. Cards are drawn across a reader as they leave the standard shoe and the game is played as normal, but with the option for the operator of adding side bets, mystery jackpots and progressives. TCSJOHNHUXLEY also say that the game can increase turnover on a table by up to 70%, which is staggering, but makes sense when you realise the saved time comes from automated bet and payouts. Tracy Cohen, TCSJOHNHUXLEY marketing manager, said of the improvements: “We’ve changed the mouldings on the front so where the touch screens were much higher before and had a timber-like surround, now it’s been pre-moulded and fabricated in a way which is much more streamlined, it’s much more of a market-ready model.”

The company’s Worldwide Games were also a talking point. This series of table game innovations is a series of sub-games, if you like, in the form of side bets to add interest and longevity to traditional table games.

Tom Gaytan, the man leading the charge for TCSJOHNHUXLEY with Worldwide Games, explains the thinking behind Roulette Rage, a fun side game where players bet on the likelihood of a colour coming up, say, eight times in a row or more: “Roulette’s so traditional, it was hard to do something with it but we’ve come out with Roulette Rage, and it’s just getting an unbelievable amount of attention and it’s so easy, so simple and it makes so much sense that a lot of the casinos are really looking at that game.

“We’re are just bringing a new look, a little bit more, a face lift, to the table games arena. Also, with our library of games what we looked at doing was helping the casinos to take on the casino table games, take out a page from the slot departments, where they can reinvent themselves constantly from month to month; they got a bank of games, put in a new bank of games to see what their players are attracted to, what kind of games. Similarly we want to do the same thing by offering a library of games, where a casino operator can put in four games, let them run for a few months, maybe two of them really seem to draw attention from their players, the other two are not doing so well. We’ll take those out and put in two more, until they’ve got those four loaded.

“What we are doing is customizing a pit for your clientele. What may work at your casino may not work next door, or down the street at the next casino; different client base. So we are allowing that flexibility for the operator to be able to adjust the table games to what his client’s desire, so that they maximise their table game space, and instead of being open eight hours a day, it’s going to be open 18 hours a day.”

The games are, on the whole, a lot of fun and simple to understand, a key factor when training staff who will have to pass on the knowledge to the gaming public. And with the enthusiasm of Tom Gaytan behind them, the sky is the limit for Worldwide Games.

Last but most certainly not least comes WMS, who took to the floor with a huge stand and a wonderfully aggressive stance. They announced their presence at G2E with some of the finest technology in the building, and if what we saw there is anything to go by, 2007 is going to be a huge year for the company. With imagination and passion to burn, they have come up with some simple but startling ideas that could change aspects of gaming forever. Sadly, we can’t report on a lot of what we saw but it was truly exciting stuff.

What we can tell you about though is their WAGE-NET product. The name stands for Wide Area Game Enhanced Network. After working with Cyberview Technology, WMS can provide a GLI-21 approved package that allows remote configuration, software download and floor management. This looks like a solid product, both forward- and backward-looking. Since launching the Bluebird cabinet in 2003, the company have had an eye on their downloadable gaming solution. Bluebird cabinets do not have to be replaced to take advantage of the advance, as they are all, with a slight software update, compliant with the server-based gaming system, protecting the investment of many casinos which will win them yet more fans.

Also on board was WMS’s excellent Monopoly suite of games, a shining example of how licenses can work to strengthen both the slot machine’s identity but also the original board game’s.

Nobody who took in their previews would have left the WMS stand anything other than impressed – and toward the middle of 2007, they should be close to sharing their new products with the world!

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend