The mouse-click casino floor
The mouse-click casino floor
Downloadable games and server-based systems would alter and improve how gaming areas operate
By Andy Holtmann
It wasn't long ago that the gaming industry was regarded as somewhat prehistoric when it came to embracing technology. But as new jurisdictions opened and gaming expanded, the industry found itself influenced by and subsequently connected with technological advances. Bill validators, ticketing systems, bonusing systems, cashless gaming-they all became proven contributors to increased efficiency and revenue for casinos.
Today, driven by the success experienced with these technological innovations, casino operators are demanding more. They want the future delivered today as the race to one-up competitors heightens. Operators aren't just willing to open up to new technology, they're embracing it.
So when several innovators just years ago began looking at ways to make casino management function in real-time by instantly downloading new games to the casino floor, or controlling slots and slot functions from a central location, operators were eager to see the results. The result, as demonstrated at last year's Global Gaming Expo: a strong buzz-and demand-for downloadable and server-based games.
Though, by most accounts, manufacturers' advances in downloadable and server-based gaming are still in the early stages, the widespread interest in this new form of gaming is undeniable. Last year, manufacturers' spent a lot of their focus refining their initial downloadable and server-based efforts, while education campaigns were launched to help operators get a better grasp of what these type of games mean to their operations.
Yet, with all the advancements made, manufacturers admit this is only the start of a completely server-based gaming environment, not the delivery. And educating operators-and eventually players-about the differences between downloadable and server-based gaming is still a priority.
Downloadable vs. server-based
Just a year ago, if you were to ask casino operators to describe both downloadable and server-based games, many would answer that they were same-games you could control from one area and change out on your casino floor at will.
In truth, there are key differences between the two.
"Downloadable gaming is really what it implies. You're downloading a game. You're taking game content that's on a server, probably a server that is at the casino location and you're going to push that content down to the machine so that the game code still resides on the slot machine-very much like it does now," said Phil Bury, product manager for International Game Technology's server-based (sb(tm)) products. "So what that really is, is just a more efficient way of getting all that game code to the machine. You're pushing it over a wire instead of going out to a machine, opening the door and going through all the physical labor."
He equates downloading games to a machine to how we'd download a song from our computer to an MP3 player, or downloading a video to your computer from a Web site. With downloadable gaming, the Random Number Generator (RNG), responsible for the games outcome, still resides at the slot machine.
"Server-based gaming," Bury said, "is where the game or the game result occurs on a server. It will send that result out to the slot machines and display an outcome. A good example of that is some of the things they do in a pull tab market, where they actually play a game and then the machine goes back to the server and asks for a result and it sends a result to the machine, but everything is actually done on a central server. Really the big difference is in downloadable gaming you're pushing that game down to the machine and in server-based gaming, you're getting your result from the server itself."
Roy Student, president of Cyberview Technology, which as been operating what he described as "downloadable server-based gaming" for about six years in the United Kingdom, said the term "downloadable" as it has been discussed in the United States, is somewhat of a misnomer.
"Downloadable has been going on for years and years. You turn your computer on and you download from the Internet. You download your e-mail," he said. "A server-based system is where the software resides in (the system), and we're sending messages and commands down to the terminal."
Bob Luciano, Chief Technology Officer for Bally Gaming & Systems agrees with the sentiment that "downloadable" is a misnomer.
"When people hear download, they have this expectation that someone's going to stick in their player's card and a new game is going to be downloaded and instantly available to play. I would argue that you know from your own experience that that's not practical or possible. When you go to boot up your computer, how long does that take? Quite a long time. If you were to download a large PDF file, that takes a long time. If you take a look at the games offered today, they're considerable scale. There's a lot of video content, they're large files. We should really be thinking of download as more of a preloading configure. You may be preloading tons of different content onto the terminal, which would mean you have a larger storage component."
So why the confusion?
"Well, it's because we talk about downloading games. And we're probably just as guilty as anyone else when we say 'downloadable,'" Student said. "You really have to talk about a 'downloadable server-based system.'"
A true server-based gaming system is one where the very "smarts" of the game, including RNG and all accounting and game tracking that regulators would normally audit at a traditional slot machine, are operated from a central server, said Progressive Gaming's Vice President of Global Marketing Tim Richards.
"Only the graphics get pushed down to the game itself. It's basically Internet-style gaming, but through the box of a slot machine," Richards said. "It's our belief that through server-based gaming, we'll be able to transcend various platforms much easier with one common product, one common method, one common platform. A slot machine will look no different than a mobile PC or a handheld unit or whatever type of delivery device the property might want to have."
Both concepts-downloadable and server-based-have operators excited in the potential benefits they bring to the casino floor. In many ways-especially with regard to bonusing systems and player tracking devices-some forms of downloadable gaming are already occurring on casino floors today in that manufacturers and operators can download content to these devices. But in order to get to a true-server-based form of gaming, the games and systems alike have to pass regulatory muster.
Ensuring integrity
Each gaming jurisdiction looking into downloadable and server-based games has a slightly different approach when it comes to regulatory oversight. What is common, however, are regulators' chief concerns-security and integrity of the games.
Regulators want to ensure that in having parts of or whole gaming floors run from a central server, the servers can't be breached or tampered with. There are also issues of how switching to a server-based environment will affect players' perceptions. For example, one of the rules Nevada regulators are working on is a requirement that games remain idle for a certain period of time before a download is made to a slot machine. Once the download is made, the machine must continue to remain idle for another period of time before gamblers could play it.
"Really, the major concern there is to try and maintain as best you can the customers' perception (that games don't change randomly on them)," said Dave Durst, product marketing manager for IGT's server-based (sb(tm)) games. "There's a lot of commonality in that no jurisdiction is going to let us change games, or let the operator change games when there are credits or play on the games. That has guided our development in how we put it together."
Though stringent oversight and regulations will undoubtedly exist with the advent of downloadable and server-based gaming, manufacturers said they are pleased with how open regulatory bodies have been in accepting the new technology.
"We've been very pleased and happy with the reaction from the regulators," Durst said. "If you go back four or five years ago with ticketing, they were all very cautious-and understandably so-because when you start messing around with people's money, then it has to be very secure and very trackable. It's the same thing now with server-based gaming, but the regulators have seen how we've been able to do it with tickets. We can track games, we can make them secure. The regulators are more accommodating and willing to listen."
"We've been working with regulators for years on these and will continue doing that for some number of years," Luciano added. "I think you'll see some more implementations coming about this year, and I think you'll be seeing the capabilities of that being enhanced over the next several years as the regulatory framework and the technology kind of merge together over that timeframe."
Student said regulators have been studying Cyberview's existing systems in the UK, eager to see the games and technology in action to help determine the best course of regulation and oversight in the United States.
"From a regulator standpoint, they say, 'Cyberview has been doing this for over six years. They have done billions of transactions, they've been audited by all of the major auditing firms and Interpol. So let's see what they're doing in terms of security that makes sense,'" Student said.
Also present in regulators server-based thinking is how the technology is analyzed by trusted gaming test labs like Gaming Labs International. GLI has been at the forefront of downloadable and server-based technology, testing many of the recent systems manufacturers have developed. Manufacturers agree it is likely in GLI jurisdictions where the first implementations of server-based gaming will be approved.
The jurisdiction most likely to see server-based and downloadable game systems first is California.
"If you take a look at the compacts in California, they anticipated the transformation in a sense because the lottery-style games, which by definition are central determination or server-based outcomes, were formulated as part of the previous compacts. It was already built in with the fundamental infrastructure of the compacts there," Luciano said. "GLI, obviously, is the primary laboratory for that territory and they have been very focused and diligent about keeping up with the server-based regulatory framework so they could support this type of gaming in jurisdictions like California that do support it. Nevada has been very diligent as well, as has New Jersey."
Ready to deliver
Gaming manufacturers are quick to tout their own downloadable or server-based products. Cyberview, for example, boasts having the only large-scale, proven server-based gaming system available today.
"We have done billions of real time transactions in that realm, where no one else has," Student said. "We're doing downloadable-and millions of transactions-there also. So when you talk about a product, we build the terminal, we build the software, it's a total turnkey operation for the operator. We provide the hardware, the software, the installation and training, as well as additional access to more games on a regular basis."
In addition to its installments in the UK, Cyberview was also recently awarded a contract from Sazka (the largest betting and lottery company in the Czech Republic), and the company has begun deploying terminals there.
U.S.-based manufacturer WMS Gaming has licensed Cyberview's technology patents for use in creating its WAGE-NET system, which will ultimately provide software download, central determination of games and game configuration.
"We are very excited to be able to demonstrate the WAGE-NET technology for our customers as it is the product of more than three years of development on our server-based gaming initiatives," said Brian R. Gamache, president and CEO of WMS. "Our engineers have developed a trusted, server-based system that leverages the extensible design architecture of our CPU-NXT(r) operating system as well as the upgrade path for our Bluebird(tm) gaming cabinets, which will allow our casino customers to preserve the investment they have made in our products."
A smaller, but steadily growing company-Cadillac Jack-also touts a complete server-based system. The company, which got its start in the amusement and Class II redemption markets, offers a full library of its games to its customers, which can be controlled on a central server, and downloaded to the casino.
"Any particular game or any particular play station on a casino floor can, in a matter of one to two minutes, be changed from the game that's playing now to an entirely different game by downloading those game assets through the connection that exists," said Cadillac Jack Chief Operating Officer Bob Drew.
The company largely serves Class II and charitable bingo markets, but it has Class III tribal gaming installations in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Alabama and Washington State.
Bally Gaming likewise has Class II and tribal server-based systems in place.
"Bally, in terms of the more traditional market, is by far in the leadership position in terms of server-based gaming systems. In Washington State, we have over 14,000 terminals operating on server-based systems. When you combine that with Class II systems that we operate, for example with the Seminoles in Florida, the Poarch Creek Tribe in Alabama and other locations; the lottery system in Iowa; the lottery system we operate in Austria; and we're migrating into Mexico-all with server-based systems. Between those, we have about 25,000 terminals operating today as server-based terminals."
Progressive Gaming is moving full steam into the server-based realm with its Casino Link Game Station product and is looking for pilot systems to be released this spring.
"What we've done is we have stopped doing any internal game development. Instead, we've partnered with various game content developers. They're providing game content for our server-based gaming infrastructure. We won't necessarily compete with them, but we'll create partnerships with various companies-small, medium and large-and in some cases, we'll seek out specific content or game ideas we think will be successful and use a content partner to develop that." Richards said. "Other times, these companies will approach us with games they've developed or ideas they might have. We thought that was key because we didn't want to have our own game development group and be competitive with those that are our partners."
Other companies are taking a slow and steady approach at the moment, choosing to start with downloadable games, then as regulations get hashed out and demand becomes heavier, moving into server-based offerings.
Aristocrat Technologies' Chameleon Downloadable Product is one example.
"Our initial implementation-what we showed to the market so far-is a central file server, downloadable implementation," said Kent Young, Aristocrat's global general manager of marketing. "That's what we're bringing to the U.S. market initially. The reason we're doing that is we've done extensive focus groups with some of our key customers and feedback we got was that yield management was the key attribute they were looking for. What we're really doing in the initial phase is we're allowing a conversion to happen in a much more efficient and time effective manner."
IGT's Bury said his company's sb(tm) product line will initially focus on downloadable technology as well.
"We're starting out by offering game download as one of the features-so there's the ability to download a game through the system. We're offering remote configuration to the machine. We can accommodate those initial features, and then we'll expand the product line from there to offer more capabilities and also bringing sort of a full loop into the system by allowing customers to go online and place their game content orders through IGT.com," he said.
Servers will be critical, Bury said, though initially they will be used to storage of games rather than handling gaming operations. The sb(tm) system, he noted, is the framework for a full-fledged server-based system, once technology and regulations advance.
Operator benefits
Having slot games downloaded quickly to a terminal or run from a central location increases the chances of revenue for the casino through optimization of the machines. Operators would have the ability to quickly change out games that aren't working, or are not placed well in the casino.
"There's also reduced cost of ownership. You don't constantly have to change or get new machines," Student said. "With our stuff, you don't have to have conversion kits. There are also no cabinets to move around when you want to re-lay your casino floor, you have to get manpower to lay out those cabinets. It eliminates procurement risks because you have a generic box."
Labor costs could also be reduced with server-based systems because audits and other functions that would require employees to open machines on the floor could be done from a single location.
"Another example, from the (downloadable) games perspective is, if we launch a new game, it will be similar to the video store scenario," said Aristocrat's Young. "They can put all the new games at the front of their store, or at the back of the store, or wherever they want them. They can have a lot of those games and over time, they can reduce the amounts of those games based on play."
With some companies offering license fees for unlimited download of content versus buying individual machines or titles, operators can experience additional cost savings.
"When they buy the game, they're buying the box and the license to all of our game content," said Cadillac Jack's Drew. "Our game content expands fairly rapidly. We release about three new games a month. Instead of having to pay $3,000 to $5,000 to put in a new game, as has been customary in the Class III market, with us, your license fee has already got you covered."
Operators, though, will still have a learning curve to deal with, largely because casino staffs have not spent a lot of time downloading games and running server-based casino floors.
"When we go through and talk about the nuts and bolts of how you actually manage your floors under a considerably more complicated central control, the staffs aren't in place in a lot of these casinos today to support a lot of this activity," Luciano noted.
And the new technology-at least for most casino properties-will not result in an instantaneous overhaul of the gaming floor. Many casinos, especially smaller properties, will have to make investments upgrading their floor networks to achieve increased bandwidth to accommodate the systems. Most agree that downloadable and server-based implementations will be a slow, exponential process.
But once in place, worries about how gamblers might take to the new technology don't seem to be a chief concern.
"My opinion is that in the initial phases, server-based gaming is not going to be something that the players are really going to be shocked by," Bury said. "It will evolve much like ticketing did, where the player acceptance evolves at the same time the technology evolves and creates new experiences. If we bring the right applications to the product and to the floor that the players want to see, I think they'll be very accepting of it."
SIDEBAR:
Moving ahead
Server-based gaming was a catalyst for IGT's return to GSA
Last year's announcement that International Game Technology was rejoining the Gaming Standards Association was big news to the gaming industry, and as IGT officials reveal, the advent of server-based gaming may have played a key role.
At the forefront of IGT's well-known feud with the GSA were technology standards and protocols for the industry and proprietary issues. IGT had its SAS, and later SuperSAS protocols. The GSA had its Best of Breed (BOB), System to System (S2S) and Gaming Device Standard (GDS) protocols. When the two agreed to reunite last fall, they had reached common ground, combining the best of both protocol offerings.
Protocols are necessary for the successful delivery of server-based gaming to the industry, and Phil Bury, product manager for IGT's server-based (sb(tm)) products and Dave Durst, product market manager for the sb(tm) line, called server-based gaming one of the catalysts to rejoining the GSA and working out differences.
"I think certainly that was a part of it," Bury said. "We saw that for this to be successful in the market, it has to work for everyone-all the different manufacturers. Everyone has to come together and make an agreement on this. So I think the word catalyst is very correct."
"There are other reasons too that are peripheral to that," Durst added. "There are reasons why we had some differences in the beginning around intellectual property and how it was handled. Those differences have been resolved. That was a pretty huge deal, but we've all come to terms. Even barring server-based gaming, we probably would have moved back in the direction of GSA."
-Andy Holtmann
Downloadable games and server-based systems would alter and improve how gaming areas operate
By Andy Holtmann
It wasn't long ago that the gaming industry was regarded as somewhat prehistoric when it came to embracing technology. But as new jurisdictions opened and gaming expanded, the industry found itself influenced by and subsequently connected with technological advances. Bill validators, ticketing systems, bonusing systems, cashless gaming-they all became proven contributors to increased efficiency and revenue for casinos.
Today, driven by the success experienced with these technological innovations, casino operators are demanding more. They want the future delivered today as the race to one-up competitors heightens. Operators aren't just willing to open up to new technology, they're embracing it.
So when several innovators just years ago began looking at ways to make casino management function in real-time by instantly downloading new games to the casino floor, or controlling slots and slot functions from a central location, operators were eager to see the results. The result, as demonstrated at last year's Global Gaming Expo: a strong buzz-and demand-for downloadable and server-based games.
Though, by most accounts, manufacturers' advances in downloadable and server-based gaming are still in the early stages, the widespread interest in this new form of gaming is undeniable. Last year, manufacturers' spent a lot of their focus refining their initial downloadable and server-based efforts, while education campaigns were launched to help operators get a better grasp of what these type of games mean to their operations.
Yet, with all the advancements made, manufacturers admit this is only the start of a completely server-based gaming environment, not the delivery. And educating operators-and eventually players-about the differences between downloadable and server-based gaming is still a priority.
Downloadable vs. server-based
Just a year ago, if you were to ask casino operators to describe both downloadable and server-based games, many would answer that they were same-games you could control from one area and change out on your casino floor at will.
In truth, there are key differences between the two.
"Downloadable gaming is really what it implies. You're downloading a game. You're taking game content that's on a server, probably a server that is at the casino location and you're going to push that content down to the machine so that the game code still resides on the slot machine-very much like it does now," said Phil Bury, product manager for International Game Technology's server-based (sb(tm)) products. "So what that really is, is just a more efficient way of getting all that game code to the machine. You're pushing it over a wire instead of going out to a machine, opening the door and going through all the physical labor."
He equates downloading games to a machine to how we'd download a song from our computer to an MP3 player, or downloading a video to your computer from a Web site. With downloadable gaming, the Random Number Generator (RNG), responsible for the games outcome, still resides at the slot machine.
"Server-based gaming," Bury said, "is where the game or the game result occurs on a server. It will send that result out to the slot machines and display an outcome. A good example of that is some of the things they do in a pull tab market, where they actually play a game and then the machine goes back to the server and asks for a result and it sends a result to the machine, but everything is actually done on a central server. Really the big difference is in downloadable gaming you're pushing that game down to the machine and in server-based gaming, you're getting your result from the server itself."
Roy Student, president of Cyberview Technology, which as been operating what he described as "downloadable server-based gaming" for about six years in the United Kingdom, said the term "downloadable" as it has been discussed in the United States, is somewhat of a misnomer.
"Downloadable has been going on for years and years. You turn your computer on and you download from the Internet. You download your e-mail," he said. "A server-based system is where the software resides in (the system), and we're sending messages and commands down to the terminal."
Bob Luciano, Chief Technology Officer for Bally Gaming & Systems agrees with the sentiment that "downloadable" is a misnomer.
"When people hear download, they have this expectation that someone's going to stick in their player's card and a new game is going to be downloaded and instantly available to play. I would argue that you know from your own experience that that's not practical or possible. When you go to boot up your computer, how long does that take? Quite a long time. If you were to download a large PDF file, that takes a long time. If you take a look at the games offered today, they're considerable scale. There's a lot of video content, they're large files. We should really be thinking of download as more of a preloading configure. You may be preloading tons of different content onto the terminal, which would mean you have a larger storage component."
So why the confusion?
"Well, it's because we talk about downloading games. And we're probably just as guilty as anyone else when we say 'downloadable,'" Student said. "You really have to talk about a 'downloadable server-based system.'"
A true server-based gaming system is one where the very "smarts" of the game, including RNG and all accounting and game tracking that regulators would normally audit at a traditional slot machine, are operated from a central server, said Progressive Gaming's Vice President of Global Marketing Tim Richards.
"Only the graphics get pushed down to the game itself. It's basically Internet-style gaming, but through the box of a slot machine," Richards said. "It's our belief that through server-based gaming, we'll be able to transcend various platforms much easier with one common product, one common method, one common platform. A slot machine will look no different than a mobile PC or a handheld unit or whatever type of delivery device the property might want to have."
Both concepts-downloadable and server-based-have operators excited in the potential benefits they bring to the casino floor. In many ways-especially with regard to bonusing systems and player tracking devices-some forms of downloadable gaming are already occurring on casino floors today in that manufacturers and operators can download content to these devices. But in order to get to a true-server-based form of gaming, the games and systems alike have to pass regulatory muster.
Ensuring integrity
Each gaming jurisdiction looking into downloadable and server-based games has a slightly different approach when it comes to regulatory oversight. What is common, however, are regulators' chief concerns-security and integrity of the games.
Regulators want to ensure that in having parts of or whole gaming floors run from a central server, the servers can't be breached or tampered with. There are also issues of how switching to a server-based environment will affect players' perceptions. For example, one of the rules Nevada regulators are working on is a requirement that games remain idle for a certain period of time before a download is made to a slot machine. Once the download is made, the machine must continue to remain idle for another period of time before gamblers could play it.
"Really, the major concern there is to try and maintain as best you can the customers' perception (that games don't change randomly on them)," said Dave Durst, product marketing manager for IGT's server-based (sb(tm)) games. "There's a lot of commonality in that no jurisdiction is going to let us change games, or let the operator change games when there are credits or play on the games. That has guided our development in how we put it together."
Though stringent oversight and regulations will undoubtedly exist with the advent of downloadable and server-based gaming, manufacturers said they are pleased with how open regulatory bodies have been in accepting the new technology.
"We've been very pleased and happy with the reaction from the regulators," Durst said. "If you go back four or five years ago with ticketing, they were all very cautious-and understandably so-because when you start messing around with people's money, then it has to be very secure and very trackable. It's the same thing now with server-based gaming, but the regulators have seen how we've been able to do it with tickets. We can track games, we can make them secure. The regulators are more accommodating and willing to listen."
"We've been working with regulators for years on these and will continue doing that for some number of years," Luciano added. "I think you'll see some more implementations coming about this year, and I think you'll be seeing the capabilities of that being enhanced over the next several years as the regulatory framework and the technology kind of merge together over that timeframe."
Student said regulators have been studying Cyberview's existing systems in the UK, eager to see the games and technology in action to help determine the best course of regulation and oversight in the United States.
"From a regulator standpoint, they say, 'Cyberview has been doing this for over six years. They have done billions of transactions, they've been audited by all of the major auditing firms and Interpol. So let's see what they're doing in terms of security that makes sense,'" Student said.
Also present in regulators server-based thinking is how the technology is analyzed by trusted gaming test labs like Gaming Labs International. GLI has been at the forefront of downloadable and server-based technology, testing many of the recent systems manufacturers have developed. Manufacturers agree it is likely in GLI jurisdictions where the first implementations of server-based gaming will be approved.
The jurisdiction most likely to see server-based and downloadable game systems first is California.
"If you take a look at the compacts in California, they anticipated the transformation in a sense because the lottery-style games, which by definition are central determination or server-based outcomes, were formulated as part of the previous compacts. It was already built in with the fundamental infrastructure of the compacts there," Luciano said. "GLI, obviously, is the primary laboratory for that territory and they have been very focused and diligent about keeping up with the server-based regulatory framework so they could support this type of gaming in jurisdictions like California that do support it. Nevada has been very diligent as well, as has New Jersey."
Ready to deliver
Gaming manufacturers are quick to tout their own downloadable or server-based products. Cyberview, for example, boasts having the only large-scale, proven server-based gaming system available today.
"We have done billions of real time transactions in that realm, where no one else has," Student said. "We're doing downloadable-and millions of transactions-there also. So when you talk about a product, we build the terminal, we build the software, it's a total turnkey operation for the operator. We provide the hardware, the software, the installation and training, as well as additional access to more games on a regular basis."
In addition to its installments in the UK, Cyberview was also recently awarded a contract from Sazka (the largest betting and lottery company in the Czech Republic), and the company has begun deploying terminals there.
U.S.-based manufacturer WMS Gaming has licensed Cyberview's technology patents for use in creating its WAGE-NET system, which will ultimately provide software download, central determination of games and game configuration.
"We are very excited to be able to demonstrate the WAGE-NET technology for our customers as it is the product of more than three years of development on our server-based gaming initiatives," said Brian R. Gamache, president and CEO of WMS. "Our engineers have developed a trusted, server-based system that leverages the extensible design architecture of our CPU-NXT(r) operating system as well as the upgrade path for our Bluebird(tm) gaming cabinets, which will allow our casino customers to preserve the investment they have made in our products."
A smaller, but steadily growing company-Cadillac Jack-also touts a complete server-based system. The company, which got its start in the amusement and Class II redemption markets, offers a full library of its games to its customers, which can be controlled on a central server, and downloaded to the casino.
"Any particular game or any particular play station on a casino floor can, in a matter of one to two minutes, be changed from the game that's playing now to an entirely different game by downloading those game assets through the connection that exists," said Cadillac Jack Chief Operating Officer Bob Drew.
The company largely serves Class II and charitable bingo markets, but it has Class III tribal gaming installations in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Alabama and Washington State.
Bally Gaming likewise has Class II and tribal server-based systems in place.
"Bally, in terms of the more traditional market, is by far in the leadership position in terms of server-based gaming systems. In Washington State, we have over 14,000 terminals operating on server-based systems. When you combine that with Class II systems that we operate, for example with the Seminoles in Florida, the Poarch Creek Tribe in Alabama and other locations; the lottery system in Iowa; the lottery system we operate in Austria; and we're migrating into Mexico-all with server-based systems. Between those, we have about 25,000 terminals operating today as server-based terminals."
Progressive Gaming is moving full steam into the server-based realm with its Casino Link Game Station product and is looking for pilot systems to be released this spring.
"What we've done is we have stopped doing any internal game development. Instead, we've partnered with various game content developers. They're providing game content for our server-based gaming infrastructure. We won't necessarily compete with them, but we'll create partnerships with various companies-small, medium and large-and in some cases, we'll seek out specific content or game ideas we think will be successful and use a content partner to develop that." Richards said. "Other times, these companies will approach us with games they've developed or ideas they might have. We thought that was key because we didn't want to have our own game development group and be competitive with those that are our partners."
Other companies are taking a slow and steady approach at the moment, choosing to start with downloadable games, then as regulations get hashed out and demand becomes heavier, moving into server-based offerings.
Aristocrat Technologies' Chameleon Downloadable Product is one example.
"Our initial implementation-what we showed to the market so far-is a central file server, downloadable implementation," said Kent Young, Aristocrat's global general manager of marketing. "That's what we're bringing to the U.S. market initially. The reason we're doing that is we've done extensive focus groups with some of our key customers and feedback we got was that yield management was the key attribute they were looking for. What we're really doing in the initial phase is we're allowing a conversion to happen in a much more efficient and time effective manner."
IGT's Bury said his company's sb(tm) product line will initially focus on downloadable technology as well.
"We're starting out by offering game download as one of the features-so there's the ability to download a game through the system. We're offering remote configuration to the machine. We can accommodate those initial features, and then we'll expand the product line from there to offer more capabilities and also bringing sort of a full loop into the system by allowing customers to go online and place their game content orders through IGT.com," he said.
Servers will be critical, Bury said, though initially they will be used to storage of games rather than handling gaming operations. The sb(tm) system, he noted, is the framework for a full-fledged server-based system, once technology and regulations advance.
Operator benefits
Having slot games downloaded quickly to a terminal or run from a central location increases the chances of revenue for the casino through optimization of the machines. Operators would have the ability to quickly change out games that aren't working, or are not placed well in the casino.
"There's also reduced cost of ownership. You don't constantly have to change or get new machines," Student said. "With our stuff, you don't have to have conversion kits. There are also no cabinets to move around when you want to re-lay your casino floor, you have to get manpower to lay out those cabinets. It eliminates procurement risks because you have a generic box."
Labor costs could also be reduced with server-based systems because audits and other functions that would require employees to open machines on the floor could be done from a single location.
"Another example, from the (downloadable) games perspective is, if we launch a new game, it will be similar to the video store scenario," said Aristocrat's Young. "They can put all the new games at the front of their store, or at the back of the store, or wherever they want them. They can have a lot of those games and over time, they can reduce the amounts of those games based on play."
With some companies offering license fees for unlimited download of content versus buying individual machines or titles, operators can experience additional cost savings.
"When they buy the game, they're buying the box and the license to all of our game content," said Cadillac Jack's Drew. "Our game content expands fairly rapidly. We release about three new games a month. Instead of having to pay $3,000 to $5,000 to put in a new game, as has been customary in the Class III market, with us, your license fee has already got you covered."
Operators, though, will still have a learning curve to deal with, largely because casino staffs have not spent a lot of time downloading games and running server-based casino floors.
"When we go through and talk about the nuts and bolts of how you actually manage your floors under a considerably more complicated central control, the staffs aren't in place in a lot of these casinos today to support a lot of this activity," Luciano noted.
And the new technology-at least for most casino properties-will not result in an instantaneous overhaul of the gaming floor. Many casinos, especially smaller properties, will have to make investments upgrading their floor networks to achieve increased bandwidth to accommodate the systems. Most agree that downloadable and server-based implementations will be a slow, exponential process.
But once in place, worries about how gamblers might take to the new technology don't seem to be a chief concern.
"My opinion is that in the initial phases, server-based gaming is not going to be something that the players are really going to be shocked by," Bury said. "It will evolve much like ticketing did, where the player acceptance evolves at the same time the technology evolves and creates new experiences. If we bring the right applications to the product and to the floor that the players want to see, I think they'll be very accepting of it."
SIDEBAR:
Moving ahead
Server-based gaming was a catalyst for IGT's return to GSA
Last year's announcement that International Game Technology was rejoining the Gaming Standards Association was big news to the gaming industry, and as IGT officials reveal, the advent of server-based gaming may have played a key role.
At the forefront of IGT's well-known feud with the GSA were technology standards and protocols for the industry and proprietary issues. IGT had its SAS, and later SuperSAS protocols. The GSA had its Best of Breed (BOB), System to System (S2S) and Gaming Device Standard (GDS) protocols. When the two agreed to reunite last fall, they had reached common ground, combining the best of both protocol offerings.
Protocols are necessary for the successful delivery of server-based gaming to the industry, and Phil Bury, product manager for IGT's server-based (sb(tm)) products and Dave Durst, product market manager for the sb(tm) line, called server-based gaming one of the catalysts to rejoining the GSA and working out differences.
"I think certainly that was a part of it," Bury said. "We saw that for this to be successful in the market, it has to work for everyone-all the different manufacturers. Everyone has to come together and make an agreement on this. So I think the word catalyst is very correct."
"There are other reasons too that are peripheral to that," Durst added. "There are reasons why we had some differences in the beginning around intellectual property and how it was handled. Those differences have been resolved. That was a pretty huge deal, but we've all come to terms. Even barring server-based gaming, we probably would have moved back in the direction of GSA."
-Andy Holtmann
