Using military terms to describe his style of hands-on management, Mr. Isaacs says he likes nothing better than to get out of his office and meet the customers. "I like to be in the action and on the front lines of the sales. I'm a hands-on, energetic in-the-trenches manager. After all, without the customers, it really doesn't matter! My job is to make a decision and once we arrive at that decision, I expect all of our people to carry it out," says Isaacs. "It is OK to object, but once a decision is made, everyone must act together without qualification."

Last year when Casino International sat down to talk with Gavin Isaacs, he was President of Aristocrat Technologies, the American subsidiary of Aristocrat Limited of Australia . (CI, March 2006) The 42-year-old native of Sydney, Australia has a strong focus on sales and the importance of the customer to the success of Bally Technologies. Always focusing on the customer, Mr. Isaacs asserted. "The customers don't live in my office so I have to get out and meet them. If I don't talk with them, then someone else will!"

In other words, nothing happens until someone sells something!

Casino International: What are some of your responsibilities as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President?

Gavin Isaacs: My responsibilities are on the gaming side, not the systems side of Bally. I am responsible for everything which has to do with the gaming side of the company game design, research and development, manufacturing, marketing, and worldwide sales.

CI: What is the best part of your job?

Isaacs: The best part of my job is interacting with customers and the staff here at Bally Technologies. The customer is the person we serve. We need to focus more on the customer here at Bally.

CI: How is Bally focusing on the customer and doing that?

Isaacs: I think that the best way to do this is to make sure that everyone knows exactly who our customer is and work towards that goal. If you keep the business focused on the customer and what the customer wants you can get a lot more direction from them.

CI: Have you noticed any differences in running an American company at its headquarters here in Las Vegas versus running the American subsidiary of an Australian company a half a world away?

Isaacs: I think so, there is a huge difference. Part of it is the fact that this is headquarters for Bally, and so when decisions are made they are made here and they impact the entire world. At Aristocrat, in Australia they affect the entire world. It is the understanding of the markets and my experience of having run the large American subsidiary for Aristocrat and now being here in the Bally head office that I am a little more receptive to the different global markets.

CI: What is Bally Technologies doing to celebrate its 75th anniversary this year?

Isaacs: Bally is such a great name and such a great brand. We have had events going on all over the world. I have been to the Las Vegas 75th Birthday celebration, however, I missed the celebration up in Reno. I flew to Atlantic City, New Jersey for their celebration and then I went to India for the celebration of Bally India.

We have had celebrations for our customers and for our staff, it is very important to celebrate 75 years in a company which has such a colorful history and no-one else has 75 years in this business. We have a fantastic brochure on the history of Bally Technologies which Marcus Prater, our Senior Vice President of Marketing has put together, which describes all of the great people who have been involved with Bally Technologies over the years.

CI: You mentioned India , what type of facilities does Bally have in India?

Isaacs: We have a software development office in India and just started our first game team over there and it is working out very well for us. We have an office in Chennai and another office in Bangalore . Originally they were on the systems side but now they are doing work on gaming for us.

CI: Why India ?

Isaacs: Well India is one of the high-tech hot-beds in the world. Moreover, the standards and the quality of education is very high in India. It is also geographically well placed and they speak English. However to me, the most important part of Bally India is that we now have 200 people at Bally who understand cricket!

CI: How is your office in Macau doing?

Isaacs: Macau is doing all right. Macau is primarily systems focused, but we are developing games specifically for the Macau market. I think that within 12 months that we will be up there with the big boys and our products will be doing very well. We just signed our biggest-ever deal providing systems to the Las Vegas Sands group for Macau and Singapore.

CI: What is the fastest growing international market for Bally?

Isaacs: Here in the United States we are increasing the business. Next comes Latin America, South America which are the strongest regions followed by Asia and then Europe. This of course pretty much covers the world.

CI: How are things going in Eastern Europe?

Isaacs: The government in Russia has not shut down gaming, but has limited it to certain geographic regions which are not attractive to gaming as the way it was previously going. Therefore, we are not focusing in Russia the same way as we had previously at this time. Eastern Europe, however, remains a focus for us.

CI: Can you describe what you think a casino will look like, say, ten years down the road?

Isaacs: I don't think there will be a huge change in style. From a technology perspective, I think that it will be at least five years before you start seeing any changes in the technology of server-based gaming and things like that. In ten years, I think that casinos will change a lot in that time period and they will get better, especially the casinos here in Las Vegas. You will see different gaming within the next decade but I think that it will be more of an evolution rather than a revolution.

CI: What are your favorite Bally products and games?

Isaacs: Probably our Double Dragons, Golden Monkeys and of course Hot Shot Progressive.

CI: What is Bally Technologies doing to provide machines for handicapped players in wheelchairs?

Isaacs: I don’t think that anyone is doing anything consciously to address this. However, the way some of our new machines are being designed they are much more wheelchair friendly. Our CineVision cabinet seems to be the best-suited product for handicapped players in wheelchairs.

CI: Anything you might want to add about Bally Technologies, where you see it going and what your plans are for the company?

Isaacs: I think that Bally Technologies is very well positioned in the gaming industry. We have some great people and an incredibly strong research and development department, and across the board we have great products. I think that there is an opportunity for Bally Technologies to grow better than anyone else. Moreover, I believe we will be incredibly successful in delivering to our customers.

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