Summary

In this episode, Nick and Don catch-up with Bluberi's Chief Product Officer, Mike Brennan, and Chief Commercial Officer, Casey Whalen. Learn how an insurgent supplier with roots in Quebec is parlaying a string of surprise hits into some of the most exciting product offerings for the Class III slot space. Hear about their design philosophies, banking strategies, release plans, cultural imperatives, and (music to our ears) obsession with fair share performance. Also in this episode, G2E 2024.

Transcript

Nick Hogan:

Morning, Don, how are things in the Midwest today?

Don Retzlaff:

Good morning, Nick. It’s beautiful here. How’s things in Netherlands?

Nick Hogan:

Well, fall is starting or the weather has gone to hell. So here we go. We’re in for the gray dome for a while here. Let’s see. So since last time, Don, we were on, my news items that caught my eye over the past month, some anti-smoking activity lawsuit made its way to the New Jersey Supreme Court. So lawsuit relates to New Jersey’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act, which banned smoking in public buildings with exemptions applied to both cigar bars and casinos. And recently a coalition, casino workers filed a lawsuit against the state arguing that since the state constitution apparently guarantees safety to New Jersey residents, the legal provision that exempts casinos from the smoking ban is unconstitutional. So the group petitioned, the State Supreme Court went after an emergency injunction to temporarily nullify the exemption while they litigate it in state courts. But on August 30th, the Supreme Court weighed in, shot down the request ruling that the exemption is fine constitutionally in that the constitution guarantees residents the government’s pursuit of safety but not safety itself.

So Don, I don’t have a dog in this fight at all, but I can’t help but find that logic a bit spurious. I guess on an abstract level I can understand it, but when we’re dealing with known carcinogens that have been banned in every other establishment in the state, I think arguing the exemption as an example of the state pursuing public safety would be a bit of a stretch. But in any event, the plaintiffs agree and they’ve requested a speedy appeal. We’ll see where that goes, but it just does look like public opinion really is coalescing against these remaining smoking holdouts. I recall back in April, a group there in Nevada ran something that showed something like 60% of Nevadans now favor statewide bans including casino. So Don, where are you standing on all this? Do you have strong feelings about this either way?

Don Retzlaff:

It was really nice when Illinois went non-smoking because my dry cleaning bill wearing suits every day into the casino really fell. It was nice, obviously for the lungs and everything else. It really is. There’s a lot of states that carve out casinos in the St. Louis market. They have to have a certain percentage of the floor. So I think eventually we’re going to see it in our generation that you’ll see no smoking in basically all public buildings. But it does impact-

Nick Hogan:

Yeah, I think it’s just a matter of time.

Don Retzlaff:

It was really wild what happened to the Illinois casinos, but we had competition on the Missouri side too. So it was like they flipped a switch on January 1st and 25% of our customers stopped coming.

Nick Hogan:

But you saw those numbers were back then after a period of time.

Don Retzlaff:

Yeah. We had to make some adjustments on areas that they could smoke and smoking lounges and things like that. But it definitely did hurt and that’s what everyone’s scared of. They’re scared of revenues falling, taxes falling, unemployment going up, all those types of things. So it’s definitely a trade-off.

Nick Hogan:

Okay. Yep. Gotcha. Okay, Don, so time for this month’s listener question, but before I jump into it, let me say that we love to tackle any questions that anybody listening may have. If you have a question about what we’re presenting or something you’d like us to present, please just drop us an email at reelcast@reelmetrics.com. That’s R-E-E-L-C-A-S-T @reelmetrics.com. Our policy is to keep all questions anonymous, so please speak directly and don’t worry about us revealing your identity. That is not something we do.

So Don, this month’s listener question, “Hey guys, just curious what you’ll be looking for at this year’s G2E.” Comes from a listener in the American Midwest. So thanks listener for that question. Don, this year for me, it’s all about slots, risk retina and Light & Wonder have been on a release [inaudible 00:04:18] this year. Plenty of stuff I hadn’t seen yet, so it’ll be a nice to take a look at that. And also just running through our shows this year. We’ve done now Aruze, Gaming Arts, AGS, IT, Zitro, and we’re doing one more today and each of these is unveiling new cabinets and game series. So provided that I can actually get to the floor this year, that’s what I’m going to be running around doing. How about you, Don?

Don Retzlaff:

Same thing. I try to hit all the vendors, look at the new cabinets, the new themes both for sale and the lease games. Always enjoy G2E. Been going out there for, gosh, almost 30 years now. So yeah, hint number one, make appointments with the different vendors so you’re not aced out so you’ve got time with them. And two wear comfortable shoes. It is a lot of walking, you’re on your feet an awful lot, all three days.

Nick Hogan:

But it’s going to be all slots for you this year too, Don?

Don Retzlaff:

Yeah, for me it’s pretty much all slots. Sometimes you’ll try to go over and look at electronic table games or some of the new table games out there, the new stuff. But basically it’s all slots. Unless I was looking for some equipment for the cage or bill validator’s and printers and stuff like that, 98% of my appointments are slot related.

Nick Hogan:

Okay, very good. Okay, so Don, new kind of episode for us today in that we have two 20 year industry veterans whom for whatever strange reason neither of us has met personally. Secondly, neither appears overly big on creating LinkedIn profiles. I had to grab facts where I could get it, but