Green Gaming Report
by Eric Hansel
April 2, 2009
Sustainability for today and tomorrow starts with action today.
"The
Internet may be OK for e-mail, but that’s about it, and it will be gone
soon…just a passing fad.” This was the
message told to me by a purchasing director for a large community hospital that
was already purchasing product through us.
I was there to offer her our brand-new online ordering system. I explained that the way it would work was
this: I would load all of her products into a template, and then all she would
have to do is pick how many of each she wanted, place her order before 3 p.m.
each day, and, in return, she would receive free next-day delivery. But this was obviously falling on deaf ears,
and I felt bad for the customer, because it was, and is, obvious that she was
way off-base.
This online ordering
system was new, but we made it as simple as possible. By using this ordering system, purchase order
costs would go down, customers could use electronic requisitions internally to
speed up the process. As someone
concerned with efficiency, this concept made perfect sense to me, and I truly
believed in it. My passion came through
in my presentation.
This purchasing director
was about the same age as my manager at the time, so I brought him to hear her
opinion of this brand-new technology.
She stated very matter-of-factly that “The Internet is OK for sending
emails, but it will be going away soon enough.”
WOW!! What an answer. My gut
reaction was to question how anyone could not see how plainly obvious it was
that the Internet was here to stay, and more importantly, it was a vehicle
being used by many to open up new revenue streams. I, of course, had to be a bit more diplomatic
with my response.
Unfortunately, I have
found her reaction to be similar to the reaction I get when I first start
bringing up the topic of finding new revenue streams as a result of making
sustainable business decisions. Some
might chalk up this reaction to being scared of change. Unfortunately, for
those of you who still don’t believe…Change IS Coming, just as it did with the
Internet. The choice is yours. Do you want to survive and thrive in this down
market, or do you want to keep up with the status quo? Thriving in this market will require casinos
to
develop these new revenue streams, to replace a downturn in casino gaming and
resort spending. This downturn has gone
on to affect the alternate revenue streams already in place in this
environment, like resort and F&B streams.
By embracing a new
sustainable business model, your property begins to make decisions that are
good for your stakeholders instead of only your shareholders. Making sure that your decisions are good for
your triple bottom line (social, environmental and economic) ensures success in
these tough economic times. As a result
of reducing/getting rid of operating costs, long-term profit spreads will be
higher.
Please open your minds to
this new way of developing revenue streams for your properties. Don’t assume, like the hospital purchasing
manager who thought the Internet was not worthwhile, that sustainability is
just a passing fad. That would be a huge
mistake, because if you are to survive these times, the decisions you make
today will have a direct impact on your bottom line in the future.
An example of this is what we are doing with Gaming
Laboratories International. It is undertaking a lighting retro-fit, ballast
change out, and the implementation of a patented lighting controller (the only
one in the United States
to be eligible for federal rebates).
These efforts will save GLI more than 40 percent of its energy bill,
with a return on investment period of less than four years.
There is no reason why every casino in the country
shouldn’t be doing this. It reduces your operating expenses over the
long-term. It also may lead to more
technical and complicated sustainable measures, such as:solar implementation,
wind warm development, co/tri-generation, or geothermal. These are longer-term projects with a longer
ROI time. The reason why these are so
powerful is that they will eventually lead to the ability to “go off the grid,”
or “make your own grid.”
Eric Hansel
is
the president of EGM Green, the manufacturer of the world’s first eco-friendly
casino tables. Hansel is also leading a team that is coming up with a slot
machine sustainability standard. This standard will pull 25 percent of the
energy used to power slot machines out in the first year. EGM Green also does
lighting retrofits, energy audits, and custom carbon off-set calculation and
implementation. The company also offers expertise in alternative energy from
solar to wind and geothermal. For more
information, contact Hansel at eric@egmgreen.com or (201) 927-3526.
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